⁶ this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was ^(A)a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, ^(B)according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.

⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ^[a]citadel which pertains ^(A)to the ^[b]temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^(B)according to the good hand of my God upon me.

¹⁸ And I told them of ^(A)the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they ^(B)set^[a] their hands to this good work.