Hi there. This is Mary Demuth and this is Pray Every Day where I have the joy and the privilege

of praying you through the Bible verse by verse. We're in a spectacular book right now, the book of

Ezra. It's about rebuilding the walls and the temple and rebuilding Jerusalem after exile. And so I

have really been enjoying reading this to you and with you and alongside you.

Today we're reading in Ezra chapter 7 verses 1 through 13 in the world English Bible,

and this is what it says.

Now after these things in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Saraya,

the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkeye, the son of Shalom, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Marioth, the son of Zaraahia, the son of

Uzi, the son of Buki, the son of Abishua, the son of Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the chief priest.

This Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given.

And the king granted him all his request, according to Yahweh, his hands, according to

Yahweh, his God's hands on him. Some of the children of Israel, including some of the priests,

the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants, went up to Jerusalem in

the seventh year of Artaxerxes, the king. He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

For on the first day of the first month, he began to go up from Babylon,

and on the first day of the fifth month, he came to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God on him.

For Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh's law and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Now, this is the copy of the letter that King Ardixerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe,

even the scribe, of the words of Yahweh's

commandments and of his statues to Israel.

...