Ezra

Ezra tells how the exiles came home under Persian rule. Cyrus proclaims the return and restores the temple vessels; families, priests and temple servants are listed by name; the altar rises, the foundation is laid amid joy and weeping; neighbors oppose the work through decades of letters; and under Darius, urged on by Haggai and Zechariah, the temple is finished in 515 BC. Then Ezra, priest and scribe, arrives with the king's commission to teach the law, and the book ends with the painful dissolution of marriages to foreign wives. Written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, it was one book with Nehemiah, and a different Greek retelling, 1 Esdras, also survives.

Lessons

1. 1Cyrus, the Proclamation and the VesselsEzra 1 · In the first year of Cyrus, "that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled," the Persian king proclaims that the house of the God of heaven be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Families rise to go; neighbors give silver, gold and animals; and Cyrus hands the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Sheshbazzar, "the prince of Judah." Ezra opens under a foreign emperor, not a restored king of David's line.
2. 2The Names of Those Who Came HomeEzra 2 · Ezra 2 lists the returnees: eleven leaders headed by Zerubbabel and Jeshua; families and towns; priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants; and people who could not prove their ancestry, including priests barred until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise. The whole assembly is 42,360, with 7,337 servants and 200 singers. The same list appears in Nehemiah 7 and 1 Esdras 5, with many differences.
3. 3The Altar, the Foundation and Mixed TearsEzra 3 · In the seventh month the people gather "as one man" in Jerusalem. Jeshua and Zerubbabel build the altar on its old site, offerings resume, and Booths is kept. Masons and carpenters are paid; cedar comes by sea to Joppa. In the second year, the foundation is laid; priests blow trumpets and Levites sing "for he is good." Old men who had seen the first house weep aloud while others shout for joy.
4. 4Opposition, Letters and a Leap in TimeEzra 4 · "The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin" offer to help build, saying they have worshiped Israel's God since Esarhaddon brought them. Zerubbabel and Jeshua refuse. The people of the land then weaken the builders through Cyrus' reign to Darius'. The chapter then leaps forward: accusations under Xerxes, and under Artaxerxes an Aramaic letter about the city's walls and the king's order to stop. Verse 24 returns to the temple and Darius' second year.
5. 5Haggai, Zechariah and an Imperial InquiryEzra 5 · The prophets Haggai and Zechariah stir Zerubbabel and Jeshua to build again. Tattenai, governor of Across-the-River, comes asking who authorized the work and takes the builders' names, but does not stop them. His letter to Darius reports their answer: they are rebuilding the house built by a great king of Israel, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and authorized by Cyrus, who gave the vessels to Sheshbazzar. He asks the king to search the archives.
6. 6The Memorandum, the Finished Temple and the PassoverEzra 6 · Darius has the archives searched, and a scroll is found at Ecbatana: Cyrus' memorandum ordering the house rebuilt, sixty cubits high and wide, paid for by the crown, with the vessels returned. Darius orders his officials not to interfere, to fund the work and the sacrifices from the region's tribute, and to pray for the king. The temple is finished in his sixth year (515 BC). It is dedicated with joy, and the returned exiles, with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations, keep the Passover.
7. 7Ezra the Priest and ScribeEzra 7 · "After these things" (some fifty-seven years later on the usual dating), Ezra, a priest descended from Aaron and "a ready scribe in the law of Moses," comes from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. The king's Aramaic letter lets any Israelite go with him, sends silver and gold, exempts temple staff from tax, and gives Ezra authority to appoint judges and to teach the law of his God, with penalties for those who will not obey. Ezra breaks into thanks in the first person.
8. 8The Caravan from AhavaEzra 8 · Ezra lists the family heads who went with him: two priests, a descendant of David, and twelve lay families, 1,496 men. At the river Ahava he finds no Levites and sends to Iddo at "the place Casiphia"; 38 Levites and 220 temple servants come. Ezra proclaims a fast rather than ask the king for soldiers. He weighs out the silver, gold and vessels to twelve priests, travels safely, and four months after leaving Babylon has everything weighed again and recorded in the temple.
9. 9Mixed Marriages and Ezra's PrayerEzra 9 · Leaders report that the people, priests and Levites "have not separated themselves from the people of the lands," listed with the old names of Canaan's nations and Israel's neighbors, and have married their daughters, "so that the holy seed have mingled themselves." Ezra tears his clothes, pulls out his hair and beard, and sits appalled until the evening offering. Then he kneels and prays a confession for the whole people.
10. 10The Oath, the Separations and an Unfinished EndingEzra 10 · A weeping crowd gathers. Shecaniah proposes a covenant to send away the foreign wives and their children. Ezra makes the leaders swear, and a proclamation summons all the returnees to Jerusalem within three days on pain of losing their property. In the cold rain of the ninth month the assembly agrees, with a few dissenting, and a commission examines the cases for three months. The book ends with a list of over a hundred men, beginning with priests, and a final, difficult sentence about wives and children.
11. 11Investigation: The Persian Empire, Yehud and the Second TempleEzra 1–10 · Ezra's story is set inside the largest empire the world had yet seen. This investigation gathers the outside evidence: the Cyrus Cylinder, the chronology of the Persian kings, the province of Yehud and its stamped jars and coins, the Jewish community at Elephantine with its own temple, the Aramaic of the imperial chancery, and the question of Persian religious influence. Each item is shown with what it establishes and what it does not.
12. 12Investigation: Who Returned? Lists, Land and IdentityEzra 1–2; 4; 6:19–22; 8; 9–10 · Ezra speaks of "the children of the captivity" as if they were all Israel. But many Judeans stayed in Babylonia, many had never left Judah, and the land had other inhabitants. This investigation follows the waves of return, the numbers in the three versions of the list, who counted as a member, who did not, and the women and children of chapter 10 whose experience the book barely records.

