Study Desk

With this money, therefore, you are to buy as many bulls, rams, and lambs as needed, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and offer them on the altar at the house of your God in Jerusalem.

You and your brothers may do whatever seems best with the rest of the silver and gold, according to the will of your God.

You must deliver to the God of Jerusalem all the articles given to you for the service of the house of your God.

And if anything else is needed for the house of your God that you may have occasion to supply, you may pay for it from the royal treasury.

I, King Artaxerxes, decree to all the treasurers west of the Euphrates: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, may require of you, it must be provided promptly,

Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven must be done diligently for the His house. For why should wrath fall on the realm of the king and his sons?

And be advised that you have no authority to impose tribute, duty, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God which you possess, are to appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people west of the Euphrates-all who know the laws of your God. And you are to teach these laws to anyone who does not know them.

If anyone does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a strict judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,

and who has shown me favor before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officials. And because the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, I took courage and gathered the leaders of Israel to return with me.

And I sent them to Iddo, the leader at Casiphia, with a message for him and his kinsmen, the temple servants at Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

And since the gracious hand of our God was upon us, they brought us Sherebiah-a man of insight from the descendants of Mahli son of Levi, the son of Israel-along with his sons and brothers, 18 men;

And there by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.

For I was ashamed to ask the king for an escort of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from our enemies on the road, since we had told him, "The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him."

So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He granted our request.

and I weighed out to them the contribution of silver and gold and the articles that the king, his counselors, his leaders, and all the Israelites there had offered for the house of our God.

Then I told them, "You are holy to the LORD, and these articles are holy. The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers.

So the priests and Levites took charge of the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.

On the twelfth day of the first month, we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us to protect us from the hands of the enemies and bandits along the way.