Ezra 10:11

10:11 Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ¹  and from these foreign wives.”

Ezra 7:27

7:27 ² Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

Ezra 8:28

8:28 Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

Ezra 5:12

5:12 But after our ancestors ³  angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands ⁴  of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon. ⁵ 

Ezra 9:7

9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ⁶  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ⁷  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

Ezra 4:15

4:15 so that he may initiate a search of the records ⁸  of his predecessors ⁹  and discover in those records ¹⁰  that this city is rebellious ¹¹  and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts ¹²  from long ago. ¹³  It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed.

Ezra 10:16

10:16 So the exiles proceeded accordingly. Ezra the priest separated out ¹⁴  by name men who were leaders in their family groups. ¹⁵  They sat down to consider this matter on the first day of the tenth month,

Ezra 8:1

The Leaders Who Returned with Ezra

8:1 These are the leaders ¹⁶  and those enrolled with them by genealogy who were coming up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

Ezra 1:5

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ¹⁷  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ¹⁸  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁹ 

Ezra 2:59

2:59 These are the ones that came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify ²⁰  their family connection ²¹  or their ancestry, ²²  as to whether they really were from Israel):

Ezra 3:12

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ²³  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ²⁴  – were weeping loudly, ²⁵  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

Ezra 8:29

8:29 Be careful with them and protect them, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites and the family leaders of Israel in Jerusalem, ²⁶  in the storerooms of the temple of the Lord.”

Ezra 4:2-3

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ²⁷  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ²⁸  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ²⁹  from the time ³⁰  of King Esarhaddon ³¹  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³²  4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ³³  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 2:68

2:68 When they came to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders ³⁴  offered voluntary offerings for the temple of God in order to rebuild ³⁵  it on its site.

¹ tn Heb “the peoples of the land.”

² sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.

³ tn Aram “fathers.”

⁴ tn Aram “hand” (singular).

⁵ sn A reference to the catastrophic events of 586 b.c.

⁴ tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.

⁵ tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”

⁵ tn Aram “the book of the minutes.”

⁶ tn Aram “of your fathers.”

⁷ tn Aram “discover…and learn.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

⁸ tn Aram “is a rebellious city.”

⁹ tn Aram “revolts they are making in its midst.”

¹⁰ tn Aram “from olden days.” So also in v. 19.

⁶ tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּבְדֵּל לוֹ (vayyavdel lo, “separated for himself”) rather than the Niphal plural וַיִּבָּדְלוּ (vayyibbadÿlu, “were separated”) of the MT.

⁷ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”

⁷ tn Heb “the heads of their families.”

⁸ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁹ tn Heb “arose.”

¹⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Heb “relate.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

¹¹ tn Heb “their seed.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

¹¹ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

¹² tn Heb “with a great voice.”

¹¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

¹³ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

¹⁴ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

¹⁵ tn Heb “days.”

¹⁶ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

¹⁷ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

¹³ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “cause it to stand.”