1. Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
2. the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
3. the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
4. the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
5. the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest—
6. this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to Yahweh his God’s hand on him.
7. Some of the children of Israel, including some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
8. He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.
10. For Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh’s law, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.
11. Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of Yahweh’s commandments, and of his statutes to Israel:
12. Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the perfect God of heaven. Now
13. I make a decree, that all those of the people of Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, who intend of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you.
14. Because you are sent by the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand,
15. and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,
16. and all the silver and gold that you will find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem;
17. therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.