But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in {yourselves}, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, which {were} on this side the river, sent unto Darius the king:

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he {was} a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

This {is} the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, {even} unto Artaxerxes the king; Thy servants the men on this side the river, and at such a time.

And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with {their} face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I {am} the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. {nursing fathers: Heb. nourishers} {queens: Heb. princesses}

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he {was} a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that {was} before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

These {were} in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.

Know therefore and understand, {that} from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince {shall be} seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. {be built...: Heb. return and be built} {wall: or, breach, or, ditch} {troublous: Heb. strait of}

And Nehemiah, which {is} the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day {is} holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. {the Tirshatha: or, the governor}

And there went up {some} of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

For we {were} bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. {to repair: Heb. to set up}

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.