The .vij. Chapter:
1 By the commaundement of the king, Esdras and his companions come to Hieru∣salem. 27 He geueth thankes to God.
[unspec A] 1 AFter these thinges, ther was in the raigne of Artaxerxes king of Persia, one Esdras the sonne of Saraia, the sonne of Asaria, the sonne of Helkia,
2 The sonne of Sallum, the sonne of Zadoc, the sonne of Ahitob,
3 The sonne of Amaria, the sonne of A∣saria, the sonne of Meraioth,
4 The sonne of Zeraia, the sonne of Vz∣zi, the sonne of Bucci,
5 The sonne of Abisua, the sonne of Phinehes, the sonne of Eleasar, the sonne of Aaron the chiefe priest.
6 This Esdras also went vp from Ba∣bylon, and was a * 1.1 perfect scribe in the law of Moyses * 1.2 which the Lorde God of Israel did geue: And the king gaue him al that he required, according to the hand of the Lorde his God which was vpon him.
7 And there went vp certaine of the chil∣dren of Israel, of the priestes, leuites, singers, porters, and of the Nethinims vnto Hierusalem, in the seuenth yere of [unspec B] king Artaxerxes.
8 And he came to Hierusalem in the fifth moneth, euen in the seuenth yere of the king.
9 For vpon the first day of the first mo∣neth, began he to go vp from Babylon: and on the first day of the fifth moneth came he to Hierusalem, according to the good hand of his God that was vpon him.
10 For Esdras prepared his heart to seeke the law of the Lorde, and to do it, and to teache the preceptes and iudgementes in Israel.
11 And this is the copie of the letter that king Artaxerxes gaue vnto Esdras the priest, and scribe, which was a writer of the wordes and commaundementes of the Lorde, and of his statutes ouer Is∣rael.
12 Artaxerxes a king of kinges, vnto