And this is the sum of the letter that they sent: "Unto king Artaxerxes: Thy servants, the men that are now on this side the water.

That it may be sought in the Chronicles of thy progenitors, and so shalt thou find in the same Chronicles, and perceive, that this city is seditious and noisome unto kings and lands, and that they cause others also to rebel of the old, and for the same cause was this city destroyed.

and said unto him, 'Take these vessels, go thy way, and bring them unto the temple at Jerusalem, and let the house of God be builded in his place.'

and therefore art thou sent of the king and of the seven lords of the counsel, to visit Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of God, which is in thy hand;

And look: what it liketh thee and thy brethren to do with the remnant of the money, that do after the will of your God.

And the vessels that are given thee for the ministration in the house of thy God, those deliver thou before God at Jerusalem.

And whatsoever thing more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which is necessary for thee to spend, let the same be given out of the king's chamber.

But thou Ezra - after the wisdom of thy God that is in thy hand - set thou judges and arbiters, to judge all the people that is beyond the Jordan, even all such as know the law of thy God: and them that know it not, those see that ye teach.

And whosoever will not diligently fulfill the law of thy God, and the king's law, shall have his judgment for the deed, whether it be unto death, or to be banished, or to be condemned in goods, or to be put in prison."

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

which thou hast commanded by thy servants the Prophets, and said, 'The land unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land through the filthiness of the people of the lands, in their abominations wherewith they have made it full of uncleanness on every side.

As for us, we have turned back, and have let go thy commandments, to make contract with the people of these abominations. Wilt thou then be wroth at us, till we be utterly consumed, so that nothing remain, and there be no deliverance?

O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day. Behold, in thy presence are we in our trespass: for because of it is there no standing before thee."