Ezra 7
The full text of Ezra 7 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew and Aramaic. Free to read.
1 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 chief priest—
6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.
7 Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
8 Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
9 He had begun the journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was on him.
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
11 This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest and scribe, a scholar of the words of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel:
12 "Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven: Perfect peace. And now:
13 I issue a decree that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel and their priests and Levites who volunteers to go to Jerusalem may go with you.
14 You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the law of your God, which is in your hand,
15 and to bring the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,
16 together with all the silver and gold you may obtain from the province of Babylon, along with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests for the house of their God in Jerusalem.
17 With this money, therefore, you are to buy bulls, rams, and lambs with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your God in Jerusalem.
18 Whatever seems best 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 articles that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver in full before the God of Jerusalem.
20 And whatever else is needed for the house of your God that you may have occasion to provide, provide it from the royal treasury.
21 I, King Artaxerxes, issue a decree to all the treasurers of the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requests of you, let it be done with all diligence,
22 up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred cors of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and salt without limit.
23 Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath fall on the realm of the king and his sons.
24 We also inform you that it is not permitted to impose tribute, tax, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
25 And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that you possess, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people of the province Beyond the River—all who know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach.
26 Whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment."
27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king—to glorify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem—
28 and who extended loyal love to me before the king, his counselors, and all the king's mighty officials. I took courage, for the hand of the LORD my God was on me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.
Translation notes (9)
- Ezra 7:1a Seraiah, the high priest executed at the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BCE (2 Kings 25:18-21), lived well over a century before Ezra, so ben ('son of') here means descendant. The genealogy telescopes several generations, as comparison with the fuller priestly line in 1 Chronicles 6 shows; the aim is to establish Ezra's descent from the high-priestly house, not a complete pedigree. Artaxerxes I reigned 465-424 BCE.
- Ezra 7:6a The Hebrew sofer mahir describes a scribe who is 'skilled' or 'quick', a term applied elsewhere only in Psalm 45:1; it marks Ezra as an expert in the written law rather than a mere copyist. The idiom 'the hand of the LORD his God was on him' expresses divine favor and enablement, and it recurs as a refrain throughout Ezra and Nehemiah.
- Ezra 7:7a The seventh year of Artaxerxes I is 458 BCE, the traditional date for Ezra's arrival. Some historians identify the king as Artaxerxes II, which would place the journey in 398 BCE, but the biblical narrative sequence favors the earlier reign. Among the returnees, nethinim, 'temple servants', designates a hereditary class assigned to assist the Levites.
- Ezra 7:11a The word parshegen, 'copy', is a loanword from Persian, fitting the imperial setting of the correspondence. The letter itself, beginning in the next verse and running through verse 26, is preserved not in Hebrew but in Aramaic, the administrative language of the Persian Empire.
- Ezra 7:12a The text switches to Aramaic from here through verse 26.
- Ezra 7:21a This decree stands in Aramaic, the administrative language of the Persian empire, within the Aramaic section of Ezra (7:12-26). Avar-naharah, 'Beyond the River' (עֲבַר נַהֲרָה), was the official name of the Persian satrapy west of the Euphrates, which included Syria and Judea; the river in view is the Euphrates, named from the perspective of the imperial court in the east.
- Ezra 7:24a The Aramaic triad mindah, belo, and halakh, 'tribute, tax, or toll', repeats the fiscal formula of Ezra 4:13, here reversed into an exemption. Such immunity for temple personnel accords with attested Persian policy; the Gadatas inscription records Darius I rebuking an official for taxing the sacred gardeners of Apollo.
- Ezra 7:26a The Aramaic section ends here; Hebrew resumes in verse 27.
- Ezra 7:28a Chesed (חֶסֶד), 'loyal love', denotes covenant faithfulness, here shown by God through a foreign court. With verse 27 the narrative shifts from third-person Aramaic record to Ezra's first-person Hebrew memoir. The phrase 'the hand of the LORD my God was on me' is a recurring motif of divine enablement in Ezra and Nehemiah (compare Ezra 7:6, 9; 8:18; Nehemiah 2:8).
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