Study Desk

The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, [those] deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.

And whatever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow [it] out of the king's treasure-house.

And I, [even] I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers who [are] beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,

Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done 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 certify you, that concerning any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom upon them.

And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that [is] in thy hand, set magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people that [are] beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know [them] not.

And whoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether [it be] to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

Blessed [be] the LORD God of our fathers, who hath put [such a thing] as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which [is] in Jerusalem:

And hath extended mercy to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God [was] upon me, and I assembled out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

And I sent them with commandment to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Iddo, [and] to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen;

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

For I was ashamed to require 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] upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath [is] against all them that forsake him.

So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated by us.

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

And I said to them, Ye [are] holy to the LORD; the vessels [are] holy also; and the silver and the gold [are] a free-will-offering to the LORD God of your fathers.

So the priests and the Levites took 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 upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way.

Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by 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, Levites;

[Also] the children of those that had been carried away, who had come out of the captivity, offered burnt-offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he-goats [for] a sin-offering: all [this was] a burnt-offering to the LORD.