Categoria: Ezra

As Ezra prayed and confessed sin in tears the people gathered round him weeping also. Then Shekaniah proposed a covenant to Ezra saying that the Israelites should divorce all foreign women sending them away with their children. And as Ezra considered this in mourning he spent a period in a total fast without food or water. Then everyone was summoned to Jerusalem and Ezra declared that Shekaniah was right and all foreign women and children were to be sent away. The book then closes listing all the 113 men who had fallen into the sin of inter-racial marriage.

 Ezra was evaluating the spiritual state of Israel and the leaders informed him that widespread inter-marriage had been going on between pagan nationals and Israelites against the law of God. This practice was even rife amongst priests and Levites! This news devastated Ezra who tore his tunic and cloak and pulled his hair out, and at the time of the evening sacrifice with the people gathered round him he fell on his knees and prayed a prayer of confession. Ezra said before God that he was ashamed and disgraced. He admitted and confessed that his people had forsaken God’s commands, practicing evil deeds of great guilt involving inter-racial marriage.

Now Ezra listed the heads of the families which returned with him from exile in Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes. They assembled at the Ahava canal and camped there for 3 days. Then Ezra noted a lack of Levites so he made a call-up to rectify this. Then Ezra proclaimed a fast to ask of God a safe journey as the Jews travelled without armed escort whilst trusting in God. Then Ezra entrusted to the leading priests all the silver and gold for the temple, and the entourage left the Ahava canal and arrived in Jerusalem where they rested for 3 days. After resting all the silver and gold was duly accounted for and the exiles that had returned sacrificed 12 bulls, 96 rams, 77 male lambs and 12 male goats. 

 About 60 years passed between chapter 6 and 7 of Ezra and now it is the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia. It is now that Ezra appears in the narrative. Ezra was a priest, descendant of Aaron, who came to Jerusalem from Babylon with a new wave of returning exiles. Ezra was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, and the hand of God was on him. He came to Jerusalem in the 7th year of Artaxerxes together with priests, Levites, musicians, gate keepers and temple servants. King Artaxerxes gave Ezra a commissioning letter authorizing him to teach the law and use the gold, silver and free will offerings he received for the furtherance of the work of God and his people.  He also authorized substantial supplies from the treasurers of the Trans-Euphrates and exempted them from taxes or tributes. He also authorized Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges to govern in accordance with the Law. Ezra praised God for the king’s extraordinary support and backing which he rightly saw a sign that the hand of the Lord was upon him. 

King Darius had the archives searched and indeed King Cyrus’s decree was discovered on a scroll legitimizing the rebuilding of the Israelite temple as the Jews had said. Therefore King Darius ordered Tattenai to keep out of it and that the expenses of the work be funded by the royal treasury. He said that whatever the priests requested should be given without fail including what they needed in terms of animals for sacrifices. Darius yet said that anyone who disobeys his decree should be impaled on a beam of his house and have his house destroyed. Hence Tattenai and helpers were obliged to diligently obey orders and the temple’s rebuilding was concluded in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius and the dedication of the temple was carried out with joy. They offered 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 male lambs, and as a sin offering 12 male goats representing the 12 tribes of Israel.  And in the first month they celebrated the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem and so Zerubbabel and Joshua son of Jozadak restarted their building of the temple. Then the Trans-Euphrates governor Tattenai went and asked who had authorized this work? The Israelites replied saying that the reconstruction of the temple had been authorized by King Darius of Babylon in a decree, and who even returned many gold and silver articles that had been removed from the temple by Nebuchadnezzar so as to be available for the rebuilt temple. So Tattenai requested a search of the royal archives to see if this decree was indeed made. 

When the enemies of Judah heard about the rebuilding of the temple they offered to help, but they were turned down. So the enemies set about to discourage the people of Judah and to make them afraid of continuing to build, and they bribed officials to try and thwart the work.

Later on at the beginning of the reign of Xerxes these enemies made an accusation against Judah to King Artaxerxes saying that the returned exiles were trouble makers and rebellious and that the royal revenues would suffer if they were allowed to reestablish themselves. King Artaxerxes reviewed the matter and agreed with the complaint. He therefore commanded the Jews to halt their rebuilding work and it stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

The Israelites assembled in Jerusalem and Joshua son of Jozadak and Zerubbabel began to build the altar for burnt offerings, and once built they started offering sacrifices morning and evening and then they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles. After this they resumed regular sacrifices according to the law of Moses even though the temple was not yet rebuilt.

Then they paid the masons and carpenters to rebuild the temple and organized the bringing of cedar logs from Lebanon as authorized by King Cyrus of Persia. Then they started the rebuilding of the temple supervised by the Levites. When the foundations were laid the priests and Levites praised the Lord saying: He is good; his love towards Israel endures for ever! Then all the people gave a great shout because the foundations had been laid. The older priests and Levites wept whilst others shouted for joy making a noise that could be heard afar off. 

This chapter contains a census of the 42,360 exiles initially returning to Jerusalem plus 7,337 slaves, male and female singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys. The census focuses especially on the priests, Levites and musicians essential for the temple to function, which was the aim of this first group of returning exiles, but some would-be priests were excluded because they could not prove their priestly descent and credentials. Some gave freewill offerings totalling 500 kg of gold, 2.8 tons of silver and 100 priestly garments for the rebuilding and functioning of the temple.

The book of Ezra is a book about Israel re-emerging as a nation after the 70 year Babylonian exile. This book picks up exactly where 2 Chronicles ended. The first section covers the initial return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem over the first 6 chapters, culminating with the re-building of the temple. The second section from chapters 7-10 covers the second return of exiles led by Ezra who was a priest. 

Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC led by King Cyrus the Great bringing to the end the exile of Israel. Chapter 1 relates the decree of Cyrus, given to him by God, which authorizes the release of the Israelites to go and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus encouraged people to give the returning exiles silver, gold, goods and livestock as freewill offerings for the Jerusalem temple, and many made their contributions. Cyrus also gave those returning to Jerusalem 5,400 silver and gold articles that had been seized from the temple by Nebuchadnezzar.