Category: Ezra

This final chapter is a difficult one. The Judeans see Ezra mourning, and they not only confess their sin of intermarrying with foreigners, they vow to ‘put away’ their foreign wives and children. “Shecaniah… addressed Ezra: ‘We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but…

In this powerful chapter, Ezra finds out the returned exiles have once more begun intermarrying with their unclean neighbors, which is forbidden by God’s law. God knows that the abominable pagan practices of their neighbors will turn their hearts away from Him. Grief struck, Ezra begins mourning and praying on behalf of his people. “O…

This chapter describes the assembly of Israelites who accompanied Ezra to Jerusalem. “Then I proclaimed a fast… that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey… For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our…

This chapter introduces Ezra the priest, a direct descendant from Moses’ brother Aaron. He is commissioned by the current king of Persia, Artaxerxes, to take whatever resources God desires to Judah. He is to ensure that the people of God know and uphold the law, of which he is the chief scribe / keeper. “Blessed…

In this chapter the persecution from Judah’s enemies backfires, and Darius (King of Persia) decrees they are to provide everything Judah needs in order to complete their work on the temple and celebrate the Passover. “On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. It was eaten by the people…

This chapter describes the events around the renewed effort to rebuild the temple. “Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah… prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel… and Jeshua… arose and began to rebuild the house of God that…

This chapter informs us of opposition against the rebuilding of the temple. “Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia….

This chapter contains the first stage of rebuilding the altar and temple. “And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the…

This chapter contains a ledger of the Judeans/Israelites who returned to Judah and begin rebuilding the temple. “Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his…

The kingdom of Israel has been in Assyrian exile, and the kingdom of Judah was taken into Babylonian exile. Babylon was recently conquered by Persia, so there’s a new king (Cyrus) overseeing Judah’s captivity. 2 Chr 22-23 tells us that God leads Persia’s King Cyrus’ to send someone back to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem….