The words with missing letters in the following story are the same as those in the crossword, only in the crossword they run in two directions, across or down. Try to fill in the missing letters in the squares.
You can read this story in Ezra 7.
Ezra was one of those held captive in B _ B _ _ _ N a long way from Israel and J _ R _ S _ L _ _, the city where the house of the Lord once stood. The Lord had not forgotten His people even though they had done evil in His sight and He had permitted their enemies to carry them away captive.
Ezra felt very keenly that his people could not worship in the house of the Lord as they once did, so Ezra prepared his H _ _ _ T to seek the law of the Lord and to do it. He requested King _ _ T _ X _ R _ _ S that permission be given him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple so his people might worship the Lord again.
Artaxerxes sent his answer to Ezra in a letter, and told him he could return to Jerusalem and take all those who of their own free will wanted to go with him. Furthermore, he gave Ezra S _ _ V _ _ and gold so that he might buy bullocks, rams, and L _ _ B _ to offer upon the altar in the H _ _ S _ of the Lord. He also gave him wheat and wine and _ I _ and S _ _ T. Then Artaxerxes wrote in the letter that “touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, P _ _ T _ R _, Nethinim, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or C _ S _ _ M, upon them.”
When Ezra saw how God had prepared the heart of Artaxerxes to provide so wonderfully for the rebuilding of the house of the Lord, he prayed thus: “ B _ _ S S _ D be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to B _ _ U _ I _ Y the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem: and hath extended _ E _ _ Y unto me.”
ML-01/05/1992