¹Now after these things , in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia , Ezra the son of Seraiah , the son of Azariah , the son of Hilkiah ,

²the son of Shallum , the son of Zadok , the son of Ahitub,

³the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah , the son of Meraioth ,

⁴the son of Zerahiah , the son of Uzzi , the son of Bukki ,

⁵the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas , the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest —

⁶this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses , which the LORD , the God of Israel , had given ; and the king granted him all his request , according to the LORD his God ’s hand on him .

⁷Some of the children of Israel , including some of the priests , the Levites , the singers , the gatekeepers , and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king .

⁸He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month , which was in the seventh year of the king .

⁹For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem , according to the good hand of his God on him .

¹⁰For Ezra had set his heart to seek the LORD ’s law , and to do it , and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel .

¹¹Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest , the scribe , even the scribe of the words of the LORD ’s commandments , and of his statutes to Israel :

²⁷Blessed be the LORD , the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king ’s heart , to beautify the LORD ’s house which is in Jerusalem ;

²⁸and has extended loving kindness to me before the king and his counsellors , and before all the king ’s mighty princes . I was strengthened according to the LORD my God ’s hand on me , and I gathered together chief men out of Israel to go up with me .