King James Version › Ezra › 7

Ezra

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1 Now af­ter these things, in the reign of Ar­tax­erx­es king of Per­sia, Ezra the son of Sera­iah, the son of Azari­ah, the son of Hilki­ah, 2 The son of Shal­lum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahi­tub, 3 The son of Amari­ah, the son of Azari­ah, the son of Meraio­th, 4 The son of Zer­ahi­ah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Buk­ki, 5 The son of Abishua, the son of Phine­has, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest: 6 This Ezra went up from Baby­lon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Is­rael had giv­en: and the king grant­ed him all his re­quest, ac­cord­ing to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. 7 And there went up some of the chil­dren of Is­rael, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethin­ims, unto Jerusalem, in the sev­enth year of Ar­tax­erx­es the king. 8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the sev­enth year of the king. 9 For upon the first day of the first month be­gan he to go up from Baby­lon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, ac­cord­ing to the good hand of his God upon him. 10 For Ezra had pre­pared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Is­rael statutes and judg­ments. 11 Now this is the copy of the let­ter that the king Ar­tax­erx­es gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the com­mand­ments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Is­rael. 12 Ar­tax­erx­es, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heav­en, per­fect peace, and at such a time. 13 I make a de­cree, that all they of the peo­ple of Is­rael, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are mind­ed of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. 14 Foras­much as thou art sent of the king, and of his sev­en coun­sel­lors, to en­quire con­cern­ing Ju­dah and Jerusalem, ac­cord­ing to the law of thy God which is in thine hand; 15 And to car­ry the sil­ver and gold, which the king and his coun­sel­lors have freely of­fered unto the God of Is­rael, whose habi­ta­tion is in Jerusalem, 16 And all the sil­ver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Baby­lon, with the freewill of­fer­ing of the peo­ple, and of the priests, of­fer­ing will­ing­ly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem: 17 That thou mayest buy speed­i­ly with this mon­ey bul­locks, rams, lambs, with their meat of­fer­ings and their drink of­fer­ings, and of­fer them upon the al­tar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. 18 And what­so­ev­er shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the sil­ver and the gold, that do af­ter the will of your God. 19 The ves­sels also that are giv­en thee for the ser­vice of the house of thy God, those de­liv­er thou be­fore the God of Jerusalem. 20 And what­so­ev­er 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. 21 And I, even I Ar­tax­erx­es the king, do make a de­cree to all the trea­sur­ers which are be­yond the riv­er, that what­so­ev­er Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heav­en, shall re­quire of you, it be done speed­i­ly, 22 Unto an hun­dred tal­ents of sil­ver, and to an hun­dred mea­sures of wheat, and to an hun­dred baths of wine, and to an hun­dred baths of oil, and salt with­out pre­scrib­ing how much. 23 What­so­ev­er 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? 24 Also we cer­ti­fy you, that touch­ing 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. 25 And thou, Ezra, af­ter the wis­dom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set mag­is­trates and judges, which 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. 26 And whoso­ev­er will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judg­ment be ex­e­cut­ed speed­i­ly upon him, whether it be unto death, or to ban­ish­ment, or to con­fis­ca­tion of goods, or to im­pris­on­ment. 27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fa­thers, which hath put ­such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beau­ti­fy the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: 28 And hath ex­tend­ed mer­cy unto me be­fore the king, and his coun­sel­lors, 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 gath­ered to­geth­er out of Is­rael chief men to go up with me.