How Ezra came to us

Who wrote it, how it was copied, and how it reached the Bible you hold. These lessons follow the book through history.

1. ★How Ezra Came to UsEzra and Nehemiah were one book in Hebrew tradition, written partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic, combining memoirs, lists and official letters. One Qumran manuscript, 4Q117, preserves pieces of the Aramaic chapters. In Greek there are two different books: Esdras B, a translation of Ezra–Nehemiah, and Esdras A (1 Esdras), a separate retelling with a story not found in Ezra. Their names in Latin and English are famously confusing.
2. 5The Return and EzraPersia let the exiles go home; Ezra read the law to the whole people, and Scripture became the center of Jewish life.
3. 6The SeptuagintJews in Egypt translated their Scriptures into Greek, creating the Bible of the early church and of the New Testament writers.
4. 7The Dead Sea ScrollsA shepherd's discovery in 1947 gave us Bible manuscripts a thousand years older than any known before, and showed how faithfully the text was kept.
5. 13Scribes, Jerome, and the MasoretesJerome gave the West its Latin Bible; Jewish scholars called the Masoretes guarded the Hebrew text letter by letter.

Journey of a Passage

• ¶Ezra 1:9–11: The temple vessels: 2,499 or 5,400?Ezra lists six kinds of vessels adding up to 2,499, then gives the total as 5,400. Every library text of Ezra agrees on both. 1 Esdras gives different items that add up to its own total, 5,469.
• ¶Ezra 1:2–4 and 6:3–5: Cyrus' decree in Hebrew and in AramaicEzra quotes Cyrus' decree twice: a Hebrew proclamation inviting the exiles to return (1:2–4) and an Aramaic archive memorandum specifying the building, its funding and the vessels (6:3–5). The memorandum gives the house 60 cubits of height and breadth but no length.
• ¶Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7; 1 Esdras 5:8: The leaders of the return: eleven or twelve?Ezra 2:2 names eleven leaders with Zerubbabel; Nehemiah 7:7 names twelve, adding Nahamani, and spells several names differently. 1 Esdras 5:8 has its own forms. Twelve leaders would match the twelve tribes and the twelve goats of 6:17.
• ¶Ezra 2:3–35; Nehemiah 7:8–38; 1 Esdras 5:9–23: The returnees family by family, in three versionsThe lay families and towns of the returnee list, with each version's number. Names and figures often differ. Sums: Ezra 2 (all groups) 29,818; Nehemiah 7, 31,089; 1 Esdras 5 in the KJV Apocrypha, 33,922; each states a total of 42,360.
• ¶Ezra 2:36–58; Nehemiah 7:39–60: Priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servantsThe priestly families agree in both lists (4,289). The singers are 128 in Ezra, 148 in Nehemiah; gatekeepers 139 and 138; the Nethinim and Solomon's servants 392 in both (1 Esdras: 372). Individual names of temple servants vary in spelling and order.
• ¶Ezra 2:59–63; Nehemiah 7:61–65; 1 Esdras 5:36–40: "Till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim"Priests who cannot find their genealogy are barred from the most holy food until a priest with Urim and Thummim arises. The Hebrew names the sacred lots; the Vulgate and 1 Esdras turn them into qualities: "learned and perfect," "clothed with doctrine and truth." 1 Esdras names "Nehemias and Atharias" where Ezra has the title Tirshatha.
• ¶Ezra 2:64–69; Nehemiah 7:66–72; 1 Esdras 5:41–45: 42,360: the total, the servants, the singers and the giftsAll three lists state the assembly as 42,360, more than the sum of the groups listed (29,818 in Ezra). Servants are 7,337 (1 Esdras 7,347); singers 200 in Ezra, 245 in Nehemiah. The library's Hebrew of Nehemiah lacks the verse with horses and mules. The gifts differ entirely.
• ¶Ezra 3:8–13; 5:1–2, 16; Haggai 1–2; Zechariah 4:9: When was the foundation laid?Ezra 3 places the foundation in the second year after the return under Zerubbabel and Jeshua; Ezra 5:16 credits Sheshbazzar; Haggai and Zechariah tie Zerubbabel's foundation to 520 BC. The texts agree on the words but invite different chronologies.
