A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath

73. The Book of Ezra, chapters 1 - 6

We shall now be travelling through the three Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and

Esther. They cover a period from about 540 - 440 B.C. You will recall that the

Jews were taken in exile to Babylon in 587 B.C. Now they will return in three

groups to their homeland because Babylon has been overthrown by Persia and

Cyrus, the Persian king believed in returning exiled peoples to their own king believed in returning exiled peoples to their own countries and their own gods or God. The parties returned at different times: the first group in 538/7 B.C. under Zerubbabel, the second group under Ezra in 458 B.C. and the third group under Nehemiah in 445 B.C.

Having set the scene we will now begin our journey through Ezra. Chapters 1

and 2 tell of the policy of Cyrus and also describe the return of the exiled Jews to

Jerusalem. Chapter 2 is very detailed about those who returned. Chapter 3

describes a meeting seven months after the first group returned. It was held in

Jerusalem where the altar was set up and the foundations of the Temple were

laid. Chapter 4 hints at trouble ahead for the re-builders of Jerusalem. When the

Jews were taken into exile the land they left was occupied by other peoples,

described as 'adversaries of Judah and Benjamin'. They were not at all pleased to

see the return of the exiles and the rebuilding works. Their leaders came to

Zerubbabel requesting that they join in the work and seek after the God of the

Jews. They were quickly told to go away, as they had nothing to do with the

Temple. This led to trouble for the Jews from the reign of Cyrus until the reign of

Darius. Chapter 4 tells us that the troublemakers wrote a letter to King

Artaxerxes, shown in verses 12 to 16. The king's reply is seen in verses 17 to 22,

in which he orders the rebuilding work to stop. The trouble makers used this

letter to make the Jews stop work by 'force and power' — verse 23. No more

work was done until the 2nd year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

Chapter 5 tells us about the restarting of the

building work at Jerusalem. The Jews are

encouraged to do this by the prophets Haggai and

Zechariah. The remainder of this chapter describes

the letters that went from the troublemakers to

Darius and his reply. They are worth reading.

Chapter 6 tells us that Darius agrees to the work at

Jerusalem, but that a search must be made to find a

decree authorizing the rebuilding. The decree was

found and it showed that Cyrus, in his first year,                   King Darius signs decree

authorized the rebuilding of the Temple.

Verses 3 to 5 give details of this decree. The troublemakers were ordered not to hinder the work, in fact they were ordered to give their experience to the builders and provide meat, wheat, salt and wine. The Temple was completed in the 6th year of Darius.

The rest of the chapter tells of the rejoicing and religious activities that went

on to celebrate the completion of the Temple. Next month we shall meet Ezra

himself.