“To King Artaxerxes, 1 from your servants in 2 Trans-Euphrates:
4:17 The king sent the following response:
“To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! 3
7:12 4 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the perfect law of the God of heaven:
1 tn The Masoretic accents indicate that the phrase “to Artaxerxes the king” goes with what precedes and that the letter begins with the words “from your servants.” But it seems better to understand the letter to begin by identifying the addressee.
2 tn Aram “men of.”
3 tn Aram “peace.”
4 sn Ezra 7:12-26 is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.