17. With this money, then, with diligence you must buy young bulls, young rams, lambs, and their offerings and libations. You must offer them on the altar that is in the house of your God in Jerusalem.
18. You may do whatever seems best to you and your brothers to do with the remainder of the silver and gold according to the desire of your God.
19. And the vessels that were given to you for the service of the house of your God you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem.
20. And the remainder of the needs for the house of your God that falls to you to provide, you may provide from the house of the king’s treasury.”
21. “I, even I, King Artaxerxes, issue forth a decree to all the treasurers who are in the province Beyond the River. Whatever the priest Ezra, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, may ask of you, let it be done with diligence,
22. up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred measures of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited salt.
23. All that is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done with diligence for the house of the God of heaven, otherwise wrath will come on the kingdom of the king and his sons.