¹⁴ For you are sent by the king ^(A)and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand,

¹⁵ and also to carry the silver and gold that the king ^(A)and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, ^(B)whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,

^28 (A)and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

²⁵ And I weighed out to them the ^(A)silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his ^(B)counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered.

¹⁴ the men next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and ^(A)Memucan, ^(B)the seven princes of Persia and Media, ^(C)who saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom):