22 You are forbidden to collect any taxes from the priests, Levites, musicians, guards, workmen, or anyone else connected with this temple. No one has the right to impose any burden on them.
23 “You, Ezra, using the wisdom that comes from God, shall appoint administrators and judges to govern all the people in Greater Syria and Phoenicia who live by the Law of your God. You must teach that Law to anyone who does not know it.
24 If anyone disobeys the laws of your God or the laws of the empire, he is to be punished promptly: by death, by fine, by exile, or by some other punishment.”
25 Ezra said, “Praise the Lord, the Lord alone! He has made the emperor willing to restore the glory of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
26 By God's grace, I have won the respect of the emperor, his counsellors, all his Friends, and all his powerful officials.
27 The Lord my God has given me courage, and I have been able to persuade many men to return with me.”
28 This is the list of the leaders of the clans and families who had been in exile in Babylonia and returned with Ezra to Jerusalem when Artaxerxes was emperor: