²⁶ Whoever refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king is to have judgment be strictly executed, whether the penalty be death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.”

²⁷ Ezra and His Companions. Then Ezra said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has influenced the heart of the king in this way to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, ²⁸ and who permitted me to be granted the faithful love of the king and his counselors and all the most powerful of the king’s officials. Because the hand of the Lord, my God was upon me, I assembled those Israelite leaders to accompany me.”^[a]