7 After these events, during the reign of Artach’shashta king of Persia, ‘Ezra the son of S’rayah, the son of ‘Azaryah, the son of Hilkiyah, ² the son of Shalum, the son of Tzadok, the son of Achituv, ³ the son of Amaryah, the son of ‘Azaryah, the son of M’rayot, ⁴ the son of Z’rachyah, the son of ‘Uzi, the son of Buki, ⁵ the son of Avishua, the son of Pinchas, the son of Eli‘ezer, the son of Aharon the cohen hagadol — ⁶ this ‘Ezra went up from Bavel. He was a scribe, expert in the Torah of Moshe, which Adonai the God of Isra’el had given; and the king granted him everything he asked for, since the hand of Adonai his God was on him.

⁷ In the seventh year of Artach’shashta the king, some of the people of Isra’el, and some of the cohanim, L’vi’im, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants went up to Yerushalayim. ⁸ [‘Ezra] arrived at Yerushalayim in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. ⁹ He began going up to Yerushalayim from Bavel on the first day of the first month and arrived on the first day of the fifth month, since the good hand of his God was on him. ¹⁰ For ‘Ezra had set his heart on studying and practicing the Torah of Adonai and teaching Isra’el the laws and rulings.

¹¹ Here is the letter that King Artach’shashta gave ‘Ezra the cohen and Torah-teacher, the student of matters relating to Adonai’s mitzvot and his laws for Isra’el:

“To: ‘Ezra the cohen, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, etc.:

“Herewith ¹³ I decree that everyone in my realm who belongs to the people of Isra’el, including their cohanim and L’vi’im, who, of his own free will, chooses to go with you to Yerushalayim, should go. ¹⁴ You are being sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire how the law of your God, of which you have expert knowledge, is being applied in Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. ¹⁵ You are also to bring with you the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have voluntarily offered to the God of Isra’el, whose dwelling is in Yerushalayim; ¹⁶ together with all the silver and gold you receive throughout the province of Bavel and the voluntary offerings of the people and the cohanim that have been offered willingly for the house of their God in Yerushalayim.

²⁷ Blessed be Adonai, the God of our ancestors, who has put such a thing as this in the heart of the king, to restore the beauty of the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim, ²⁸ and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s most powerful officials.

So I took courage, since the hand of Adonai my God was on me, and I gathered together out of Isra’el key men to go up with me.

8 These are the heads of their fathers’ clans, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Bavel during the reign of Artach’shashta the king:

¹⁵ I assembled them by the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. I reviewed the people and the cohanim but found no L’vi’im there. ¹⁶ So I sent for Eli‘ezer, Ari’el, Sh’ma‘yah, Elnatan, Yariv, Elnatan, Natan, Z’kharyah and Meshulam, who were leaders, and also for Yoyariv and Elnatan, who were men of discernment. ¹⁷ I gave them instructions for Iddo, the leading man in a place called Kasifya, and told them what to say to Iddo and his brother, who were in charge of Kasifya, so that they would bring us men to minister in the house of our God. ¹⁸ Since the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us Ish-Sekhel from the descendants of Machli the son of Levi, the son of Isra’el; Sherevyah with eighteen of his sons and kinsmen; ¹⁹ Hashavyah, with Yesha‘yah, from the descendants of M’rari, and twenty of his kinsmen and their sons; ²⁰ and from the temple servants, whom David and the princes had assigned to serve the L’vi’im, two hundred temple servants, all recorded by name.

²¹ Then, there at the Ahava River, I proclaimed a fast; so that we could humble ourselves before our God and ask a safe journey of him for ourselves, our little ones and all our possessions. ²² For I would have been ashamed to ask the king for a detachment of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies along the road, since we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for good; but his power and fury is against all who abandon him.” ²³ So we fasted and asked our God for this, and he answered our prayer.

