Ezra 1:3-5

1:3 Anyone from ¹  his people among you (may his God be with him!) may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may build the temple of the Lord God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 1:4 Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors ²  with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ³  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ⁴  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁵ 

Ezra 3:2

3:2 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak ⁶  and his priestly colleagues ⁷  and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues ⁸  started to build ⁹  the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by ¹⁰  the law of Moses the man of God.

Ezra 3:9

3:9 So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, ¹¹  Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Yehudah ¹² ), to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their relatives ¹³  the Levites.

Ezra 6:22

6:22 They observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had given them joy and had changed the opinion ¹⁴  of the king of Assyria ¹⁵  toward them, so that he assisted ¹⁶  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 10:1

The People Confess Their Sins

10:1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites – men, women, and children alike – gathered around him. The people wept loudly. ¹⁷ 

Ezra 10:6

10:6 Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ¹⁸  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

Ezra 10:9

10:9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin were gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. (It was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of that month.) All the people sat in the square at the temple of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.

¹ tn Heb “from all.”

² tn Heb “the men of his place.”

³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “arose.”

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁴ sn Jozadak (also in 3:8) is a variant spelling of Jehozadak.

⁵ tn Heb “his brothers the priests.”

⁶ tn Heb “his brothers.”

⁷ tn Heb “arose and built.”

⁸ tn Heb “written in.” Cf. v. 4.

⁵ tn Heb “brothers.”

⁶ sn The name יְהוּדָה (Yehudah; cf. KJV, ASV, NASB “Judah”) is probably a variant of Hodaviah (see Ezra 2:40; cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁷ tn Heb “brothers.”

⁶ tn Heb “heart.”

⁷ sn The expression “king of Assyria” is anachronistic, since Assyria fell in 612 b.c., long before the events of this chapter. Perhaps the expression is intended subtly to contrast earlier kings of Assyria who were hostile toward Israel with this Persian king who showed them favor.

⁸ tn Heb “to strengthen their hands.”

⁷ tn Heb “with much weeping.”

⁸ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.