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Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
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the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
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the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
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the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
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the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest"
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this Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.
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And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests and the Levites, and the singers and the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
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And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
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For upon the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
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For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
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Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD and of His statutes to Israel:
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"Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven. Perfect peace, and at such a time.
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I make a decree that all those of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites in my realm, who are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
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Inasmuch as thou art sent by the king and by his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand,
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and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,