Another Bible Commentary: Ezra

Ezra is a variant of “Azariah” meaning “God helps”. He was sent by the Persian Empire (aka the Achaemenid Empire) to lead a group of exiles back to Jerusalem. The Persian Empire favored a profitable stability; you could have your traditional religion and your familiar local leadership structures as long as the Empire got what it wanted. Centralized Temple-focused worship allied with the official local government (for collecting taxes/tribute) was more attractive to the Persians than chaotic activities at the high places. Ezra was sent with an official copy of the Torah. As Ezra was a scribe, saying that it was in his hand (Ezra 7:14) likely means he was the one who generated the copy as well as carried it. Since oral tradition used to be the way things were remembered and passed on, and we see many references to books we don’t have anymore (Book of Jasher, etc.), Ezra is a good historical candidate for the final inspired compiler for much of the Old Testament.

1:1 The “Cyrus Cylinder” recording this announcement can be seen in the British Museum.

1:4 like Exodus 3:21-22 and Exodus 12:36.

2:2 “Nehemiah” is probably not the one from the Book of Nehemiah about eighty years later. “Mordecai” is probably not the one from the Book of Esther in Persia about fifty years later.

2:13 There’s that number again (Revelation 13:18). Nehemiah 7:18 counts 667. We’ve mentioned before that genealogies can skip people for various reasons.

2:59-63 illustrates the importance of these lists of names to the original audience.

2:70 Only some of the population had been exiled. The poorest had remained. Gathering to pray and to learn what had been remembered from Scripture had continued to some extent even without a Temple, much like the activity at synagogues.

3:10 see Psalm 150.

3:13 Haggai 2:15 happened fifteen years after this.

4:1-2 Samaritans (2 Kings 17:41).

4:3 Don’t eat with false prophets in the North (1 Kings 13) or build boats with them (2 Chronicles 20:35-37).

4:7 The letters in chapters 4 through 7 are presented in Aramaic. The Old Testament is mostly in Hebrew. The New Testament is mostly in Greek.

4:12-13 Persia was already having enough trouble with the Greeks, so these words would have stood out. The movie “300” and its sequels about the broad strokes of those events aren’t documentaries or required viewing, but I’ve met more people familiar with the movies than people familiar with history books about that period.

4:23-24 For those reading prophecies with calculators in hand, this order rescinding the first one means that this is not the one to count from. Ezra 7:13 will be of more interest for that.

5:1 Haggai and Zechariah wrote books that (spoiler alert) we will cover later.

5:5 Remember Elijah calling down fire? Now, we see mere pen pals with the Persians. But, remember Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 19:12. See Zechariah 4:10. God’s not only with you in big, obvious ways. If you’re in a tough situation, it may be helpful to write it all down, put a line through everything you have no control over, focus your attention on what’s left in positive, resilient, turn-this-around ways, and above all, pray about all of it and trust God. The returning exiles kept building amidst their enemies without the encouragement of the miraculous; they did the right thing while wrong things happened.

5:16-17 The descendants of tricky Jacob ride right on by the part where Artaxerxes told them to stop in Ezra 4:21.

6:21 Again, some of the original population had stayed in Judah.

7:1-3 “After these things” This chapter begins around 458 BC. The events of the Book of Esther happened in Persia between the events of Ezra 6 and Ezra 7. The genealogy compares to 1 Chronicles 6 with a few edits. Since “son of” is more like “descendant of” the message is the same. Zerubabbel built the Temple, Ezra brought more people and worked on the apathy, and Nehemiah’s bunch built the city wall.

7:6 God can make people be good to you because you are His kid.

7:13 About 483 years after this, Jesus was baptized and began teaching, healing, etc.

7:14 Ezra is a candidate for the compiler/editor of much of the Old Testament.

7:20-22 like Exodus 3:21-22.

8:21-23 Feel free to pray the same prayer regarding your own life; you may get your request like Jabez did (1 Chronicles 4:10). Fasting is a symbolic near death that was thought to bring people closer to the “other side”, a voluntary state of weakness from which to ask for God’s help, and a commitment to focus (since dining was the primary form of entertainment). It may be helpful to some believers sometimes, but it is not a magic spell to control God. The Day of Atonement was the one day of fasting per year required in the Law of Moses. Pharisees started fasting twice a week for bonus points. God expressed His opinion about that line of thinking in Zechariah 7.

9:1-2 We’re beginning a nuanced section. See Deuteronomy 7:1-4, but remember that David, and therefore Jesus, had Tamar, Ruth, and Rahab in the family tree, Moses wed Zipporah, etc. Solomon’s foreign wives led him to idolatry, but God always intended to find a place in the family for faithful Gentiles. God has always said to look out for widows and orphans, and throwing women and children into the street flies in the face of that. The response to a similar situation in Nehemiah 13:23-27 at least skips that measure. On the other hand, the anti-divorce rhetoric in Malachi 2:11-16 was in service of encouraging in-group pairings and against ceasing spousal support for the Jewish women they had married earlier in life to be able to afford younger heathen brides.

Shammai and Hillel were two influential Jewish scholars and Torah interpreters a few decades before Christ. Famous Pharisee Shammai said Deuteronomy 24:1-4 divorces required serious grounds like sexual immorality such as not actually being a virgin when advertised as such (contract fraud), since adultery was a death penalty offense. Famous Pharisee Hillel interpreted it as being “for any reason”; this was meant to be a kindness since it wouldn’t require the airing of dirty laundry in front of a judge at the city gate that would make a crowd want to stone someone to death. It was this sort of quiet putting-away Joseph considered once regarding the unexpectedly pregnant Mary. Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 19 and Mark 10 (about letting no one separate and that remarriage was adultery) were in response to a question about a Hillel “any reason” divorce based on Deuteronomy 24:1-4 without addressing other grounds such as the Shammai-approved Exodus 21 derivations, illegal unions per Deuteronomy 7 or Leviticus 18, etc.

I think the solution is seen in the fact that God expected Israel to be faithful to their treaty with the Gibeonites, and He even supported them in doing that with one of the greatest recorded miracles (Joshua 9, Joshua 10). See also 2 Samuel 21. They were told not to “marry” them, but they were expected to keep their word once wed (Deuteronomy 7:1-4 but Genesis 2:24).

10:2 Shekaniah advocated for a stepmother’s (and possibly siblings’) excommunication (Ezra 10:26).

10:3 This is Shekaniah’s and Ezra’s doing, not God’s. Otherwise, God would have taken a different stance on the aforementioned Gibeonites.

10:15 The losing side is not always the wrong side.

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