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,