Ezra 7 commentary

EZRA 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes
king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of
Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
BAR ES, "After these things - The words mark an interval of 57 years; if, with
most commentators, we take Artaxerxes to be Longimanus. See the introduction to the
Book of Ezra. Three kings named Artaxerxes, the Greek rendering of the Hebrew
Artakhshasta, and the Persian Artakhshatra, ruled over Persia, namely,: Longimanus,
Mnemon, and Ochus. The evidence is in favor of the first being meant here: he was the
grandson of Darius Hystaspis, Jeshua’s contemporary.
The genealogy of Ezra here is incomplete. The time between the Exodus and Ezra must
have exceeded one thousand years, and cannot have been covered by 16 generations.
One gap may be filled up from 1Ch_6:7-10, which supplies six names between Meraioth
and Azariah Ezr_7:3 : another gap probably occurs between Seraiah Ezr_7:1 and Ezra
himself; since Seraiah appears to be the high priest of Zedekiah’s time (marginal
reference), who lived at least 130 years before Ezra. Three or four names are probably
missing in this place. Another name (Meraioth) may be supplied from 1Ch_9:11,
between Zadok and Ahitub Ezr_7:2. These additions would produce 27 generations - a
number nearly sufficient - instead of 16 generations.
CLARKE, "In the reign of Artaxerxes - This was Artaxerxes Longimanus, the
seventh of whose reign chronologers place A.M. 3547, sixty-eight years after Cyrus had
sent back Zerubbabel. - Calmet. See the introduction.
Son of Seraiah - Either this could not have been Seraiah the high priest, who had
been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar one hundred and twenty-one years before this
time, or the term son here must signify only his descendants, or one of his descendants.
Were it otherwise, Ezra must now be at least one hundred and twenty-two years of age,
supposing him to have been born in the year of his father’s death; if, indeed Seraiah the
high priest was his father; but this is evidently impossible. In this place there are only
sixteen generations reckoned between Ezra and Aaron, but in 1Ch_6:3, 1Ch_6:4, etc.,
there are not less than twenty-two. We must therefore supply the deficient generations
from the above place, between Amariah son of Meraioth, 1Ch_6:7, and Azariah the son
of Johanan, 1Ch_6:10. There are other discrepancies relative to genealogies in these
historical books which it would be useless to investigate. On these differences much has

been already said in different parts of this comment.
GILL, "Now after these things,.... The finishing of the temple, and the dedication of
it, and keeping the passover:
in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia; in the seventh year of his reign, Ezr_7:7,
who is the same with Darius in the preceding chapter; so Jarchi and Aben Ezra; See Gill
on Ezr_6:14.
Ezra the son of Seraiah; the high priest slain by Nebuchadnezzar Jer_52:24, this
Ezra was a younger son of his, brother to Josedech, and uncle to Joshua, who were high
priests in succession; his pedigree is carried in the ascending line up to Aaron, in this
and the four following verses; only six generations, for brevity sake, are omitted,
between Azariah and Meraioth, which may be supplied from 1Ch_6:7; see Gill on 1Ch_
6:3.
HE RY, "Here is, I. Ezra's pedigree. He was one of the sons of Aaron, a priest. Him
God chose to be an instrument of good to Israel, that he might put honour upon the
priesthood, the glory of which had been much eclipsed by the captivity. He is said to be
the son of Seraiah, that Seraiah, as is supposed, whom the king of Babylon put to death
when he sacked Jerusalem, 2Ki_25:18, 2Ki_25:21. If we take the shortest computation,
it was seventy-five years since Seraiah died; many reckon it much longer, and, because
they suppose Ezra called out in the prime of his time to public service, do therefore think
that Seraiah was not his immediate parent, but his grandfather or great-grandfather, but
that he was the first eminent person that occurred in his genealogy upwards, which is
carried up here as high as Aaron, yet leaving out many for brevity-sake, which may be
supplied from 1Ch_6:4, etc. He was a younger brother, or his father was Jozadak, the
father of Jeshua, so that he was not high priest, but nearly allied to the high priest.
JAMISO , "Ezr_7:1-10. Ezra goes up to Jerusalem.
in the reign of Artaxerxes — the Ahasuerus of Esther.
Ezra the son of Seraiah — that is, grandson or great-grandson. Seraiah was the
high priest put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah (2Ki_25:18). A period of one
hundred thirty years had elapsed between that catastrophe and the journey of Ezra to
Jerusalem. As a grandson of Seraiah, namely, Jeshua, who held the office of high priest,
had accompanied Zerubbabel in the first caravan of returning exiles, Ezra must have
been in all probability a grandson, descended, too, from a younger son, the older branch
being in possession of the pontificate.
K&D, "Ezr_7:1-10 form the introduction to the narrative which follows of Ezra's
return to Jerusalem and his ministry there, and speak in general terms of himself and
his arrival at Jerusalem with a band of exiles. They are followed, vv. 11-26, by a copy of
the royal commission, and a thanksgiving, Ezr_7:27, Ezr_7:28, on the part of Ezra, for
the mercy of God bestowed upon him.
Ezr_7:1-6

What follows is slightly combined with the former occurrences by the formula “after
these things,” without any more exact chronological definition; comp. Gen_15:1; Gen_
22:1, and elsewhere. Between the dedication of the temple in the sixth year of Darius and
the arrival of Ezra in Jerusalem, a period of fifty-seven years had elapsed. “In the reign
of Artachshasta king of Persia, went up Ezra,” etc. The verb of the subject ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫ע‬ does not
follow till Ezr_7:6, where, after the interposition of the long genealogy, Ezr_7:1-5, the
distant subject is again taken up in ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ז‬ ֶ‫ע‬ ‫.הוּא‬ It is all but universally agreed that
Artaxerxes Longimanus is intended by ‫א‬ ָ ְ‫ס‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ ְ‫ר‬ፍ; the explanation of this appellation as
Xerxes in Joseph. Antiq. xi. 5. 1, for which Fritzsche (on 1 Esdr. 8:1) has recently
decided, being a mere conjecture on the part of that not very critical historian. The fact
that the Artachshasta of the book of Nehemiah (Neh_1:1; Neh_5:14; Neh_13:6) can be
no other than Artaxerxes, is decisive of this point: for in Neh_13:6 the thirty-second year
of Artachshasta is mentioned; while according to Neh_8:9; Neh_12:26, Neh_12:36, Ezra
and Nehemiah jointly exercised their respective offices at Jerusalem.
(Note: Very superficial are the arguments, and indeed the whole pamphlet, Etude
Chronologique des livres d'Esdras et de Néhémie, Paris 1868, p. 40, etc., by which F.
de Saulcy tries to show that the Artachshasta of Ezra 7 and of Nehemiah is
Artaxerxes II (Mnemon).)
Ezra is called Ben Seraiah, whose pedigree is traced to Eleazar the son of Aaron; Seraiah
the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, was the father of Josedec the high priest carried
into captivity (1Ch_6:14, etc.), and was himself the high priest whom Nebuchadnezzar
slew at Riblah (2Ki_25:18-21). Between the execution of Seraiah in the year 588 and the
return of Ezra from Babylon in 458 b.c., there is a period of 130 years. Hence Ezra could
have been neither the son nor grandson of Seraiah, but only his great or great-great-
grandson. When we consider that Joshua, or Jeshua (Ezr_2:2), the high priest who
returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel, was the grandson of Seraiah, we cannot but
regard Ezra, who returned thence 78 years later, as a great-great-grandson of Seraiah.
Moreover, we are justified in inferring from the fact that Ezra is not, like Joshua,
designated as Ben Josedech, that he did not descend from that line of Seraiah in which
the high-priestly dignity was hereditary, but from a younger son, and hence that his
immediate ancestors were not (though his forefathers from Seraiah upwards were) of
high-priestly descent. Hence the names of Ezra's ancestors from Seraiah up to Aaron
(Ezr_7:1-5) agree also with the genealogy of the high-priestly race (1Ch_6:4-14), with
the one deviation that in Ezr_7:3, between Azariah and Meraioth, six members are
passed over, as is frequently the case in the longer genealogies, for the sake of shortening
the list of names. - In v. 6 Ezra, for the sake of at once alluding to the nature of his office,
is designated ‫בת‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ֵ‫ּוף‬‫ס‬ ‫,ר‬ a scribe skilful in the law of Moses. The word ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ּופ‬‫ס‬ means in
older works writer or secretary; but even so early as Jer_8:8 the lying pen of the ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ְ‫ּפ‬‫ס‬ is
spoken of, and here therefore ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ּופ‬‫ס‬ has already attained the meaning of one learned in the
Scripture, one who has made the written law a subject of investigation. Ezra is, however,
the first of whom the predicate ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ּופ‬ ַ‫,ה‬ ᆇ γραµµατεύς, is used as a title. He is so called also
in the letter of Artaxerxes (Ezr_7:11), because he is said (Ezr_7:9) to have applied his
heart to seek out and to do the law of the Lord, and to teach in Israel statutes and
judgment, i.e., because he had made the investigation of the law, for the sake of
introducing the practice of the same among the congregation, his life-task; and the king
granted him all his desire, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. The