• ¶Ezra 4:4–24: The time leap: from Cyrus to Artaxerxes and back to DariusEzra 4:6–23 describes opposition under Xerxes and Artaxerxes, decades after the temple was finished, and about the city walls. Verse 24 returns to the temple and to Darius I. All witnesses agree on the order; the issue is how to read it.
• ¶Ezra 4:7–11: Where the Aramaic begins, and "Bishlam"Ezra 4:7 says the letter was "written in Aramaic and translated"; from 4:8 the book itself is Aramaic. In 4:7 the Hebrew bishlam is a name in the KJV and "a peaceable letter" in the library's Greek. 4Q117 reportedly preserves parts of 4:9–11.
• ¶Ezra 4:12–23: Rehum's letter and the king's reply: a city, not a templeThe accusation and the royal reply concern Jerusalem's walls and tribute, not the temple. The text is stable across the library's witnesses; the questions are historical: are the letters authentic, and how do they relate to Nehemiah?
• ¶Ezra 5:17–6:5: 4Q117: the oldest copy of Ezra4Q117 (4QEzra), from Qumran Cave 4, is reported to preserve parts of 5:17–6:5, the end of Tattenai's letter and the beginning of the memorandum. It is the oldest surviving copy of any part of Ezra, about a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex.
• ¶Ezra 6:14–15; 1 Esdras 7:4–5: Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes; the third or the twenty-third of AdarEzra 6:14 credits the decrees of Cyrus, Darius "and Artaxerxes," though the temple was finished under Darius. 6:15 dates completion to the third of Adar in Darius' sixth year; 1 Esdras 7:5 (KJV) has the twenty-third.
• ¶Ezra 6:19–22: Back to Hebrew, the Passover and "the king of Assyria"At 6:19 Ezra returns to Hebrew. The Passover is eaten by the returned exiles "and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen." God turns the heart of "the king of Assyria" to them: so every library witness, of a Persian king.
• ¶Ezra 7:1–5; 1 Chronicles 6:3–15: Ezra's priestly line: sixteen generations from AaronEzra's genealogy names sixteen generations from Aaron to Ezra. 1 Chronicles 6 has six more names between Meraioth and Azariah. Seraiah, called Ezra's father, was killed in 586 BC; "son" means descendant.
• ¶Ezra 7:11–28: Artaxerxes' commission and the change of voiceThe king's letter (7:12–26) is Aramaic; 7:27 returns to Hebrew and to "I": the start of Ezra's memoir. In 7:12 the Aramaic gemir ("perfect," probably a greeting formula) is understood very differently by the library's Greek.
• ¶Ezra 8:15–20: Ahava and "the place Casiphia"Ezra gathers at the river Ahava and sends to Iddo "at the place Casiphia" for Levites. The Hebrew names Casiphia twice; the library's Greek has no place name but "the silver of the region," reading kesef (silver) in the name. Neither place has been located.
• ¶Ezra 9:1–2; 1 Esdras 8:69–70: The peoples of the lands and "the holy seed"Ezra's list of peoples combines Deuteronomy 7:1 and 23:3–8. The library's Greek has "Moserites" for Egyptians; the KJV text of 1 Esdras 8:69 has Edomites and lacks Ammonites and Amorites. "The holy seed" (9:2) echoes Isaiah 6:13.
• ¶Ezra 10:15; 1 Esdras 9:14: Did Jonathan and Jahzeiah oppose the measure or carry it out?The Hebrew 'amdu 'al-zot means "stood against this" or "stood over this." Most modern translations: they opposed it. The KJV: they "were employed about this matter." The library's Greek and 1 Esdras make them Ezra's helpers.
• ¶Ezra 10:3, 44; 1 Esdras 9:36: The last verse of Ezra: what happened to the children?Ezra's last sentence is grammatically difficult: "and some of them had wives, and they set (?) sons." Translations make it "by whom they had children." 1 Esdras 9:36 ends instead: "and they put them away with their children."
• ¶Ezra 1–10 and 1 Esdras 1–9: Ezra and 1 Esdras: two editions of one story1 Esdras (Greek Esdras A) is not a translation of Ezra but a separate retelling. It starts with Josiah's Passover, reorders Ezra 4, adds the contest of the three bodyguards in which Zerubbabel praises truth, and ends with Ezra's reading of the law from Nehemiah 8. The bodyguards story has no Hebrew original.