²⁴ Then I separated twelve of the chief cohanim, along with Sherevyah, Hashavyah and ten of their kinsmen. ²⁵ I weighed out to them the silver, the gold and the utensils for the house of our God contributed by the king, his counselors, his princes and all Isra’el present there. ²⁶ I weighed out and handed over to them twenty-one-and-a-half tons of silver, three-and-a-third tons of silver articles, three-and-a-third tons of gold, ²⁷ twenty gold bowls weighing twenty-one pounds, and two vessels of fine burnished bronze as precious as gold. ²⁸ Then I told them, “You are consecrated to Adonai, the articles are holy, and the silver and gold are a voluntary offering for Adonai the God of your ancestors. ²⁹ Guard them carefully, until you weigh them before the chief cohanim and L’vi’im and the leaders of the fathers’ clans in Yerushalayim, in the rooms of the house of Adonai.” ³⁰ So the cohanim and L’vi’im received the consignment of silver and gold and the articles to bring to Yerushalayim, to the house of our God.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month, we left the Ahava River to go to Yerushalayim. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and surprise attacks along the road. ³² In time, we arrived at Yerushalayim, where we rested for three days. ³³ On the fourth day, the silver, gold and articles were weighed in the house of our God and handed over to M’remot the son of Uriyah the cohen; with him was El‘azar the son of Pinchas; and with them were Yozavad the son of Yeshua and No‘adyah the son of Binui, who were L’vi’im. ³⁴ The entire consignment was numbered and weighed, and at the same time the total weight was recorded.

³⁵ The exiles who had returned from captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Isra’el — twelve young bulls for all Isra’el, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering; all this was a burnt offering for Adonai.

³⁶ They also delivered the king’s orders to the king’s viceroys and governors beyond the [Euphrates] River; and these gave their support to the people and to the house of God.

20 One day, as Yeshua was teaching the people at the Temple, making known the Good News, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers, along with the elders, came up to him ² and said, “Tell us, what s’mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? Who gave you this s’mikhah?” ³ He answered, “I too will ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ the immersion of Yochanan — was it from Heaven or from a human source?” ⁵ They discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From Heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From a human source,’ all the people will stone us, because they’re convinced that Yochanan was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.” ⁸ Yeshua said to them, “Then I won’t tell you by what s’mikhah I do these things.”

⁹ Next Yeshua told the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to tenant-farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to receive his share of the crop from the vineyard; but the tenants beat him up and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant; they beat him too, insulted him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹² He sent yet a third; this one they wounded and threw out.

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What am I to do? I will send my son, whom I love; maybe they will respect him.’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours!’ ¹⁵ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and put an end to those tenants and give the vineyard to others!” When the people heard this, they said, “Heaven forbid!” ¹⁷ But Yeshua looked searchingly at them and said, “Then what is this which is written in the Tanakh,

¹⁸ Whoever falls on that stone will be broken in pieces; but if it falls on him, he will be crushed to powder!”

¹⁹ The Torah-teachers and the head cohanim would have seized him at that very moment, because they knew that he had aimed this parable at them, but they were afraid of the people.

²⁰ So they kept a close watch on the situation. They sent spies who hypocritically represented themselves as righteous, so that they might seize hold of something Yeshua said, as an excuse to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. ²¹ They put to him this sh’eilah: “Rabbi, we know that you speak and teach straightforwardly, showing no partiality but really teaching what God’s way is. ²² Does Torah permit us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?” ²³ But he, spotting their craftiness, said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius! Whose name and picture does it have?” “The Emperor’s,” they replied. ²⁵ “Then,” he said to them, “give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give God what belongs to God!” ²⁶ They were unable to trap him by anything he said publicly; indeed, amazed at his answer, they fell silent.

²⁷ Some Tz’dukim, who say there is no resurrection, came to Yeshua ²⁸ and put to him a sh’eilah: “Rabbi, Moshe wrote for us that if a man dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife and have children to preserve the man’s family line.^{[b] 29} Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless, ³⁰ then the second ³¹ and third took her, and likewise all seven, but they all died without leaving children. ³² Lastly, the woman also died. ³³ In the Resurrection, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “In this age, men and women marry; ³⁵ but those judged worthy of the age to come, and of resurrection from the dead, do not get married, ³⁶ because they can no longer die. Being children of the Resurrection, they are like angels; indeed, they are children of God.

³⁷ “But even Moshe showed that the dead are raised; for in the passage about the bush, he calls Adonai ‘the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov.’^{[c] 38} Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living — to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the Torah-teachers answered, “Well spoken, Rabbi.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared put to him a sh’eilah. ⁴¹ But he said to them, “How is it that people say the Messiah is David’s son?” ⁴² For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

⁴⁴ David thus calls him ‘Lord.’ So how can he be David’s son?”

⁴⁵ Within the hearing of all the people, Yeshua said to his talmidim, ⁴⁶ “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers that like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, the kind that like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁷ the kind that swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”