peculiar expression ‫יו‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫ע‬ ‫יו‬ ָ‫ּה‬‫ל‬ ֱ‫א‬ ‫יהוה‬ ‫ד‬ַ‫י‬ ְⅴ which is found only here and in Ezr_7:9, Ezr_7:28,
Ezr_8:18; Neh_2:8, Neh_2:18, and in a slightly altered guise in Ezr_8:22, Ezr_8:31,
“according to the good hand of his God, which was over him,” means: according to the
divine favour or divine care arranging for him; for the hand of God is ‫ה‬ ָ‫וב‬ ַ‫,ה‬ the good
(Ezr_7:9, and Ezr_8:18), or ‫ה‬ ָ‫ּוב‬‫ט‬ ְ‫,ל‬ Ezr_8:22. ‫ה‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ָ ַ , the desire, request, demand, occurs
only here and in the book of Esther.
COKE, "Ver. 1. Ezra the son of Seraiah— He calls himself here, according to the Hebrew
idiom, the son of Seraiah, who was the high-priest that Nebuchadnezzar caused to be
slain at the taking of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:18; 2 Kings 25:30.; but had he been his real
son, he must then have been at least one hundred and thirty-two years old, supposing
him to have been an infant when his father died; and so wholly unfit for such a journey
and employment: whereas we find him capable of reading the Scriptures to the people
from morning till noon, one whole week; and of assisting Nehemiah in his office thirteen
years after, when he must have been at least one hundred and forty-five years old; but
since he there also calls Azariah the son of Meraioth, though it appears from 1 Chronicles
6:7; 1 Chronicles 6:81 that there were six descendants between them, it becomes very
probable that he may himself have been some descents off Seraiah, though it does not
appear how many.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
U DER ARTAXERXES I; EZRA RETUR S FROM BABYLO
"After these things in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia ..."
This verse establishes the chronology of this chapter which features Ezra's journey
from Babylon to Jerusalem, but the problem centers in the question of just which
one of the two kings of Persia named Artaxerxes is the one spoken of here.
Those kings were Artaxerxes I (Longimanus) who reigned 465-425 B.C., and
Artaxerxes II (Mnemon) who ruled in 405(4) to 358 B.C. Depending upon which one
of these monarchs was meant, there is a gap between Ezra 6 and Ezra 7 here of
either 58 years or 117 years. There is a sharp disagreement among scholars on this.
C. F. Keil,[1] Merrill F. Unger,[2] Henry H. Halley,[3] John C. Whitcomb, Jr.,[4] F.
C. Cook,[5] and Stephen S. Short[6] affirm that Artaxerxes I is the monarch
mentioned; and Raymond A. Bowman[7] and Emmett Willard Hamrick[8]
designate Artaxerxes II as the ruler spoken of here. H. G. M. Williamson in his
award winning commentary (in 1985) made no choice between them writing that,
"Assuming that this king is Artaxerxes I (465-425 B.C.), `after these things' covers
some fifty-seven years (much more, of course, if Artaxerxes II is intended)."[9] This
writer's opinion is that the evidence strongly favors Artaxerxes I.
In the interval indicated by the words "after these things," Ahasuerus had ruled,
during which the events centering around the names of Mordecai and Esther had
occurred; and some scholars have supposed that Esther's influence might have been
a factor in the favorable attitude of Artaxerxes I.

Ezra 7:1-10
THE ABBREVIATED GE EALOGY OF EZRA
"Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum,
the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son
of Meraioth, the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, the son of
Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest -
this Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses,
which Jehovah, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his
request, according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him. And there went up
some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers,
and the porters, and the ethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of
Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the
seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month began he to go up
from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem,
according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to seek
the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances."
The events centered around the name of Ezra must be accounted among the most
wonderful things that ever happened to God's people. The immense dimensions of
Ezra's request of Artaxerxes stagger the imagination; and the authority given to
Ezra by that monarch, making him, in fact, ruler of the entire province beyond the
River, with the power of life and death to enforce his reforms appears to have been
directly the result of Divine favor and intervention, as positively indicated by Ezra's
thanksgiving at the end of the chapter. It seems quite unlikely that Ezra's `request'
would have included all that the king gave, unless the request came following the
king's decision to turn the government of the satrapy over to Ezra.
The purpose of this genealogy is to show the importance of Ezra as a direct
descendant of the great High Priest Aaron. It is also significant that he had a copy of
the Law of Moses (Ezra 7:14); and this, we may believe, was also true of many
faithful descendants of Aaron through the long centuries between the Exodus and
the return from Babylon, making it utterly impossible for any forged document
such as the so-called P Code to have been fraudulently imposed upon Israel. That
Ezra was in full possession of the Torah indicates the preservation of it through the
ages.
"Priests, Levites, singers, porters, ethinim, ..." (Ezra 7:6). Oesterley wrote that,
"That all these various classifications of Israelites should have been available to
return with Ezra witnesses a considerable communal organization among the Jews
during their captivity."[10]
"On the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the frst
day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem" (Ezra 7:9). All of this journey
occurred in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I; and Whitcomb gave the date of this

journey as being, "From March 27 to July 24,457 B.C., a journey of exactly four
months."
"The direct distance between Babylon and Jerusalem is about 520 miles; but the
circuitous route usually followed by armies or other large groups was not direct, but
went through Carchemish and the Orontes Valley, a distance of about 900
miles."[11]
That Ezra and his company required 120 days to complete this journey, averaging
only about eight miles a day was probably due to the dangers encountered and other
difficulties associated with moving a large number of people.
BE SO , "Ezra 7:1. In the reign of Artaxerxes — The same of whom he speaks
chap. Ezra 6:14. Ezra the son of Seraiah — Descended from him, but not
immediately. For Seraiah, being high-priest when Jerusalem was taken was then
slain by the Chaldeans, (2 Kings 25:18; 2 Kings 25:21,) at which time, it is likely,
Ezra was not in being: but he was his grandson, or great-grand-son, and his descent
is mentioned from him, because he was an eminent person, who flourished before
the destruction of the temple, whereas Ezra’s father, if not also his grandfather,
lived obscurely in captivity.
ELLICOTT, "(1) After these things.—Fifty-seven years after: this special phrase is
here alone used. During the interval we must place the events of the Book of Esther.
Ezra the son of Seraiah.—His lineage is given, as frequently in Scripture,
compendiously, and according to the genealogical law which makes every ancestor a
“father” and every descendant a “son.” We know not the reason why certain names
supplied in 1 Chronicles 6 are here omitted; but Seraiah is claimed as the father of
Ezra because he was the eminent high priest who last ministered in Solomon’s
Temple and was slain at Riblah (2 Kings 25:18). The links wanting in the lineage are
easily supplied.
CO STABLE, "Ezra"s background7:1-10
"These things" ( Ezra 7:1) refers to the events of the first return that the writer
described in chapters1-6.
Ezra"s genealogy ( Ezra 7:1-5) shows that he was a man of importance whom his
fellow Jews would have respected. His name is a shortened form of " Prayer of
Azariah ," meaning "Yahweh helps." He was a descendant of Aaron, the first high
priest of Israel ( Ezra 7:5). There are gaps in this genealogy (cf. 1 Chronicles 6:3-15).
"Son of" occasionally means "descendant of," as elsewhere in the Old Testament.
[ ote: L. H. Brockington, Ezra , ehemiah and Esther , p70; Fensham, The Books .
. ., p79; et al.] The purpose of this linear genealogy was not to record all of Ezra"s
ancestors but to trace his lineage from Aaron.

A "scribe" ( Ezra 7:6) was a person who functioned as a copier, writer, and
communicator. Scribes fulfilled various roles before the exile. These included
military officer ( Judges 5:14; 2 Kings 25:19), messenger of the king ( 2 Kings
18:18), secretary to the king ( 2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Samuel 20:25), clerk, and writer (
Jeremiah 36:26; Jeremiah 36:32). In the Gospels we have many references to
scribes. In Jesus" day they were primarily students and teachers of the Law. In
Ezra"s time this specialized function of the scribe was developing. Ezra himself, as a
scribe and priest, was able to teach the Law (cf. Leviticus 10:11; ehemiah 8:1-9;
ehemiah 8:13). He also enjoyed special divine protection and enablement ( Ezra
7:6; cf. Ezra 7:9; cf. Ezra 7:28; Ezra 8:18; Ezra 8:22; Ezra 8:31). [ ote: Judah J.
Slotki, Daniel ,, Ezra ,, ehemiah , p150.]
"The wise scribe followed an honored profession in which he might take pride (
Sirach 38:24-34). His was the highest privilege and virtue: to study the law, to
meditate on it and apply it to life (cf. Psalm 1; Psalm 19:7-14; Psalm 119)." [ ote:
Bright, pp424-25.]
Ezra and his companions left Babylon in the spring of458 B.C. The Jewish month of
isan corresponds to our late March and early April.
"It is emphasized that the date of departure from Babylon was carefully calculated
to take place on the first day of the first month, though in the event they could leave
only on the twelfth day due to the need to recruit Levites ( Ezra 8:31). While the
point is not made explicitly, this arrangement implies that the Ezra caravan, like the
Israelites of old, marked their departure with the celebration of Passover (cf Exodus
12:1; umbers 33:3), and that therefore this second episode in the restoration of the
commonwealth begins in the same way that the first ends." [ ote: Joseph
Blenkinsopp, "A Theological Reading of Ezra - ehemiah." Proceedings of the Irish
Biblical Association12 (1989):29.]
Ezra and his fellow travelers completed their900-mile journey exactly four months
later ( Ezra 7:8-9) because of God"s enablement ( Ezra 7:9). [ ote: J. Stafford
Wright, The Date of Ezra"s Coming to Jerusalem, pp17-28. Cf. K. Koch, "Ezra and
the Origins of Judaism," Journal of Semitic Studies19:2 (1974):173-97; and Frank
M. Cross, "A Reconstruction of the Judean Restoration," Interpretation29:2
(1975):194.]
Ezra"s personal resolve provides an excellent example for every believer ( Ezra
7:10). He first purposed to study (lit. seek) the law (Heb. torah) of God, then to
apply that teaching to his own life, and then to teach others the revealed will of God.
This was the key to Ezra"s impact. "Torah" means "instruction," and it describes
the Law of Moses, the Book of Deuteronomy , the Pentateuch, and the whole Old
Testament in various places in Scripture. Here it probably refers to all the revealed
will of God that Ezra had, all the scrolls of the Old Testament sacred writings to
which he had access.
"The order is very significant, for you cannot effectively practice what you have not

