Bede : But you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God, etc. The king repeats the word he had spoken and confirms the truth he had recognized with a repeated statement. For previously, he had said that the law of that very God was in the hand of Ezra. Now, however, he says, the wisdom of his God is in his hand. Because, indeed, the wisdom is the law of God, as the Psalmist says: "The mouth of the righteous will meditate on wisdom, and his tongue will speak of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart" (Psalms 36). And the righteous has the law of God and wisdom in his hand, while in all that he does and speaks, he shows himself to be mindful of the divine will. Therefore, the sense of the letter is clear, and the spiritual understanding is clear, that evidently our Lord and Savior has the wisdom of God in his hand. For He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, by whose sole authority it is to appoint judges and overseers of the Churches, who judge all things according to His will and preach His faith to the unlearned throughout the world. And everyone who despises the decrees of His law will be punished according to their own error, either by present punishment or future justice. Therefore, Artaxerxes, writing to Ezra and expressing in writing the love he had for religious worship, clearly manifested what Christian kings, devoted in future times, would do concerning the faith of the truth. Hence, we have briefly taken care to recall his letter, leaving out certain parts, so that the reader might understand how much it concords with the deeds which Christian princes have done for the peace of the holy Church with the revealed grace of the Gospel. Indeed, we can figuratively refer the person of Ezra not only to the Lord Christ but also to any overseer or teacher of the Church; to whom often kings and princes have sent letters for the status of the faithful. And fittingly Ezra himself, to whom this letter was given, subsequently bursts forth in praise of God, saying: — Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah