Douay Rheims Original ↷
Ezra 7 📜 📕 ↷
Artaxerxes' Letter for Ezra
11 And this is the copy of the epistle of the edict, which king Artaxerxes gave to Esdras the Priest, the learned scribe, in the words and precepts of our Lord, & his ceremonies in Israel.📜💬📚
12 Artaxerxes the king of kings to Esdras the Priest, the most learned scribe of the law of God of heaven, greeting.📜💬📚
13 It is decreed by me that whomsoever it shall please in my Kingdom, of the people of Israel, and of the Priests and Levites, to go into Jerusalem, let him go with thee.📜💬📚
14 For thou art sent from the face of the king, & of his seven counsellers, that thou mayst visit Jewry & Jerusalem in the law of thy God, which is in thy hand.📜💬📚
15 And that thou mayst carry the silver & gold, which the king & his counsellers have voluntarily offered to the God of Israel, whose tabernacle is in Jerusalem.📜💬📚
16 And all the silver & gold whatsoever thou shalt find in all the Province of Babylon, & the people will offer, & of the Priests that shall voluntarily offer to the house of their God which is in Jerusalem,📜💬📚
17 Take freely, and buy diligently of this money calves, rams, lambs, and the sacrifices and libaments of them, and offer them upon the altar of the temple of your God, that is in Jerusalem.📜💬📚
18 Yea and if it shall please thee, and thy brethren to do any thing with the rest of the silver and gold, do ye according to the will of your God.📜💬📚
19 The vessels also, which are given thee for the ministry of the house of thy God, deliver thou in the sight of God in Jerusalem.📜💬📚
20 Yea and other things whereof need shall be for the house of thy God, how much soever is necessary for thee to spend, thou shalt give it out of the treasure and exchequer of the king, and from me.📜💬📚
21 I, Artaxerxes the king have appointed and decreed to all the keepers of the Common coffer, that are beyond the River, that whatsoever Esdras the Priest, the scribe of the law of God of heaven, shall ask of you, you give it without delay,📜💬📚
22 unto an hundred talents of silver, and unto an hundred cores of wheat, and unto an hundred bates of wine, and unto an hundred bates of oil, but salt without measure.📜💬📚
23 All that pertaineth to the rite of the God of heaven let it be given diligently in the house of the God of heaven: lest perhaps he be angry against the kingdom of the king, and of his sons.📜💬📚
24 We do you also to understand concerning all the Priests, & Levites, and the singers, and the porters, the Nathineites, and ministers of the house of this God, that you have no authority to put toll and tribute and yearly rents upon them.📜💬📚
25 And thou Esdras according to the wisdom of thy God, which is in thy hand, appoint judges and presidents, that they may judge for all the people, that is beyond the River, that is for them which know the law of thy God, yea and the ignorant teach ye freely.📜💬📚
26 And every one that shall not do the law of thy God, and the law of thy king diligently, there shall be judgement of him, either unto death, or into banishment, or to the confiscation of his substance, or at the least into prison.📜💬📚
Ezra Blesses God
27 Blessed be our Lord the God of our fathers, which hath put this in the king's heart, that he would glorify the house of our Lord, which is in Jerusalem,📜💬📚
28 and hath inclined his mercy toward me before the king and his counsellers, and all the mighty princes of the king: and I taking courage by the hand of our Lord my God, which was on me, gathered together out of Israel princes that should go up with me.📜💬📚
Next Chapter: Ezra 8
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