Ezra 7
Priest Ezra travels from Babylon to Jerusalem
Meanwhile, in Persia there was a man named Ezra who left King Artaxerxes and Babylon. This was Ezra’s lineage:
He was a scribe well versed in Moses’s Law which Israel’s God the Existing One had given. The king granted him everything that he asked, because his God the Existing One’s hand was on him.
Some of the Israelites, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants also went to Jerusalem in King Artexerxes’s 7th year on the throne. Ezra left Babylon on the first day of the 1st month, and he arrived in Jerusalem in the 5th month of the seventh year that Artexerxes was king. He arrived quickly because his God’s good hand was upon him. The reason he went was because he had determined to study the Existing One’s Law, to put it into practice, and to teach it in Israel.
Artaxerxes supports Ezra
King Artaxerxes gave Ezra a letter that read:
Peace,
I make a decree that any Israelite, priest, or Levite in my kingdom who volunteers to go to Jerusalem may go with you. You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to see if Judah and Jerusalem are following the Law of your God which you carry in your hand. You’ll also transport the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have offered to Israel’s God who lives in Jerusalem. You’ll take all the silver and gold that you can find throughout the whole Babylonian kingdom along with freewill offerings from the people and priests who volunteered them for their God’s house in Jerusalem.
Use this money to buy bulls, rams, lambs, grain offerings, and drink offerings. Then offer them on your God’s altar in Jerusalem. You can use any extra silver and gold however you see fit and however your God wants. Deliver these valuables to the God in Jerusalem and use them for his service. If there’s anything else you need for your God’s house, you may buy it with the king’s bank account.
I, King Artaxerxes, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province west of the river: Whatever Ezra (the priest and scribe of God’s law) asks you to do, do it as diligently as you can as long as it is under 7,500 pounds of silver, 600 bushels of wheat, 600 gallons of wine, 600 gallons of oil, and infinite salt. Whatever heaven’s God orders, let it be completely fulfilled for his house, so that he doesn’t become angry with the king or his sons. Also, it will be illegal to impose a tax or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or any other servants of this God’s house.
And you, Ezra, will use the wisdom your God gives you to appoint governors and judges to govern the people in the province west of the river according to your God’s laws. You’ll teach anyone who doesn’t know his laws. If anyone refuses to follow the laws of your God and the king, execute judgment on him whether that be death, banishment, confiscation of his property, or imprisonment.”
May the God of our fathers, the Existing One be favored for causing the king’s heart to do such a thing: beautifying the Existing One’s house in Jerusalem, and extending his steady love to me in front of the king, his counselors, and his officers. I am encouraged because my God the Existing One’s hand was on me, and I gathered Israelite leaders to come voyage with me.