“Furthermore, let it be known to the king, that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, no more tribute, taxes or duty will be paid and the royal revenue will suffer.
We also notify you that you have no authority to impose tribute, tax or duty on any of the kohanim, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, sanctuary servants, or attendants at this House of God.
Its abundant produce goes to the kings You have set over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please. We are in great distress!
For you have led your own souls in error, since it was you who sent me to Adonai your God, saying: ‘Pray to Adonai our God on our behalf, and in accord with all that Adonai our God will say, so declare to us, and we will do it.
“Yes,” Peter said. Now when Peter came into the house, Yeshua spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? The kings of the earth, from whom do they collect tolls or tax? From their sons or from strangers?”
It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of the Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene.
But we think it appropriate to hear from you about what you think. For indeed, it is known to us that regarding this sect, it is spoken against everywhere.”
After this fellow, Judah the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and got people to follow him. He also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.