behold, I have done according to thy word. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there has been none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like thee.
Every good gift and every perfect endowment is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning.
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has now made known to me what we desired of thee, for thou have made known to us the king's matter.
And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings, and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Give thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this thy great people?
And my God put into my heart to gather together the ranking men, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first. And I found written
For to the man who pleases him [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
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