This decree appears in Aramaic, the official language of the Persian Empire, in the Hebrew Bible.
The king appointed Ezra as the person responsible to him for the affairs conducted in the Jewish community in Judah. He held a position in the Persian court equivalent to Secretary of State for Jewish Affairs.111This decree encouraged any Jews in exile to return to their land (vv. 12-13).
"The Persians had respect for the laws of other nations as long as they did not conflict with their own.
"We know from the Elephantine papyri that a whole colony of Jews lived in the south of Egypt. The greatest concentration of Jews, however, was in Babylon and vicinity."112
Moreover Artaxerxes' decree promised provisions for the temple worship (vv. 14-20), authorized Ezra to withdraw funds from the provincial treasury (vv. 21-23; cf. 4:12), and permitted him to establish judicial and educational systems in Judah (vv. 24-26). The reason Artaxerxes permitted all this was evidently so there would be peace and good will among his Jewish subjects and so he might appease Yahweh's wrath (v. 23).
"In 460 B.C. the confederation of Greek cities under Athenian leadership known as the Attic-Delic League sent a fleet of 200 war galleys against Persia in the Cypriot seas. This fleet sailed to Egypt, gained a great victory over the Persian army there and captured Memphis in the autumn of 459. This placed the coast of Palestine and Phoenecia into Greek hands as the only possible route from Ionia to Egypt.
"It was in 458, immediately after the fall of Memphis to the Greeks, that Ezra the Judean courtier was sent to Judea to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem' (7, 14) and to reorganize and strengthen this traditional enemy of the Philistines. From the point of view of the Persian king a strong pro-Persian Judea was a major threat to the Greek coastal lifeline, and as long as the Greeks dominated the coast and Egypt he supported a strong Judean province headed by a Judean-Persian official and peopled by a pro-Persian population, most of whose families were hostages in Babylon and Persia. The war in Phoenicia continued with battles in Cyprus and Egypt until the peace of Callias in 448 B.C. which put an end to the war between Persia and Greece."113
The "utensils"(v. 19) for the temple may have been some that Cyrus had overlooked (6:5), or perhaps they were gifts from Artaxerxes. Probably Artaxerxes granted provisions for the exiles as they returned to Jerusalem, not just for them after they had returned (vv. 21-22).114Jewish temple employees received special tax exemption (v. 24; cf. 2:43). Ezra was officially responsible to teach the Jews God's law (v. 25), and the king paid him to do so.
"Thus Ezra comes to Jerusalem as the real implementation of the Cyrus decree and his function is to establish an acceptable means of worship whereby Yahweh's lordship over Judah and the whole world (in terms of the extravagance of the Cyrus decree) may be realized and the kingship of God reasserted."115
