18. “Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that according to the will of your God.
19. The vessels also that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem.
20. And whatever else is needed for the house of your God and is your responsibility to provide, use the king’s treasury to pay for it.
21. “I, even I Artaxerxes the king, issue a decree to all the treasurers of the province Beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, should request from you, you should do it with all diligence—
22. as much as a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of oil, and salt (without prescribing how much).
23. Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be zealously done for the house of the God of heaven so as to avoid there being wrath against the realm of the king and his sons.
24. Also we are informing you that with regard to all the priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or other servants of this house of God, it is not permitted to impose toll, tribute, or custom on them.
25. “You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God who empowers you, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people of the province Beyond the River, all those who know the laws of your God and those who do not, whom you must teach.
26. Whoever will not observe the law of your God or the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily on him, whether that be death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.”
27. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem,
28. and has extended mercy to me before the king, his counselors, and all the king’s mighty princes. Thus I had been strengthened, because the hand of the Lord my God was upon me. As a result, I gathered together some of the chief men of Israel to go up with me.