Ezra 7:1

The Arrival of Ezra

7:1 Now after these things had happened, during the reign of King Artaxerxes ¹  of Persia, Ezra came up from Babylon. ²  Ezra was the son of Seraiah, who was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Hilkiah,

Ezra 7:10-11

7:10 Now Ezra had dedicated himself ³  to the study of the law of the Lord, to its observance, and to teaching ⁴  its statutes and judgments in Israel.

Artaxerxes Gives Official Endorsement to Ezra’s Mission

7:11 What follows ⁵  is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priestly scribe. ⁶  Ezra was ⁷  a scribe in matters pertaining to the commandments of the Lord and his statutes over Israel:

Ezra 10:5

10:5 So Ezra got up and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath to carry out this plan. ⁸  And they all took a solemn oath.

Ezra 10:10

10:10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel.

Ezra 7:6

7:6 This Ezra is the one who came up from Babylon. He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king supplied him with everything he requested, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

Ezra 10:1-2

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. ⁹  10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ¹⁰  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ¹¹  foreign women from the local peoples. ¹²  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ¹³ 

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 ¹⁴  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

Ezra 10:16

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

¹ sn If the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7:1 is Artaxerxes I Longimanus (ca. 464–423 B.C.), Ezra must have arrived in Jerusalem ca. 458 B.C., since Ezra 7:7-8 connects the time of his arrival to the seventh year of the king. The arrival of Nehemiah is then linked to the twentieth year of the king (Neh 1:1), or ca. 445 B.C. Some scholars, however, have suggested that Ezra 7:7 should be read as “the thirty-seventh year” rather than “the seventh year.” This would have Ezra coming to Jerusalem after, rather than before, the arrival of Nehemiah. Others have taken the seventh year of Ezra 7:7-8 to refer not to Artaxerxes I but to Artaxerxes II, who ruled ca. 404–358 B.C. In this understanding Ezra would have returned to Jerusalem ca. 398 B.C., a good many years after the return of Nehemiah. Neither of these views is certain, however, and it seems better to retain the traditional understanding of the chronological sequence of returns by Ezra and Nehemiah. With this understanding there is a gap of about fifty-eight years between chapter six, which describes the dedication of the temple in 516 b.c., and chapter seven, which opens with Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem in 458 b.c.

² tn The words “came up from Babylon” do not appear in the Hebrew text until v. 6. They have been supplied here for the sake of clarity.

³ tn Heb “established his heart.”

⁴ tn Heb “to do and to teach.” The expression may be a hendiadys, in which case it would have the sense of “effectively teaching.”

⁵ tn Heb “this.”

⁶ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.” So also in v. 21.

⁷ tn The words “Ezra was” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “to do according to this plan.”

⁹ tn Heb “with much weeping.”

¹¹ tc The translation reads with the Qere, many medieval Hebrew MSS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate עֵילָם (’elam, “Elam”) rather than the reading עוֹלָם (’olam, “eternity”) found in the MT.

¹² tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

¹³ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “upon this.”

¹³ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”