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 Torah of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the Lord his God’s hand on him.
7. Some of the children of Israel, including some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, 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 the Lord’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 the Lord’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 counsellors, to enquire 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 counsellors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,