thoroughly learned, and you cannot convincingly teach what you have not
practically applied." [ ote: Laney, p52.]
"One called by God to teach must also study and obey." [ ote: Breneman, p130. Cf.
McConville, p47; Steven J. Lawson, "The Pattern of Biblical Preaching: An
Expository Study of Ezra 7:10 and ehemiah 8:1-18 ," Bibliotheca Sacra158:632
(October-December2001):451-66.]
PETT, "Ezra Comes To Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1-10).
Almost sixty years after the completion of the Temple, Ezra arrived in Jerusalem as
an Expert in the Law of Moses, eager to teach it to the worshippers of YHWH, and
accompanied by many Israelite exiles who had been given permission to return. It
will be noted that Ezra 7:1-26 are written in the third person (‘he’). It is clear why
from the introduction. Ezra is presenting his report to the king with due formality.
There was no better way for a Jew to reveal his status than by outlining his
genealogy. Without excessive boasting it revealed his pedigree and would impress
those who heard because it connected him with the ancients. Thus the following
narrative continued the note of formality, leading up to the king’s commission. The
change to the first person is initiated by Ezra’s cry of praise and gratitude to God,
and that continues until he comes to the end of his report in chapter 10 when he
demonstrates how he and the people have fulfilled the king’s commission..
Ezra 7:1-5
‘ ow after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of
Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, the son of
Zadok, the son of Ahitub, the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of
Meraioth, the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, the son of Abishua,
the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest,’
‘After these things’ is a loose way of indicating that what is described comes
chronologically after what has previously been described. It gives no indication of
what the time gap between them might be, and in fact what has been described in
the previous narrative had dealt with matters up to the reign of Artaxerxes (Ezra
4:11; Ezra 4:23).
ote how Ezra’s pedigree is listed in detail, drawing attention to his direct descent
from Eleazar, the son of Aaron. Apart from the omission of a few names, which was
common practise in ancient genealogies, it coincides with that in 1 Chronicles 6:1-
15. Whether Seraiah was his actual father or grandfather, named after the Seraiah
from whom he was descended (1 Chronicles 6:14), or whether he was simply that
well known ancestor, it is impossible at this stage to determine. Probably the former
is true. The aim of the genealogy was, of course, in order to establish Ezra’s
credentials as a son of Zadok (the High Priest in David’s day whose descendants
were approved by Ezekiel 43:19; Ezekiel 44:15), who was the son of Eleazar (the
High Priest in Joshua’s day), the son of the first Priest, Aaron, here called ‘the chief

priest’.
It has been argued that Zadok was not the son of Ahitub, as it was Ahimelech who
was the son of Ahitub (1 Samuel 22:9). But it is noteworthy that the same phrase is
used of Zadok in 2 Samuel 8:17. There is no reason at all why Zadok’s father should
not have been called Ahitub. This book itself is a witness to how often the same
name appears with reference to different people.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "EZRA’S EXPEDITIO
Ezra 7:1-8
LIKE the earlier pilgrimage of Zerubbabel and his companions, Ezra’s great
expedition was carried out under a commission from the Persian monarch of his
day. The chronicler simply calls this king "Artaxerxes" (Artahshashta), a name
borne by three kings of Persia, but there can be no reasonable doubt that his
reference is to the son and successor of Xerxes - known by the Greeks as
"Macrocheir," and by the Romans as "Longimanus"-Artaxerxes "of the long
hand." for this Artaxerxes alone enjoyed a sufficiently extended reign to include
both the commencement of Ezra’s public work and the later scenes in the life of
ehemiah which the chronicler associates with the same king. Artaxerxes was but a
boy when he ascended the throne, and the mission of Ezra took place in his earlier
years, while the generous enthusiasm of the kindly sovereign-whose gentleness has
become historic-had not yet been crushed by the cares of empire. In accordance
with the usual style of our narrative, we have his decree concerning the Jews
preserved and transcribed in full; and yet here, as in other cases, we must make
some allowance either for the literary freedom of the chronicler, or for the Jewish
sympathies of the translator; for it cannot be supposed that a heathen, such as
Artaxerxes undoubtedly was, would have shown the knowledge of the Hebrew
religion, or have owned the faith in it, which the edict as we now have it suggests.
evertheless, here again, there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the
document, for it is quite in accord with the policy of the previous kings Cyrus and
Darius. and in its special features it entirely agrees with the circumstances of the
history.
This edict of Longimanus goes beyond any of its predecessors in favoring the Jews,
especially with regard to their religion. It is directly and personally addressed to
Ezra. whom the king may have known as an earnest, zealous leader of the Hebrew
community at Babylon, and through him it grants to all Jewish exiles who wish to go
up to Jerusalem liberty to return to the home of their fathers, it may be objected
that after the decree of Cyrus any such fresh sanction should not have been needed.
But two generations had passed away since the pilgrimage of the first body of
returning captives, and during this long time many things had happened to check
the free action of the Jews and to cast reproach upon their movements. For a great
expedition to start now without any orders from the reigning monarch might excite
his displeasure, and a subject people who were dependent for their very existence on

the good-will of an absolute sovereign would naturally hesitate before they ventured
to rouse his suspicions by undertaking any considerable migration on their own
account.
But Artaxerxes does much more than sanction the journey to Jerusalem; he furthers
the object of this journey with royal bounty, and he lays a very important
commission on Ezra, a commission which carries with it the power, if not the name,
of a provincial magistrate. In the first place, the edict authorises a state endowment
of the Jewish religion. Ezra is to carry great stores to the poverty-stricken
community at Jerusalem. These are made up in part of contributions from the
Babylonian Jews, in part of generous gifts from their friendly neighbours, and in
part of grants from the royal treasury. The temple has been rebuilt, and the funds
now accumulated are not like the bulk of those collected in the reign of Cyrus for a
definite object, the cost of which might be set down to the "Capital Account" in the
restoration of the Jews; they are destined in some measure for improvements to the
structure, but they are also to be employed in maintenance charges, especially in
supporting the costly services of the temple. Thus the actual performance of the
daily ritual at the Jerusalem sanctuary is to be kept up by means of the revenues of
the Persian Empire. Then, the edict proceeds to favour the priesthood by freeing
that order from the burden of taxation. This "clerical immunity," which suggests an
analogy with the privileges the Christian clergy prized so highly in the Middle Ages,
is an indirect form of increased endowment, but the manner in which the
endowment is granted calls especial attention to the privileged status of the order
that enjoys it. Thus the growing importance of the Jerusalem hierarchy is openly
fostered by the Persian king. Still further, Artaxerxes adds to his endowment of the
Jewish religion a direct legal establishment. Ezra is charged to see that the law of his
God is observed throughout the whole region extending up from the Euphrates to
Jerusalem. This can only be meant to apply to the Jews who were scattered over the
wide area, especially those of Syria. Still the mandate is startling enough, especially
when we take into account the heavy sanctions with which it is weighted, for Ezra
has authority given him to enforce obedience by excommunication, by fine, by
imprisonment, and even by the death-penalty. "The law of his God" is named side
by side with "the law of the king," [Ezra 7:26] and the two are to be obeyed equally.
Fortunately, owing to the unsettled condition of the country as well as to Ezra’s own
somewhat unpractical disposition, the reformer never seems to have put his great
powers fully to the test.
ow, as in the previous cases of Cyrus and Darius, we are confronted with the
question, How came the Persian king to issue such a decree? It has been suggested
that as Egypt was in revolt at the time, he desired to strengthen the friendly colony
at Jerusalem as a western bulwark. But, as we have seen in the case of Cyrus, the
Jews were too few and feeble to be taken much account of among the gigantic forces
of the vast empire; and, moreover, it was not the military fortification of Jerusalem-
certainly a valuable stronghold when well maintained-but the religious services of
the temple and the observance of The Law that this edict aimed at aiding and
encouraging. o doubt in times of unsettlement the king would behave most
favourably towards a loyal section of his people. Still, more must be assigned as an

adequate motive for his action. Ezra is charged as a special commissioner to
investigate the condition of the Jews in Palestine. He is to "inquire concerning
Judah and Jerusalem." [Ezra 7:14] Inasmuch as it was customary for the Persian
monarchs to send out inspectors from time to time to examine and report on the
condition of the more remote districts of their extensive empire, it has been
plausibly suggested that Ezra may have been similarly employed. But in the
chronicler’s report of the edict we read, immediately after the injunction to make
the investigation, an important addition describing how this was to be done, viz.,
"According to the law of thy God which is in thine hand," [Ezra 7:14] which shows
that Ezra’s inquiry was to be of a religious character, and as a preliminary to the
exaction of obedience to the Jewish law. It may be said that this clause was not a
part of the original decree, but the drift of the edict is religious throughout rather
than political, and therefore the clause in question is fully in harmony with its
character. There is one sentence which is of the deepest significance, if only we can
believe that it embodies an original utterance of the king himself-"Whatsoever is
commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of
heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?"
[Ezra 7:23] While his empire was threatened by dangerous revolts, Artaxerxes
seems to have desired to conciliate the God whom the most devout of his people
regarded with supreme awe.
What is more clear and at the same time more important is the great truth detected
by Ezra and recorded by him in a grateful burst of praise. Without any warning the
chronicler suddenly breaks off his own narrative, written in the third person, to
insert a narrative written by Ezra himself in the first person-beginning at Ezra 7:27
and continued down to Ezra 10:1-44. The scribe opens by blessing God "the Lord
God of our fathers," who had "put such a thing in the king’s heart as to beautify the
house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem." [Ezra 7:27] This, then, was a Divine
movement. It can only be accounted for by ascribing the original impulse to God.
atural motives of policy or of superstition may have been providentially
manipulated, but the hand that used them was the hand of God. The man who can
perceive this immense fact at the very outset of his career is fit for any enterprise.
His transcendent faith will carry him through difficulties that would be insuperable
to the worldly schemer.
Passing from the thought of the Divine influence on Artaxerxes. Ezra further
praises God because he has himself received "mercy before the king and his
counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes." [Ezra 7:28] This personal
thanksgiving is evidently called forth by the scribe’s consideration of the part
assigned to him in the royal edict. There was enough in that edict to make the head
of a self-seeking, ambitious man swim with vanity. But we can see from the first that
Ezra is of a higher character. The burning passion that consumes him has not a
particle of hunger for self-aggrandisement, it is wholly generated by devotion to the
law of his God. In the narrowness and bigotry that characterise his later conduct as
a reformer, some may suspect the action of that subtle self-will which creeps
unawares into the conduct of some of the noblest men. Still the last thing that Ezra
seeks, and the last thing that he cares for when it is thrust upon him, is the glory of

