see, I shall do according to your words. See, I shall give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like you before you, and none like you shall arise after you.
“Shall You then give to Your servant an understanding heart to rule Your people, to discern between good and evil? For who is able to rule this great people of Yours?”
And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your Elah that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your Elah. And teach those who do not know them.
And my Elohim put it into my heart to gather the nobles, and the deputy rulers, and the people, in order to be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up at the beginning, and I found written in it:
For He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His eyes. But to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and collecting, to give to him who is good before Elohim. That too is futile and feeding on wind.
“And He changes the times and the seasons. He removes sovereigns and raises up sovereigns. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who possess understanding.
“I thank You and praise You, O Elah of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the sovereign’s matter.”