Study Desk

If any silver or gold is left, you and your people may use it for whatever pleases your God.

Give your God the other articles that have been contributed for use in his temple.

Ezra, you are a priest and an expert in the laws of the God of heaven, and I order all treasurers in Western Province to do their very best to help you.

They must provide whatever the God of heaven demands for his temple, so that he won't be angry with me and with the kings who rule after me.

Ezra, use the wisdom God has given you and choose officials and leaders to govern the people of Western Province. These leaders should know God's laws and have them taught to anyone who doesn't know them.

Because King Artaxerxes was so kind, Ezra said: Praise the Lord God of our ancestors! He made sure that the king honored the Lord 's temple in Jerusalem.

God has told the king, his advisors, and his powerful officials to treat me with kindness. The Lord God has helped me, and I have been able to bring many Jewish leaders back to Jerusalem.

God was kind to us and had them send a skillful man named Sherebiah, who was a Levite from the family of Mahli. Eighteen of his relatives came with him.

Beside the Ahava River, I asked the people to go without eating and to pray. We humbled ourselves and asked God to bring us and our children safely to Jerusalem with all of our possessions.

I was ashamed to ask the king to send soldiers and cavalry to protect us against enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king that our God takes care of everyone who truly worships him, but that he gets very angry and punishes anyone who refuses to obey.

So we went without food and asked God himself to protect us, and he answered our prayers.

I said to the priests: You belong to the Lord , the God of your ancestors, and these things also belong to him. The silver and gold were willingly given as gifts to the Lord .

The priests and Levites then took charge of the gifts that had been weighed, so they could take them to the temple of our God in Jerusalem.

On the twelfth day of the first month, we left the Ahava River and started for Jerusalem. Our God watched over us, and as we traveled along, he kept our enemies from ambushing us.

Those who had returned from exile offered sacrifices on the altar to the God of Israel. Twelve bulls were offered for all Israel. Ninety-six rams and seventy-seven lambs were offered on the altar. And twelve goats were sacrificed for the sins of the people.

Some of those who had returned took the king's orders to the governors and officials in Western Province. Then the officials did what they could for the people and for the temple of God.

until time for the evening sacrifice. Many of our people were greatly concerned and gathered around me, because the God of Israel had warned us to stay away from foreigners.

and prayed: I am much too ashamed to face you, Lord God. Our sins and our guilt have swept over us like a flood that reaches up to the heavens.

But for now, Lord God, you have shown great kindness to us. You made us truly happy by letting some of us settle in this sacred place and by helping us in our time of slavery.

Our God, what can we say now? Even after all this, we have disobeyed the commands