earthly greatness.
Ezra’s aim in leading the expedition may be gathered from the reflection of it in the
royal edict, since that edict was doubtless drawn up with the express purpose of
furthering the project of the favoured Jew. Ezra puts the beautifying of the temple
in the front of his grateful words of praise to God. But the personal commission
entrusted to Ezra goes much further. The decree significantly recognises the fact
that he is to carry up to Jerusalem a copy of the Sacred Law. It refers to "the law of
thy God which is in thine hand." [Ezra 7:14] We shall hear more of this hereafter.
Meanwhile it is important to see that the law, obedience to which Ezra is
empowered to exact, is to be conveyed by him to Jerusalem. Thus he is both to
introduce it to the notice of the people, and to see that it does not remain a dead
letter among them. He is to teach it to those who do not know it. [Ezra 7:25] At the
same time these people are distinctly separated from others, who are expressly
described as "all such as know the laws of thy God." [Ezra 7:25] This plainly
implies that both the Jerusalem Jews, and those west of the Euphrates generally,
were not all of them ignorant of the Divine Torah. Some of them, at all events, knew
the laws they were to be made to obey. Still they may not have possessed them in any
written form. The plural term "laws" is here used, while the written compilation
which Ezra carried up with him is described in the singular as "The Law." Ezra,
then, having searched out The Law and ‘tested it in his own experience, is now eager
to take it up to Jerusalem, and get it executed among his fellow-countrymen at the
religious metropolis as well as among the scattered Jews of the provincial districts.
His great purpose is to make what he believes to be the will of God known, and to
see that it is obeyed. The very idea of a Torah implies a Divine will in religion. It
presses upon our notice the often-forgotten fact that God has something to say to us
about our conduct, that when we are serving Him it is not enough to be zealous, that
we must also be obedient. Obedience is the keynote of Judaism. It is not less
prominent in Christianity. The only difference is that Christians are freed from the
shackles of a literal law in order that they may carry out "the law of liberty," by
doing the will of God from the heart as loyal disciples of Jesus Christ, so that for us,
as for the Jews, obedience is the most fundamental fact of religion. We can walk by
faith in the freedom of sons, but that implies that we have "the obedience of faith."
The ruling principle of our Lord’s life is expressed in the words "I delight to do Thy
will, O My God," and this must be the ruling principle in the life of every true
Christian.
Equipped with a royal edict, provided with rich contributions, inspired with a great
religious purpose, confident that the hand of his God was upon him, Ezra collected
his volunteers, and proceeded to carry out his commission with all practicable
speed. In his record of the journey, he first sets down a list of the families that
accompanied him. It is interesting to notice names that had occurred in the earlier
list of the followers of Zerubbabel, showing that some of the descendants of those
who refused to go on the first expedition took part in the second. They remind us of
Christiana and her children, who would not join the Pilgrim when he set out from
the City of Destruction, but who subsequently followed in his footsteps.

But there was little at Jerusalem to attract a new expedition, for the glamour which
had surrounded the first return, with a son of David at its head, had faded in
grievous disappointments, and the second series of pilgrims had to carry with them
the torch with which to rekindle the flames of devotion.
Ezra states that when he had marshalled his forces he spent three days with them by
a river called the "Ahava." apparently because it flowed by a town of that name.
The exact site of the camp cannot be determined, although it could not have been far
from Babylon, and the river must have been either one of the tributaries of the
Euphrates or a canal cut through its alluvial plain. The only plausible conjecture of
a definite site settles upon a place now known as Hit, in the neighbourhood of some
bitumen springs, and the interest of this place may be found in the fact that here the
usual caravan route leaves the fertile Valley of the Euphrates and plunges into the
waterless desert. Even if Ezra decided to avoid the difficult desert track, and to take
his heavy caravan round through orthern Syria by way of Aleppo and the Valley
of the Orontes-an extended journey which would account for the three months spent
on the road-it would still be natural for him to pause at the parting of the ways and
review the gathering host. One result of this review was the startling discovery that
there were no Levites in the whole company. We were struck with the fact that but a
very small and disproportionate number of these officials accompanied the earlier
pilgrimage of Zerubbabel, and we saw the probable explanation in the
disappointment if not the disaffection of the Levites at their degradation by Ezekiel.
The more rigid arrangement of Ezra’s edition of The Law, which gave them a
definite and permanent place in a second rank, below the priesthood, was not likely
to encourage them to volunteer for the new expedition. othing is more difficult
than self-effacement, even in the service of God.
There was a community of Levites at a place called "Casiphia," under the direction
of a leader named Iddo. It would be interesting to think that this community was
really a sort of Levitical college, a school of students of the Torah, but we have no
data to go upon in forming an opinion. One thing is certain. We cannot suppose that
the new edition of The Law had been drawn up in this community of the Levites,
because Ezra had started with it in his hand as the charter of his great enterprise;
nor, indeed, in any other Levitical college, because it was not at all according to the
mind of the Levites.
After completing his company by the addition of "the Levites," Ezra made a solemn
religious preparation for his journey. Like the Israelites after the defeat at Gibeah
in their retributive war with Benjamin; [ 20:26] like the penitent people at Mizpeh,
in the days of Samuel, when they put away their idols; [1 Samuel 7:6] like
Jehoshaphat and his subjects when rumours of a threatened invasion filled them
with apprehension, [2 Chronicles 20:3] -Ezra and his followers fasted and humbled
themselves before God in view of their hazardous undertaking. The fasting was a
natural sign of the humiliation, and this prostration before God was at once a
confession of sin and an admission of absolute dependence on His mercy. Thus the
people reveal themselves as the "poor in spirit" to whom our Lord directs His first
beatitude. They are those who humble themselves, and therefore those whom God

will exalt.
We must not confound this state of self-humiliation before God with the totally
different condition of abject fear which shrinks from danger in contemptible
cowardice. The very opposite to that is the attitude of these humble pilgrims. Like
the Puritan soldiers who became bold as lions before man in the day of battle, just
because they had spent the night in fasting and tears and self-abasement before
God, Ezra and his people rose from their penitential fast, calmly prepared to face all
dangers in the invincible might of God. There seems to have been some enemy
whom Ezra knew to be threatening his path, for when he got safely to the end of his
journey he gave thanks for God’s protection from this foe, [Ezra 8:31] and, in any
case, so wealthy a caravan as his was would provoke the cupidity of the roving
hordes of Bedouin that infested the Syrian wastes. Ezra’s first thought was to ask
for an escort, but he tells us that he was ashamed to do so, as this would imply
distrust in God. [Ezra 8:22] Whatever we may think of his logic, we must be struck
by his splendid faith, and the loyalty which would run a great risk rather than
suffer what might seem like dishonour to his God. Here was one of God’s heroes.
We cannot but connect the preliminary fast with this courageous attitude of Ezra’s.
So in tales of chivalry we read how knights were braced by prayer and fast and vigil
to enter the most terrible conflicts with talismans of victory. In an age of rushing
activity it is hard to find the hidden springs of strength in their calm retreats. The
glare of publicity starts us on the wrong track, by tempting us to advertise our own
excellences, instead of abasing ourselves in the dust before God. Yet is it not now as
true as ever that no boasted might of man can be in any way comparable to the
Divine strength which takes possession of those who completely surrender their wills
to God? Happy are they who have the grace to walk in the valley of humiliation, for
this leads to the armoury of supernatural power!
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "EZRA THE SCRIBE
Ezra 7:1-10
ALTHOUGH the seventh chapter of Ezra begins with no other indication of time
than the vague phrase " ow after these things," nearly sixty years had elapsed
between the events recorded in the previous chapter and the mission of Ezra here
described. We have no history of this long period. Zerubbabel passed into obscurity
without leaving any trace of his later years. He had accomplished his work, the
temple had been built; but the brilliant Messianic anticipations that had clustered
about him at the outset of his career were to await their fulfilment in a greater Son
of David, and people could afford to neglect the memory of the man who had only
been a sort of temporary trustee of the hope of Israel. We shall come across
indications of the effects of social trouble and religious decadence in the state of
Jerusalem as she appeared at the opening of this new chapter in her history. She
had not recovered a vestige of her ancient civic splendour; the puritan rigour with
which the returned exiles had founded a Church among the ruins of her political
greatness had been relaxed, so that the one distinguishing feature of the humble
colony was in danger of melting away in easy and friendly associations with

neighboring peoples. When it came, the revival of zeal did not originate in the Holy
City. It sprang up among the Jews at Babylon. The earlier movement in the reign of
Cyrus had arisen in the same quarter. The best of Judaism was no product of the
soil of Palestine; it was an exotic. The elementary "Torah" of Moses emerged from
the desert, with the learning of Egypt as its background, long before it was
cultivated at Jerusalem to blossom in the reformation of Josiah. The final edition of
The Law was shaped in the Valley of the Euphrates, with the literature and science
of Babylon to train its editors for their great task, though it may have received its
finishing touches in Jerusalem. These facts by no means obscure the glory of the
inspiration and Divine character of The Law. In its theology, in its ethics, in its
whole spirit and character, the Pentateuch is no more a product of Babylonian than
of Egyptian ideas. Its purity and elevation of character speak all the more
emphatically for its Divine origin when we take into account its corrupt
surroundings; it was like a white lily growing on a dung-heap.
Still it is important to notice that the great religious revival of Ezra’s time sprang up
on the plains of Babylon, not among the hills of Judah. This involves two very
different facts-the peculiar spiritual experience with which it commenced, and the
special literary and scientific culture in the midst of which it was shaped.
First, it originated in the experience of the captivity, in humiliation and loss, and
after long brooding over the meaning of the great chastisement. The exiles were like
poets who "learn in suffering what they teach in song." This is apparent in the
pathetic psalms of the same period, and in the writings of the visionary of Chebar,
who contributed a large share to the new movement in view of the re-establishment
of religious worship at Jerusalem.
Thus Jerusalem was loved by the exiles, the temple pictured in detail to the
imagination of men who never trod its sacred courts, and the sacrificial system most
carefully studied by people who had no means of putting it in practice. o doubt
The Law now represented an intellectual rather than a concrete form of religion. It
was an ideal. So long as the real is with us, it tends to depress the ideal by its
material bulk and weight. The ideal is elevated in the absence of the real. Therefore
the pauses of life are invaluable; by breaking through the iron routine of habit, they
give us scope for the growth of larger ideas that may lead to better attainments.
Secondly, this religious revival appeared in a centre of scientific and literary culture.
The Babylonians "had cultivated arithmetic, astronomy, history, chronology,
geography, comparative philology, and grammar." In astronomy they were so
advanced that they had mapped out the heavens, catalogued the fixed stars,
calculated eclipses, and accounted for them correctly. Their enormous libraries of
terra-cotta, only now being unearthed, testify to their literary activity. The Jews
brought back from Babylon the names of the months, the new form of letters used in
writing their books, and many other products of the learning and science of the
Euphrates. Internally the religion of Israel is solitary, pure, Divine. Externally the
literary form of it, and the physical conception of the universe which it embodies,
owe not a little to the light which God had bestowed upon the people of Babylon;

