Simply. . . EZRA
Back to the future What happens?
What is it?
3 Chronicles. Well, probably, anyway; the beginning of Ezra is virtually identical to the end of Chronicles, so it’s likely that Ezra is a continuation by the author of Chronicles. The book tells the story of two returns home. The first sees Jews led by Zerubbabel return to Jerusalem and start rebuilding the Temple. The second half of the book deals with the return of Ezra. He stops the people from inter-marrying with the tribes around them and calls them back to focus on God. The traditional view is that Ezra is the author of the book (some of which is written in the first person).
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Starring: Ezra, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, Joshua, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah
In 539 BC Cyrus of Persia overthrows the Babylonian empire and issues a decree that allows the captive Judeans to return to their homeland u. Relatively few committed individuals decide to accompany their leader, Zerubbabel, back to Judea. Zerubbabel begins by restoring the altar and reinstituting the sacrifices and then starts work on the Temple building itself. However, in the face of opposition from other inhabitants of the region, progress grinds to a halt v. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah exhort the people to return to work and it is finished by about 515 BC w. The second section takes place some eighty years after the first return, in 457 BC. Ezra the priest is given authority by Artaxerxes I to take a group of exiles back with contributions for the Temple x. Numbering fewer than 2,000 people (including many priests and Levites), they arrive safely in Jerusalem, but the situation there is depressing: the residents have intermarried with the surrounding peoples, leading to compromise and confusion. Ezra calls on them to put away their foreign wives and return to living in accordance with God’s laws y.
Why does it matter?
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Ezra is a story of restoration. But it is not just the restoration of the Temple: it is also about the spiritual and moral restoration of the people and, indeed, the restoration of hope and self-respect. It takes us forward in the story of God’s faithfulness to his people in exile and the fulfilment of his promise delivered through his prophets: that the exiles would return and the city would be rebuilt.
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Ezra
Zerubbabel leads the first Judeans back from exile. Later Ezra returns with another group and calls on the people to recommit themselves to God.
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In Five u Return: 1:1–11 v Rebuilding and
opposition: 3:7 – 4:5
w Haggai gets them going again: 5:1 – 6:15
x Ezra returns: 7:1–27 y Confession and reparation: 10:1–17
Surprise me Ezra was a really important figure in Judaism: he was the person who brought the Torah back from exile and read it out to the people (Nehemiah chapters 8–10). 35