6 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe ^xskilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, ^yfor the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and ^zsome of the priests and ^aLevites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple ^bservants. 8 And Ezra¹ came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.