just as Christianity, in soul and essence the religion of Jesus of azareth, was
shaped in theory by the thought, and in discipline by the law and order, with which
God had endowed the two great European races of Greece and Rome.
The chronicler introduces Ezra with a brief sketch of his origin and a bare outline
of his expedition to Jerusalem. [Ezra 7:7-9] He then next transcribes a copy of the
edict of Artaxerxes which authorised the expedition. [Ezra 7:11-26] After this he
inserts a detailed account of the expedition from the pen of Ezra himself, so that
here the narrative proceeds in the first person-though, in the abrupt manner of the
whole book, without a word of warning that this is to be the case. [Ezra 7:1-10]
In the opening verses of Ezra 7:1-28. the chronicler gives an epitome of the
genealogy of Ezra, passing over several generations, but leading up to Aaron. Ezra,
then, could claim a high birth. He was a born priest of the select family of Zadok,
but not of the later house of high-priests. Therefore the privileges which are
assigned to that house in the Pentateuch cannot be accounted for by ascribing
ignoble motives of nepotism to its publisher. Though Ezra is named "The Priest," he
is more familiarly known to us as "The Scribe." The chronicler calls him "a ready
scribe" (or, a scribe skilful) "in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had
given." Originally the title "Scribe" was used for town recorders and registrars of
the census. Under the later kings of Judah, persons bearing this name were attached
to the court as the writers and custodians of state documents. But these are all quite
distinct from the scribes who appeared after the exile. The scribes of later days were
guardians and interpreters of the written Torah, the sacred law. They appeared
with the publication and adoption of the Pentateuch. They not only studied and
taught this complete law; they interpreted and applied its precepts. In so doing they
had to pronounce judgments of their own. Inasmuch as changing circumstances
necessarily required modifications in rules of justice, while The Law could not be
altered after Ezra’s day, great ingenuity was required to reconcile the old law with
the new decisions. Thus arose sophistical casuistry. Then in "fencing" The Law the
scribes added precepts of their own to prevent men from coming near the danger of
transgression.
Scribism was one of the most remarkable features of the later days of Israel. Its
existence in so much prominence showed that religion had passed into a new phase,
that it had assumed a literary aspect. The art of writing was known, indeed, in
Egypt and Babylon before the exodus; it was even practised in Palestine among the
Hittites as early as Abraham. But at first in their religious life the Jews did not give
much heed to literary documents. Priestism was regulated by traditional usages
rather than by written directions, and justice was administered under the kings
according to custom, precedent, and equity. Quite apart from the discussion
concerning the antiquity of the Pentateuch, it is certain that its precepts were
neither used nor known in the time of Josiah, when the reading of the roll
discovered in the temple was listened to with amazement. Still less did prophetism
rely on literary resources. What need was there of a book when the Spirit of God
was speaking through the audible voice of a living man? At first the prophets were
men of action. In more cultivated times they became orators, and then their speeches

were sometimes preserved-as the speeches of Demosthenes were preserved-for
future reference, after their primary end had been served. Jeremiah found it
necessary to have a scribe, Baruch, to write down his utterances. This was a further
step in the direction of literature, and Ezekiel was almost entirely literary, for his
prophecies were most of them written in the first instance. Still they were
prophecies, i.e., they were original utterances, drawn directly from the wells of
inspiration. The function of the scribes was more humble-to collect the sayings and
traditions of earlier ages; to arrange and edit the literary fragments of more original
minds. Their own originality was almost confined to their explanations of difficult
passages, or their adaptation of what they received to new needs and new
circumstances. Thus we see theology passing into the reflective stage; it is becoming
historical; it is being transformed into a branch of archaeology. Ezra the Scribe is
nervously anxious to claim the authority of Moses for what he teaches. The robust
spirit of Isaiah was troubled with no such scruple. Scribism rose when prophecy
declined. It was a melancholy confession that the fountains of living water were
drying up. It was like an aqueduct laboriously constructed in order to convey stored
water to a thirsty people from distant reservoirs. The reservoirs may be full, the
aqueduct may be sound, still who would not rather drink of the sparkling stream as
it springs from the rock? Moreover scribism degenerated into rabbinism, the
scholasticism of the Jews. We may see its counterpart in the Catholic scholasticism
which drew supplies from patristic tradition, and again in Protestant scholasticism-
which came nearer to the source of inspiration in the Bible, and yet which stiffened
into a traditional interpretation of Scripture, confining its waters to iron pipes of
orthodoxy.
But some men refuse to be thus tied to antiquarianism. They dare to believe that the
Spirit of God is still in the world, whispering in the fancy of little children, soothing
weary souls, thundering in the conscience of stoners, enlightening honest inquirers,
guiding perplexed men of faith. evertheless we are always in danger of one or
other of the two extremes of formal scholasticism and indefinite mysticism. The
good side of the scribes’ function is suggestive of much that is valuable. If God did
indeed speak to men of old "by divers portions and in divers manners," [Hebrews
1:1] what He said must be of the greatest value to us, for truth in its essence is
eternal. We Christians have the solid foundation of a historical faith to build upon,
and we cannot dispense with our gospel narratives and doctrinal epistles. What
Christ was, what Christ did, and the meaning of all this, is of vital importance to us,
but it is chiefly important because it enables us to see what He is today-a Priest ever
living to make intercession for us, a Deliverer who is even now able to save unto the
uttermost all who come unto God by Him, a present Lord who claims the active
loyalty of every fresh generation of the men and women for whom He died in the
far-off past. We have to combine the concrete historical religion with the inward,
living, spiritual religion to reach a faith that shall be true both objectively and
subjectively-true to the facts of the universe, and true to personal experience.
Ezra accomplished his great work, to a large extent, because he ventured to be more
than a scribe. Even when he was relying on the authority of antiquity, the
inspiration which was in him saved him from a pedantic adherence to the letter of

the Torah as he had received it. The modification of The Law when it was reissued
by the great scribe, which is so perplexing to some modern readers, is a proof that
the religion of Israel had not yet lost vitality and settled down into a fossil condition.
It was living, therefore it was growing, and in growing it was casting its old shell
and evolving a new vesture better adapted to its changed environment. Is not this
just a signal proof that God had not deserted His people?
Ezra is presented to us as a man of a deeply devout nature. He cultivated his own
personal religion before he attempted to influence his compatriots. The chronicler
tells us that he had prepared (directed) his heart, to seek the law of the Lord and to
do it. With our haste to obtain "results" in Christian service, there is danger lest the
need of personal preparation should be neglected. But work is feeble and fruitless if
the worker is inefficient, and he must be quite as inefficient if he has not the
necessary graces as if he had not the requisite gifts. Over and above the preparatory
intellectual culture-never more needed than in our own day-there is the all-essential
spiritual training. We cannot effectually win others to that truth which has no place
in our own hearts. Enthusiasm is kindled by enthusiasm. The fire must be first
burning within the preacher himself if he would light it in the breasts of other men.
Here lies the secret of the tremendous influence Ezra exerted when he came to
Jerusalem. He was an enthusiast for the law he so zealously advocated. ow
enthusiasm is not the creation of a moment’s thought; it is the outgrowth of long
meditation, inspired by deep, passionate love. It shows itself in the experience
expressed by the Psalmist when he said, "While I mused the fire burned." [Psalms
39:3] Ours is not an age of musing. But if we have no time to meditate over the great
verities of our faith, the flames will not be kindled, and in place of the glowing fire
of enthusiasm we shall have the gritty ashes of officialism.
Ezra turned his thoughts to the law of his God; he took this for the subject of his
daily meditation, brooding over it until it became a part of his own thinking. This is
the way a character is made. Men have larger power over their thoughts than they
are inclined to admit, and the greatness or the meanness, the purity or the
corruption of their character depends on the way in which that power is used. Evil
thoughts may come unbidden to the purest mind for Christ was tempted by the
devil, but such thoughts can be resisted, and treated as unwelcome intruders. The
thoughts that are welcomed and cherished, nourished in meditation, and sedulously
cultivated-these bosom friends of the inner man determine what he himself is to
become. To allow one’s mind to he treated as the plaything of every idle reverie-like
a boat drifting at the mercy of wind and current with.-out a hand at the helm-is to
court intellectual and moral shipwreck. The first condition of achieving success in
self-culture is to direct the course of the thinking aright. St. Paul enumerated a list
of good and honourable subjects to bid us "think on" such things. [Philippians 4:8]
The aim of Ezra’s meditation was three-old. First, he would "seek the law of the
Lord," for the teacher must begin with understanding the truth, and this may
involve much anxious searching. Possibly Ezra had to pursue a literary inquiry,
hunting up documents, comparing data, arranging and harmonising scattered
fragments. But the most important part of his seeking was his effort to find the real

