Thus, saith Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth, hath Yahweh God of the heavens, given to me, - and, he himself, hath laid charge upon me, to build for him a house, in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Ezra himself hath come up from Babylon, and he is a scribe ready in the law of Moses, that Jehovah God of Israel gave, and the king giveth to him -- according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him -- all his request.

Now Ezra had dedicated himself to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching its statutes and judgments in Israel.

So we fasted and sought of our God, concerning this, - and he suffered himself to be entreated by us.

Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly.

and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited and he himself excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

But the Sons of the Exile, did thus, and Ezra the priest separated to himself certain men - ancestral heads by their ancestral houses, and all of them by name, - and they took their seats on the first day of the tenth month to search into the matter;