Home / Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26
Side-by-side translation with full lexical references. These passages consist primarily of official Persian administrative correspondence and royal decrees regarding the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
📜 About this corpus:Ezra's Aramaic sections (4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26) contain some of the most historically significant documents in the Bible — official Persian imperial correspondence written in the administrative Aramaic that served as the lingua franca of the Achaemenid Empire.
Aramaic Text
רְחוּם בְּעֵל-טְעֵם וְשִׁמְשַׁי סָפְרָא כְּתַבוּ אִגְּרָה חֲדָה עַל-יְרוּשְׁלֶם
English Translation
Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows — from Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates...
Aramaic Text
בִּשְׁנַת חֲדָה לְכוֹרֶשׁ מַלְכָּא כּוֹרֶשׁ מַלְכָּא שָׂם טְעֵם
English Translation
In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought...
Aramaic Text
אַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא לְעֶזְרָא כָּהֲנָא סָפַר דָּתָא דִּי-אֱלָהּ שְׁמַיָּא
English Translation
Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven: perfect peace. And now I make a decree that anyone in my kingdom of the people of Israel and their priests and Levites who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you.
