² He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.^(A)

⁶ this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.^(A)

⁹ On the first day of the first month the journey up from Babylon was begun, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him.^(A)

²⁸ and who extended to me steadfast love before the king and his counselors and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.^(A)