1. Now after these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah,
2. son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub,
3. son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth,
4. son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki,
5. son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the kohen gadol —
6. this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Torah of Moses that Adonai the God of Israel had given. The king granted him everything he requested, because the hand of Adonai his God was upon him.
7. Some of Bnei-Yisrael and some of the kohanim, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the sanctuary servants also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
8. He arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
9. He began his aliyah from Babylon on the first day of the first month and entered Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, because the good hand of his God was upon him.
10. For Ezra had set his heart to seek the Torah of Adonai, to observe and to teach its statues and ordinances in Israel.
11. Now this is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the kohen, the scribe, a teacher of matters pertaining to the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes over Israel:
12. “Artaxerxes, king of kings, “To Ezra the kohen, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven.
13. “I have now issued a decree that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel—even the kohanim and Levites—who wish to go up to Jerusalem with you may go.