^13 (A)I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. ¹⁴ For you are sent by the king ^(B)and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, ¹⁵ and also to carry the silver and gold that the king ^(C)and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, ^(D)whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, ^16 (E)with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and ^(F)with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. ¹⁷ With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and ^(G)you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. ¹⁹ The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. ²⁰ And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury.

²¹ “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, ²² up to 100 talents^[a] of silver, 100 cors^[b] of wheat, 100 baths^[c] of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. ²³ Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. ²⁴ We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose ^(H)tribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

²⁵ “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, ^(I)appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. ^(J)And those who do not know them, you shall teach. ²⁶ Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.”

^27 (K)Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, ^(L)who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem,

Priests to Guard Offerings

²⁴ Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: ^(A)Sherebiah, ^(B)Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. ²⁵ And I weighed out to them the ^(C)silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his ^(D)counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. ^26 (E)I weighed out into their hand 650 talents^[a] of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents,^[b] and 100 talents of gold, ²⁷ 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics,^[c] and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. ²⁸ And I said to them, ^(F)“You are holy to the Lord, and ^(G)the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. ²⁹ Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers' houses in Israel at Jerusalem, ^(H)within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰ So the priests and the Levites ^(I)took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

³¹ Then we departed from the river Ahava ^(J)on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. ^(K)The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. ^32 (L)We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. ³³ On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were ^(M)weighed into the hands of ^(N)Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, ^(O)Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of ^(P)Binnui. ³⁴ The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

³⁵ At that time ^(Q)those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, ^(R)twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord. ^36 (S)They also delivered the king's commissions to the king's ^(T)satraps^[d] and to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and they aided the people and the house of God.