Ezra 1:5

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ¹  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ²  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ³ 

Ezra 3:4

3:4 They observed the Festival of Temporary Shelters ⁴  as required ⁵  and offered the proper number of ⁶  daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day.

Ezra 4:10

4:10 and the rest of nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal ⁷  deported and settled in the cities ⁸  of Samaria and other places in Trans-Euphrates. ⁹ 

Ezra 4:17

4:17 The king sent the following response:

“To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! ¹⁰ 

Ezra 5:1-2

Tattenai Appeals to Darius

5:1 Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son ¹¹  of Iddo ¹²  prophesied concerning the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem ¹³  in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 5:2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak began ¹⁴  to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

Ezra 5:16

5:16 Then this Sheshbazzar went and laid the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. From that time to the present moment ¹⁵  it has been in the process of being rebuilt, although it is not yet finished.’

Ezra 6:22--7:1

6:22 They observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had given them joy and had changed the opinion ¹⁶  of the king of Assyria ¹⁷  toward them, so that he assisted ¹⁸  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

The Arrival of Ezra

7:1 Now after these things had happened, during the reign of King Artaxerxes ¹⁹  of Persia, Ezra came up from Babylon. ²⁰  Ezra was the son of Seraiah, who was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Hilkiah,

Ezra 7:7

7:7 In the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, Ezra brought ²¹  up to Jerusalem ²²  some of the Israelites and some of the priests, the Levites, the attendants, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants.

Ezra 8:29

8:29 Be careful with them and protect them, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites and the family leaders of Israel in Jerusalem, ²³  in the storerooms of the temple of the Lord.”

[1:5]  ¹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “arose.”

[1:5]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase אֶת חַג־הַסֻּכּוֹת (’et khag-hassukot, “festival of huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional “tabernacles” in light of the meaning of the term סֻכָּה (sukkah, “hut; booth”), but “booths” are frequently associated with trade shows and craft fairs in contemporary American English. The nature of the celebration during this feast as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.

[3:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to what is written.”

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “by number.”

[4:10]  ⁷ tn Aram “Osnappar” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), another name for Ashurbanipal.

[4:10]  sn Ashurbanipal succeeded his father Esarhaddon as king of Assyria in 669 B.C. Around 645 B.C. he sacked the city of Susa, capital of Elam, and apparently some of these people were exiled to Samaria and other places.

[4:10]  ⁸ tc The translation reads with the ancient versions the plural בְּקֻרְיַהּ (bÿquryah, “in the cities”) rather than the singular (“in the city”) of the MT.

[4:10]  ⁹ tn Aram “beyond the river.” In Ezra this term is a technical designation for the region west of the Euphrates river.

[4:17]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “peace.”

[5:1]  ¹¹ tn Aram “son.” According to Zech 1:1 he was actually the grandson of Iddo.

[5:1]  ¹² tn Aram “and Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo the prophet.”

[5:1]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “arose and began.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

[5:16]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “from then and until now.”

[6:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “heart.”

[6:22]  ¹⁷ sn The expression “king of Assyria” is anachronistic, since Assyria fell in 612 b.c., long before the events of this chapter. Perhaps the expression is intended subtly to contrast earlier kings of Assyria who were hostile toward Israel with this Persian king who showed them favor.

[6:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to strengthen their hands.”

[7:1]  ¹⁹ sn If the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7:1 is Artaxerxes I Longimanus (ca. 464–423 B.C.), Ezra must have arrived in Jerusalem ca. 458 B.C., since Ezra 7:7-8 connects the time of his arrival to the seventh year of the king. The arrival of Nehemiah is then linked to the twentieth year of the king (Neh 1:1), or ca. 445 B.C. Some scholars, however, have suggested that Ezra 7:7 should be read as “the thirty-seventh year” rather than “the seventh year.” This would have Ezra coming to Jerusalem after, rather than before, the arrival of Nehemiah. Others have taken the seventh year of Ezra 7:7-8 to refer not to Artaxerxes I but to Artaxerxes II, who ruled ca. 404–358 B.C. In this understanding Ezra would have returned to Jerusalem ca. 398 B.C., a good many years after the return of Nehemiah. Neither of these views is certain, however, and it seems better to retain the traditional understanding of the chronological sequence of returns by Ezra and Nehemiah. With this understanding there is a gap of about fifty-eight years between chapter six, which describes the dedication of the temple in 516 b.c., and chapter seven, which opens with Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem in 458 b.c.

[7:1]  ²⁰ tn The words “came up from Babylon” do not appear in the Hebrew text until v. 6. They have been supplied here for the sake of clarity.

[7:7]  ²¹ tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּעֲל (vayya’al, “he [Ezra] brought up”) rather than the Qal plural וַיַּעַלוּ (vayya’alu, “they came up”) of the MT.

[7:7]  tn Heb “he brought”; the referent (Ezra) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:7]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:29]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.