16. together with any of the silver and gold that you find in the entire province of Babylonia. You should also bring the spontaneous gifts of the people and the priests, given freely for God’s house in Jerusalem.
17. With this money you will be careful to buy bulls, rams, and lambs, as well as their grain offerings and their drink offerings. And you will offer them on the altar of God’s house in Jerusalem.
18. As long as it is God’s will, you and your colleagues may do what you think best with the rest of the silver and gold.
19. You will deliver the equipment that has been given to you for the service of God’s house to the God of Jerusalem.
20. If anything else is required for God’s house that you are responsible to provide, you may provide it from the royal treasury.
21. I, King Artaxerxes, decree to all of the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest and scribe of the Instruction from the God of heaven requires of you, it must be provided precisely,
22. even up to one hundred kikkars of silver, one hundred kors of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited salt.
23. Whatever the God of heaven commands will be done carefully for the house of the God of heaven, or wrath will come upon the realm of the king and his heirs.
24. You must also know that it is illegal for you to charge tribute, custom, or dues on any of the priests and Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
25. And you, Ezra, based on the divine wisdom that you have, appoint supervisors and judges to adjudicate among all the people in the province Beyond the River who know the laws of your God. You will also teach those who do not know them.
26. Let judgment be strictly carried out upon anyone who does not obey the Instruction from your God and the law of your king, including death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
27. Bless the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has moved the king to glorify the Lord’s house in Jerusalem,
28. and who has demonstrated his graciousness for me before the king and his counselors and all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage because the Lord my God’s power was with me. I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.