meaning and purpose of The Law. It was in regard to this that he would have to
exercise his mind most earnestly Secondly, his aim was "to do it." He would not
attempt to preach what he had not tried to perform, he would test the effect of his
doctrine on himself before venturing to prescribe it for others. Thus he would be
most sure of escaping a subtle snare which too often entraps the preacher. When the
godly man of business reads his Bible, it is just to find light and food for his own
soul, but when the preacher turns the pages of the sacred book, he is haunted by the
anxiety to light upon suitable subjects for his sermons. Every man who handles
religious truths in the course of his work is in danger of coming to regard those
truths as the tools of his trade. If he succumbs to this danger it will be to his own
personal loss, and then even as instruments in his work the degraded truths will be
blunt and inefficient, because a man can never know the doctrine until he has begun
to obey the commandment. If religious teaching is not to be pedantic and unreal, it
must be interpreted by experience. The most vivid teaching is a transcript from life.
Thirdly, Ezra would "teach in Israel statutes and judgments." This necessarily
comes last-after the meditation, after the experience.
But it is of great significance as the crown and finish of the rest. Ezra is to be his
nation’s instructor. In the new order the first place is not to be reserved for a king;
it is assigned to a schoolmaster.
This will be increasingly the case as knowledge is allowed to prevail, and as truth is
permitted to sway the lives of men and fashion the history of communities.
So far we have Ezra’s own character and culture. But there was another side to his
preparation for his great life-work of which the chronicler took note, and which he
described in a favorite phrase of Ezra’s, a phrase so often used by the scribe that the
later writer adopted it quite naturally. Ezra’s request to he permitted to go up to
Jerusalem with a new expedition is said to have been granted him by the king
"according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him." [Ezra 7:6] Thus the
chronicler here acknowledges the Divine hand in the whole business, as he has the
inspired insight to do again and again in the course of his narrative. The special
phrase thus borrowed from Ezra is rich in meaning. In an earlier passage the
chronicler noticed that "the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews."
[Ezra 5:5] ow, in Ezra’s phrase, it is the hand of his God that is on Ezra. The
expression gives us a distinct indication of the Divine activity. God works, and, so to
speak, uses His hand. It also suggests the nearness of God. The hand of God is not
only moving and acting; it is upon Ezra. God touches the man, holds him, directs
him, impels him; and, as he shows elsewhere, Ezra is conscious of the influence, if
not immediately, yet by means of a devout study of the providential results. This
Divine power even goes so far as to move the Persian monarch. The chronicler
ascribes the conduct of successive kings of Persia to the immediate action of God.
But here it is connected with God’s hand being on Ezra. When God is holding and
directing His servants, even external circumstances are found to work for their
good, and even other men are induced to further the same end. This brings us to the
kernel, the very essence of religion. That was not found in Ezra’s wisely chosen
meditations, nor was it to be seen in his devout practices. Behind and beneath the

man’s earnest piety was the unseen but mighty action of God, and here, in the hand
of his God resting upon him, was the root of all his religious life. In experience the
human and the Divine elements of religion are inextricably blended together; but
the vital element, that which originates and dominates the whole, is the Divine.
There is no real, living religion without it. It is the secret of energy and the
assurance of victory. The man of true religion is he who has the hand of God resting
upon him, he whose thought and action are inspired and swayed by the mystic touch
of the Unseen.
LA GE, "I. Ezra’s Journey and Purpose. Ezra 7:1-10
1 ow after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of
Seraiah, 2the son of Prayer of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, The son of Shallum, the
son of Zadok, 3the son of Ahitub, The son of Amariah, the son of Prayer of Azariah,
the son of Ma 4 rioth, The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, 5The
son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief
priest: 6This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of
Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his
request, accord ing to the hand of the Lord his God upon him 7 And there went up
some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers,
and the porters, and the ethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of
Artaxerxes the king 8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in
the seventh year of the king 9 For upon the first day of the first month began he to
go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem,
according to the good hand of his God upon him 10 For Ezra had prepared his
heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and
judgments.
II. Artaxerxes’ Letter of Commission
11 ow this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the
priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and
of his statutes to Israel 12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of
the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time 13 I make a decree,
that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm,
which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee 14
Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to inquire
concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine
hand; 15And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have
freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, 16And all
the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the
freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of
their God which is in Jerusalem: 17That thou mayest buy speedily with this money
bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings, and offer
them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem 18 And
whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the

silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God 19 The vessels also that are
given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God
of Jerusalem 20 And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God,
which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king’s treasure-house.
And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are
beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God 22
of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily, Unto a hundred talents of silver,
and to a hundred measures of wheat, and to a hundred baths of wine, and to a
hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23Whatsoever is
commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God
of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
24Also we certify you, that, touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters,
ethinim, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toil
atribute, or custom, upon them 25 And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God,
that is in thine hand, set magistrates and Judges, which may judge all the people
that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them
that know them not 26 And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of
the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or
to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
III. Ezra’s Thanksgiving
27Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the
king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem: And hath
extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the
king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of my Lord my God was
upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.
EXEGETICAL A D CRITICAL
Our author has no scruples in simply leaping over a period of fully fifty-seven years,
in the use of the loose connecting formula: And after these things (comp. Genesis
15:1; Genesis 22:1, etc.). Such gaps the ancient sacred history has again and again;
it is silent respecting the time between Joseph and Moses, respecting the time passed
by the generation rejected of God in the wilderness, respecting the time of the exile.
There was lacking in these times useful material calculated for the edification of the
congregation, so much the more then must this have failed in the time subsequent to
the building of the temple, when the congregation of Jehovah had been excused
from the task of giving their life a civil organization, and accordingly was referred
to a quiet life, in which there could be no longer expected, as in former times, new
and important manifestations of God. evertheless the new beginning of the
congregation after the exile, which the book of Ezra would describe, had not been
entirely completed by that which had already transpired. It is true the temple and
its worship had been Revelation -established by Zerubbabel and Jeshua, but the law
was only thereby secured at the basis, an objective validity. With the new and holy
zeal that inspired all, at the beginning, it was their earnest endeavor, as we can
hardly doubt, to carry the law out likewise subjectively in the domestic and personal

life, with more and more completeness and thoroughness. But the vicinity of the
heathen, their dependence upon their superior authorities, the manifold intercourse
with many of them, which could hardly be avoided, made the temptation easy to be
brought into closer association with them, even to intermarry with them, and
thereby there was necessarily involved a neglect of the law, especially in its
prescription as to food and purity. Besides, the descendants of Zerubbabel, if we
may refer ehemiah 5:15 to them, were not calculated to offer the congregation a
higher support, they rather, in all probability, soon enough entirely withdrew. Thus
notwithstanding the temple and its worship, that which was properly the principal
thing, the life of the congregation in accordance with the law, yea the congregation
itself as such, was soon again brought into question. The thorough subordination to
the divine law, on the part of all, was now all the more necessary that it alone could
hold the individuals together. What previously had been accomplished by the
kingdom in Israel, must now be done by the law. It was necessary that the law, as
never before, should be exalted on the throne. And only when a real strengthening
of the life in the law had taken place could there be said to be such a new
establishment of the congregation as really promised to be the beginning of a new
and permanent existence. This Revelation -establishment was now for the first the
work of Ezra, and is rightly ascribed to him by a thankful posterity which honored
him as a second Moses. Certainly if we look upon the letter of commission which
Artaxerxes gave him to take along with him upon his first appearance in chap8. it
seems as if for him likewise the worship of the temple and its furtherance stood in
the foreground. And surely he took great pains in this direction likewise. But both of
these, the elevation of the temple worship, that perhaps again threatened to fall into
decay, and the strengthening of the congregation, in the life in the law, were too
closely connected together, that Ezra should have thought the one possible without
the other. And his real design was from the beginning very well given in Ezra 7:10 :
to teach in Israel statutes and judgments; and the letter of commission of Artaxerxes
authorized him, in a manner worthy of attention ( Ezra 7:25), to set up magistrates
and Judges, who should provide for the enforcement of the law. In our book he
accomplishes the Revelation -establishment at least in a negative way, by the
separation of heathen women, in general by the doing away with intermarriage with
the heathen; in eh. (8–10.) likewise in a positive way, that Isaiah, by renewing the
covenant with God on the basis of those prescriptions of the law that were then most
important.
Ezra 7:1-10. Artachshasta, which is here written ‫א‬ְ‫ְתּ‬‫ס‬ ַ‫ְשׁ‬‫ח‬ַ‫תּ‬ ְ‫,אַר‬ as in Ezra 7:11; Ezra
8:1; ehemiah 2:1; ehemiah 5:14; ehemiah 13:6, is surely the same, who in Ezra
6:14 is called ‫א‬ְ‫תּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ְשׁ‬‫ח‬ַ‫תּ‬ ְ‫אַר‬ (so also Ezra 4:8; Ezra 4:11; Ezra 4:23), and in Ezra 4:7
‫א‬ָ‫ת‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ְשׁ‬‫ח‬ַ‫תּ‬ ְ‫,אַר‬ namely, Artaxerxes Longimanus. In ehemiah 13:6, where the same
person is certainly meant, since there is no doubt that Ezra and ehemiah were
cotemporaries according to ehemiah 12:36, the reference is to the thirty-second
year of his reign. This does not properly refer to Xerxes, whom Josephus (Arch.
XI:5, 1) and recently even Fritzsche (comp. Ezra 8:1), would understand, because it
is most natural to think of him after the Darius of the previous chapter, but only to
Artaxerxes Longimanus, to whom indeed the name itself refers with sufficient
clearness. Ezra sprang, according to the accompanying genealogy from the family of

the high-priest through Seraiah. For all the names from Seraiah up to Aaron are of
the line of the high-priest (comp 1 Chron5:30–40); only in. Ezra 7:3 six members of
the line are passed over between Azariah and Meraioth (according to 1 Chronicles
6:7-10), without doubt only for the sake of brevity, as is frequently the case in the
longer genealogies. Seraiah, the son of Prayer of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, was the
high-priest whom ebuchadnezzar had commanded to be slain at Riblah ( 2 Kings
25:18-21), was thus the father of the high-priest Jehozadak, who was carried into
exile ( 1 Chronicles 6:14 sq.). It is very notable, however, that Ezra did not spring
from Jehozadak in whose line the high-priesthood was inherited, but from a
younger son; for else the intervening member between him and Seraiah would not
have been left unmentioned. Ezra was probably the great grandson of Seraiah; for
the high-priest Jeshua who had gone to Jerusalem seventy-eight years before with
zerubbabel, was a grandson of Seraiah. One hundred and thirty years had already
passed since the execution of the latter in the year588.
PULPIT, "SECO D RETUR OF THE ISRAELITES FROM CAPTIVITY
U DER EZRA.
1. DECREE OF ARTAXERXES, A D RETUR U DER EZRA, WITH THE
UMBERS OF THOSE WHO RETUR ED, A D THE AMES OF THE CHIEF
ME .
EXPOSITIO
FIFTY-SEVE years after the completion of the temple and its dedication, when the
long and eventful rein of Darius was over, and his son Xerxes, probably the
Ahasuerus of Esther, had also lived and reigned and passed away, and the grandson
of Darius, known generally as Artaxerxes Longimanus, occupied the Persian throne,
a further return of Israelites from Babylon, on a tolerably large scale, took place.
Ezra, a member of the high priest's family, a descendant of Seraiah, the "chief
priest" at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:18), and probably a
third cousin of the existing high priest, Eliashib, having access to Artaxerxes, and,
apparently, a certain influence with him, asked (Ezra 7:6) and obtained the royal
permission to reinforce the colony in Judaea by a fresh body of emigrants, and at
the same time to convey to Jerusalem a sum of money, which the Babylonian Jews
had subscribed towards the temple service (ibid. verse 16). Artaxerxes appears to
have had a high respect for Ezra; he recognised in him one possessed of wisdom
from on high (verse 25), and readily granted him, not only the request that he had
made, but an important commission, which was mainly one of inquiry (verse 14),
but which made him for a time paramount civil ruler of the province, with power of
life and death over its inhabitants (verse 26); and also conferred upon the Jewish
people certain valuable gifts and privileges. The terms of the decree are set forth in
Ezra 7:12-26, where the Chaldee version of the text, as published by Artaxerxes, is
probably given verbatim et literatim. After reciting it, Ezra breaks out into a brief
but earnest burst of thanksgiving and acknowledgment of God's goodness, which
concludes Ezra 7:1-28; occupying the last two verses. He then proceeds, in Ezra 8:1-

