Study Desk

And whatever shall seem good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that after the will of your God.

And the vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem.

And whatever more shall be needful for the house of your God, which you shall have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure-house.

And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers that are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it is to be done with all diligence,

Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

Also we inform you, that concerning any of the priests and Levites, the singers, porters, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll, on them.

And you, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people that are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach him that doesn't know them.

And whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem;

and has extended loving-kindness to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened according to the hand of Yahweh my God on me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

And I sent them forth to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should say to Iddo, [and] his brothers those given [to temple service], at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

And according to the good hand of our God on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is on all those that seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him.

So we fasted and implored our God for this: and he was entreated of us.

and weighed to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his princes, and all Israel there present, had offered:

And I said to them, You are holy to Yahweh, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill-offering to Yahweh, the God of your fathers.

So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambusher by the way.

And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levite;