This is a copy of the letter that they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Thy servants the men beyond the River, and so forth.

that search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers. So thou shall find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces. And that they have made sedition wi

Forasmuch as thou are sent from the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thy hand,

And whatever shall seem good to thee and to thy brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do ye after the will of your God.

And the vessels that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.

And whatever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shall have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure-house.

And thou, Ezra, according to the wisdom of thy God, that is in thy hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of thy God, and teach ye him who does not kno

And whoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him with all diligence, whether it be to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments,

which thou have commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, to which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from o

shall we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples who do these abominations? Would thou not be angry with us till thou had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?