36; to give an account of the number of the Jews who returned with him, with the
names of their leaders, whom he calls "chief of the fathers." Having completed his
list in Ezra 8:14, he goes on (Ezra 8:15-31) to describe the circumstances of the
journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, which occupied exactly four months,
commencing on the first day of the first month and terminating on the first day of
the fifth month (Ezra 7:9). In conclusion, he tells us how, after a rest of three days,
he discharged himself of the most pressing of the commissions intrusted to him,
delivering over to the priests in charge of the temple the gifts sent by Artaxerxes,
and making known to the various Persian officials of the district the terms of the
royal decree so far as they were affected by it (Ezra 8:32-36). This section may be
subdivided into seven parts:—
1. The genealogy of Ezra (Ezra 7:1-5);
2. The fact of his journey, with its dates (Ezra 7:6-10);
3. The decree of Artaxerxes with respect to Ezra (Ezra 7:11-26);
4. The thanksgiving of Ezra (Ezra 7:27, Ezra 7:28);
5. The numbers of those who accompanied him to Jerusalem, with the names of the
chiefs (Ezra 8:1-14);
6. The circumstances of the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:15-31); and
7. The three days' rest at Jerusalem and execution of the more pressing commissions
(Ezra 8:32-36).
Ezra 7:1-5
THE GE EALOGY OF EZRA (Ezra 7:1-5). It is plain that this genealogy is
incomplete. It gives no more than sixteen generations between Ezra and Aaron,
whereas the number of generations between Zerubbabel and ashon, prince of
Judah in Aaron's time ( umbers 1:7; umbers 2:3), was twenty-six (1 Chronicles
2:10-15; 1 Chronicles 3:5-19), and that between Aaron himself and Eliashib at least
as many (1 Chronicles 6:3-15; 1 Chronicles 9:11; ehemiah 12:10). Six names are
omitted between the Azariah and Memioth of verse 3, which will be found in 1
Chronicles 6:7-10; and at least three must be wanting between Ezra himself and
Seraiah, who was the great-great-grandfather of Eliashib, Ezra's contemporary
( ehemiah 3:1; ehemiah 13:4). The curtailment of genealogies by the omission of
names was a common practice of the Jews. A notable instance is the omission of
three royal names in St. Matthew's genealogy of our Lord (Matthew 1:8).
Ezra 7:1
The writer makes a marked division between his first and second sections by means
of the words, " ow after these things," which he uses in this place only. The actual

interval seems to have been one of between fifty-seven and fifty-eight years, the sixth
year of Darius being b.c. 516, and the seventh of Artaxerxes Longimanus b.c. 458.
Artaxerxes is in the original "Artakhshata," which reproduces the Persian
Artakhshatra with the change of only one letter. That Longimanus, the grandson of
Darius, is meant seems to follow from the fact that Eliashib, the grandson of Jeshua
is high priest under him ( ehemiah 3:1).
Darius, correspond to Jeshua,
Xerxes correspond to Joiakim
Artaxerxes correspond to Eliashib
But for this it would be possible to regard the Artaxerxes of Ezra (Ezra 7:1-28.) and
ehemiah as Mnemon. Ezra the son of Seraiah. Probably the great-great-grandson.
In the language of the sacred writers, every descendant is a "son," and every
ancestor a "father." Christ is "the son of David," and David "the son of Abraham"
(Matthew 1:1). Joram "begat" Uzziah (Matthew 1:8), his great-great-grandson.
Jochebed was "the daughter of Levi (Exodus 2:1). Ezra omits the names of his
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, who were undistinguished, and claims
descent from Seraiah, the last high priest who had ministered in Solomon's temple
(2 Kings 25:18). Azariah, the father of Seraiah, does not occur in either Kings or
Chronicles; but Hilkiah, Azariah's father, is no doubt the high priest of Josiah's
time (2 Kings 22:4-14; 2 Chronicles 34:14-22, etc.).
PULPIT, "Ezra 7:1-10
The reformer.
"After these things"—nearly sixty years "after," as usually understood—certain
other things came to pass. Things so far similar that they may be recorded in the
same connection; things so far different as to open out to us quite a new part of this
book. There is this similarity, for example—that we have the story here of another
and supplementary pilgrimage of captive Israelites from Babylon to Jerusalem. On
the other hand, there are these points of difference—that the new pilgrimage is on a
much smaller scale; and that the story itself is rather biographical than historical, as
before—all of it, in fact, centring closely round the doings of one man. Accordingly,
it is with the portrait of this one man, Ezra, that this new portion begins. We can see
at once, on looking at the portrait, that he is a zealous ecclesiastical reformer; and
we can easily understand there being a great necessity at Jerusalem for such a man
at that time. Of this, however, and of what he did there, we shall read by and by. At
present we see chiefly his fitness for this difficult role; and that in connection—
1. with his ancestry;
2. his attainments; and

3. his ambition.
I. EZRA'S A CESTRY. This, given us in verses 1-5, would be such as to fit him for
the work of Church reformation in several ways.
1. As to office. By lineage we see that he was a priest; and therefore an authorised
preacher (Le Ezra 10:11; 2 Chronicles 15:3; Malachi 2:5-7); and therefore a person
who would have special facilities in reforming or setting things right, because such
endeavours would, in his case, be only expected. How can any man teach truth and
right without correcting error and wrong?
2. As to tradition. It may at least be noticed that, according to this lineage, very
many of the traditions of his peculiar priestly ancestry would be specially in favour
of reforming work. He belonged, e.g; to the better of the two principal priestly lines,
viz; that of Eleazar as compared with Ithamar, to which Eli and his sons (1
Chronicles 24:3, 1 Chronicles 24:4; 1 Chronicles 6:8) belonged. Also, even in this
very abridged form of his genealogy, how conspicuous are the individual names of
Phinehas ( umbers 25:1-18.; Joshua 22:1-34.; Psalms 106:30) and Hilkiah (2 Kings
22:1-20.; 2 Chronicles 34:1-33.) in regard to this point! It could never, therefore, be
said of him, in attempting similar work, as in 1 Samuel 10:12.
3. As to position. Being himself descended from Seraiah, the grandfather or great
(or great-great) grandfather of the high priest of that time (1 Chronicles 6:14; Ezra
3:2; ehemiah 3:1; ehemiah 12:10), he would be not only a priest, but a priest with
peculiar family advantages for exerting an influence for good, something as is the
case with a "prince of the blood" among us. On the whole, while all these things by
themselves would not necessarily dispose him to become a reformer, they would all
help him, if so disposed.
II. EZRA'S SPECIAL ATTAI ME TS. These would also qualify him for such
labours. For we find that he had learned—
1. How to listen to God. The man who would reform others must begin by reforming
himself; and this he can only do effectually by means of an accurate knowledge of
God's will, that one standard of perfect right (see Psalms 111:10, and end of Luke
11:2). This point secured in the present instance
(a) by Ezra's discrimination. He knew where to look for God's word, viz; in the
"Scriptures" of truth, recognising clearly their double aspect, as at once human (the
"law of Moses"), and also Divine (which "God had given"). Comp. 1 Thessalonians
2:13—"the word of God which ye heard of us." He recognised also their peculiar
value (which the "God of Israel had given"), as God's special gift to his own people
(Romans 3:1, Romans 3:2).
(b) By Ezra's diligence. Being thus valuable, he treated them accordingly. How
much is implied in that expression, a "ready scribe"! "Reading," to know the letter.

"Marking," to know the meaning. "Inwardly learning and digesting," to know the
power. And all together, to acquire the right use—to be "ready" with them
whenever called for. A man thus familiar with the "sword of the Spirit" might
naturally be expected to further the Spirit's work.
2. How to speak to men. Many book-learned men are too bookish for this; and,
therefore, not fit for reforming efforts. They can describe their weapons, but not
employ them. Ezra, we find, on the contrary, was a man able to persuade men of all
ranks and conditions, whether superiors, from whom he asked permission to go
(end of verses 6 and 28), or equals and inferiors, both lay and clerical (verse 7),
whom he persuaded to go with him. ote, however, that this second qualification or
attainment was the result of the first, as implied in end of verse 6, and in what we
afterwards read in Ezra 8:17, Ezra 8:18.
III. EZRA'S SPECIAL AMBITIO . Unless a man desires an end—unless he
strongly desires it, if difficult of attainment Ñ he is never likely to reach it. However
favoured by circumstances, however qualified in itself, the locomotive will never go
forward without the requisite moving power. This supplied here by Ezra's special
ambition. We notice—
1. Its patience. What is said here (in verse 9) of the length of his journey from
Babylon may help to illustrate this. Also what we read afterwards in the detailed
account of that journey, his waiting for the Levites, in Ezra 8:15-20, and subsequent
delay for fasting (Ezra 8:21-23). What is worth obtaining is worth waiting for.
Perhaps this conviction is, of all necessities, the most necessary for success (James
5:7).
2. Its depth. "Ezra prepared his heart." He was deeply earnest as well as patient;
could strike as well as endure; and not only bide his time, but use it too. This a rare
combination, but most important, in doing good (see Galatians 6:9; also examples of
Jacob, Moses, and Jehoiada, the high priest, in 2 Chronicles 22:12; 2 Chronicles
23:1-15).
3. Its direction. Those qualifying attainments we have spoken of were his because he
had sought them—sought them not only as an end, but as a means also to other
ends. How definite and complete the description. "Ezra had prepared his heart, to
seek—to do—and to teach." "To teach in Israel statutes and judgments:" there was
the summit of his ambition. First to know and "do" it himself: there was the path, in
his judgment, that led to that summit. As the poet has written: "Allured to brighter
worlds, and led the way."
Such is the opening portrait of the man whom God had called then to this special
calling. We may gather from it some general considerations as to God's preparatory
work in such cases. We see, e.g.—
1. How far back such work may begin. In this ease of Ezra, e.g; as far back (shall we
say?) as Aaron. Certainly before his own birth (comp. Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians

