And this is the copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah, and of His statutes to Israel.
The copy of the letter which Tatnai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-boznai, and his companions, the officials Beyond the River, sent to Darius the king:
And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are Beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven, shall ask of you, it shall be done exactly,
this Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which Jehovah, the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all he asked, according to the hand of Jehovah his God on him.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men. For you neither go in, nor do you allow those entering to go in.