1:15); and thenceforward, continually, in all his early training and studies, and in
all the various hereditary and circumstantial influences that made him finally the
man that he was. This especially illustrated in the case of the greatest of all these
"sent forth" (Hebrews 3:1). As far back, at least, as the birth of Seth, God was
preparing for that of Christ.
2. How far off such work may begin. Here, e.g; in Babylon for the benefit of those in
Jerusalem. So afterwards at Joppa for Cornelius in Cesarea. So in Egypt in
Pharaoh's bed-chamber (Genesis 41:1-57.) for the preservation of those then in
Canaan. So in Troas for the benefit of Macedonia (Acts 16:8, Acts 16:9); and in
Philippi for that of Thyatira (Acts 16:14; Revelation 2:18); and in Palestine for the
salvation of Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-39); and, finally, in heaven itself for the good of
earth (Luke 19:10; John 3:16 . 1 Timothy 1:15).
3. How far in both ways it extends. Here the good work afterwards done by Ezra at
Jerusalem helped to preserve by purifying the nucleus of the whole Jewish
dispersion then residing there; and so, afterwards still, the whole dispersion. The
dispersion, thus preserved, prepared the way, as we saw before, for the preaching of
the gospel to all nations in all parts of the world; which, again, is to prepare for the
restoration of Israel to God's favour, and the consequent fulness of blessing to all
mankind (Romans 11:12, Romans 11:15). What an extraordinary power and depth
and stretch of influence for good is implied in these words—"Beloved for the
fathers' sakes."! And how constantly we see similar influence telling on strange
peoples and future generations in the history of the world!
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDO ALD
Ezra 7:1-10
The exodus under Ezra.
"After these things," viz; the events which culminated in the dedication of the
temple, and consequent ordering of the service of God. "In the reign of Artaxerxes
king of Persia," after an interval of nearly sixty years, during which the house of the
Lord had so fallen into disrepair as to need "beautifying," and the civil state of the
children of the restoration had become disordered, and needed readjustment. With
these purposes, and with a view to leading back to Judaea another detachment of
Israelites, Ezra received a commission from the king. In the text—
I. HE AUTHE TICATES HIMSELF AS THE LEADER OF THIS EXODUS.
1. He evinces his social qualification.
2. He evinces his moral qualifications. "He was a ready scribe," etc.
(2) This is the law, therefore, to be studied. Its author, God. Its matter, truth the
most sublime. Its spirit, holiness. Its end, heaven.

(3) A ready scribe (not a skilful penman only, but an able expounder also) of such a
law has the noblest qualifications to be a leader of men.
3. He evinces his political qualification.
II. HE RELATES THE SUCCESS OF HIS U DERTAKI G.
1. In the muster.
2. In the journey.
3. In the blessing of God.
(a) With God.
(b) With the king.
(c) With the people.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSO
Ezra 7:1-10
Ezra: his character and work.
The study of human character and of human life is not only an essential part of
human knowledge, but of spiritual culture. Biography is a means of grace. We do
well to follow in thought the lines along which the noblest of our race have moved:
we are thereby attracted toward them, and grow up toward their spiritual stature.
We may learn from the life and character of Ezra by considering—
I. WHAT WE K OW HE WAS A D DID. He was—
1. A priest, claiming descent, as we see, from Aaron (verse 5); and we doubt not that
he discharged, faithfully and conscientiously, the duties of the priesthood. He was,
moreover, what came to be called—
2.A scribe (verse 6), i.e.
Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach," etc.
(verse 10): These three functions of the scribe include the three most important
duties a man can undertake: viz.,
3. Administrator and reformer. He conducted the party whom he headed to
Jerusalem in peace and safety (verse 8); there he established himself as leader of the
people, and set about the work of reforming abuses with a vigorous hand. His

ardour led to a serviceable organisation and reform. He seems also to have been, as
few strong-willed men are, a co-operator with others. He acted with ehemiah, the
governor, and it may well have been difficult to define strictly their respective
offices.
4. Man of influence with his fellows. There was that about him, due to the elevation
and disinterestedness of his character as well as to the vigour and robustness of his
mind, which gave him strange influence with the king, so that he gave him leave to
lead out a large return party, and also entrusted him with large powers in the
commission. Men who, like Ezra, earnestly seek the will of God and do what they
know to be right (verse 10), and lay themselves out for "doing good and
communicating" (Hebrews 13:16), are likely to have power with men.
5. Man through whom God wrought. "The hand of the Lord his God was upon
him" (verses 6, 9, etc.). His soul felt the quickening touch of the Divine finger, and it
kindled with a sacred glow of piety and zeal. He was moved of God to attempt great
things, and helped of God to achieve them. His life flowed on like a fertilising river,
and did so because "all his springs were in God" (Psalms 87:7). Our character may
contain much that is excellent, and our lives include much that is honourable, but
except the "hand of the Lord our God be upon us," renewing our heart and blessing
our life, we shall not be or do that which is pleasing to him or useful to our fellows.
II. GE ERALLY RECEIVED TRADITIO RESPECTI G EZRA. It is commonly
believed among the Jews that he instituted the Great Synagogue, that he settled the
canon of Scripture, that he himself wrote the books of the Chronicles, Ezra,
ehemiah, and (perhaps) Esther, and that he established the system of synagogue
worship. This last arose about his time, and, if indeed due to him, is a work which
laid his countrymen, and indeed us all (for had not the forms of the synagogue
something, if not much, to do with the forms of the early Church?), under a heavy
debt of gratitude. Ezra was a holy and zealous man, with a strong mind and a firm
will, exercising a commanding influence on his contemporaries, making the word of
God the basis and mainspring of his action, seeking and striving for the purity of the
people of God. Some things he did we know. Others we know not of. We may not be
so great and distinguished as he was. It may not be in our power to render such
signal services as he did, or to leave behind us such a reputation as he has left. Yet in
the essentials of his character and work we may be like him. We also may—
HOMILIES BY J.S. EXELL
Ezra 7:1-10
Ezra the type of as ideal minister.
I. THAT HE IS GE ERALLY A MA OF GOOD MORAL A CESTRY. "The son
of Aaron the chief priest" (verse 5). Ezra was in the line of a renowned and religious
ancestry; the past history of Israel would be full of meaning to him; sacred
traditions would inspire him in the present national crisis, It is well for a minister to

have in his ancestry men whose lives and activities have been intimately associated
with the Church; their holy example will animate him; natural sympathy will
stimulate him; the sacred enterprise of his family will inspire him; a blessed heritage
will be his. It is a privilege for a minister to be in the line of Aaron, if he continue
faithfully in the work of Aaron. The inspiration and influence of a holy ancestry is a
rich ministerial endowment.
II. THAT HE IS A MA OF SELF-SACRIFICI G SPIRIT. Ezra left Babylon for
Jerusalem. He exchanged the comfort and influence which he enjoyed in the court of
Artaxerxes for the hardships of a perilous journey, and for the broken fortunes of
Israel. The true minister will ever be ready to leave Babylon for Jerusalem; he will
esteem luxury, and even life itself, as subservient to the welfare of the people of God.
Christ left a better court than Babylon, and allied himself with sinful men that he
might restore their broken hopes. The early disciples left all and followed Christ;
the carnal must be sacrificed to the spiritual.
III. THAT HE IS A MA I TELLIGE TLY TAUGHT I THE WORD OF GOD.
"And he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses" (verse 6).
1. He intelligently understood the truth.
2. He carefully prepared his moral nature for the reception of the truth. "For Ezra
had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord" (verse 10).
3. He constantly endeavoured to make his conduct an embodiment of the truth.
"And to do it" (verse 10).
4. He wisely recognised the deeper meanings of the truth. "To seek the law of the
Lord"
5. He earnestly sought to impart to others a knowledge of the truth. "And to teach in
Israel." Thus the true minister will understand the gospel; will prepare his soul by
repentance and prayer for the reception of the gospel in all its entirety; will exhibit
the gospel in his daily conduct; will seek the hidden messages of the gospel; and will
strive to bring mankind to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.
IV. THAT HE IS A MA CAPABLE OF ATTACHI G ME TO HIMSELF (verse
7; compare Ezra 8:16, Ezra 8:18). Ezra went not alone to Jerusalem, but succeeded
in getting many to accompany him.
1. He awakened sympathy in many of his comrades.
2. He awakened conscience in some of his comrades.
3. He employed appropriate agencies to induce others to join him in the journey
(Ezra 8:18). The true minister will employ all rightful means to induce men to walk
with him in the ways of a new life to heaven; he will not isolate himself from men,

but take them with him by the force of sympathy.
V. THAT HE IS A MA WHO E DEAVOURS RIGHTLY TO I FLUE CE THE
CIVIL AUTHORITIES. Ezra was evidently on the most friendly terms with
Artaxerxes; magistrates and ministers should be in sympathy with each other. The
sovereign and the scribe should be mutually helpful; there should be no antagonism
between the Church and the state. The true minister will cultivate a judicious co-
operation with the "powers that be." Ezra taught the king, hence his knowledge of
the God of Israel (verse 15). It is the office of the minister to instruct men in lofty
social station, when they have the opportunity, as well as to aid the poor Israelite.
The Church is the best teacher of the state.—E.
2
the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of
Ahitub,
3
the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of
Meraioth,
4
the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of
Bukki,
5
the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest--
6
this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a

Ezra 7 commentary

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