Ezra 7 English Standard Version Ezra Sent to Teach the People 7 Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest-- 6 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him. 7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. 8 And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. 11 This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel: 12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace. And now 13 I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17 With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. 19 The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury. 21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, 22 up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. 24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God. 25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. 26 Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.” 27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, 28 and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the LORD my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. It's at this point in the story that we finally get a true introduction to Ezra, whose lineage is given to establish that he is truly a priest in the line of Aaron and to which order of the priesthood he belonged. We are told that he is not only a priest, but a scribe and an expert in the Law of Moses--meaning that he spent his life studying it and teaching others about it, and it probably meant that he had large portions of it (if not all of it) committed to memory so that he could easily make copies of it without any copy errors. Ezra would probably be quite old at this point in his life--probably too old to serve in the role of daily duties of the priest as the LORD had set up a forced retirement system, but he could still teach the Law to the people all the days of his life, and that seems to be his passion in his "retirement years."
We are also told that he found favor in the eyes of King Artaxerxes (probably Darius's son because of Ezra's age, though we don't have a name given to this king here, just the Greek title of Artaxerxes which was given to many Persian monarchs). In his seventh year, Artaxerxes allowed a second group of exiles to return to Jerusalem which included some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. Ezra led this group, and they arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of Artaxerxes's seventh year. Since the order was given on the first day of the first month, then the trip took them four months to complete. We learn that Ezra was not only a student of the Word and a teacher of the Word, but a doer of the Word. Look at verse 10 as I think it is a key verse in this passage, "For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel." God called Ezra into this role of being the teacher of His people not simply because of his knowledge, but also because they could study his life and see what Ezra was putting what was written in the Law into practice in his own life. He was not calling people to something that he wasn't already doing himself. There's a word for that--integrity. God loves to use men (and women) of integrity to transform their families, communities and culture. Ezra is such a person. Ezra and the people with him were sent with a letter from the king explaining their reason for making the trip and that they were there under the authority of the king. Anyone messing with them was going to have to answer to the king of the greatest empire in the known world at the time (though Alexander the Great was going to come on the scene not that long from now and the Medo-Persian Empire would be overthrown by the Greek Empire, and then eventually by the Roman Empire as God foretold in a vision to the prophet Daniel many years before it happened). The letter covers the rest of the chapter, so I'll see if I can summarize some of its main points. First, the letter was addressed to Ezra, meaning that Ezra was the official leader of this delegation, even though Ezra was not the political leader from the tribe of Judah, nor do we get the sense that he was the high priest at this time. He was just a man favored by the king and by the LORD who was willing to step into the role of leadership. The purpose of the trip was to allow any of the exiles, priests or Levites that wanted to return to Jerusalem to go back with Ezra. Ezra's mission is to make inquiries about the condition of Judah and Jerusalem and to take all the freewill offerings made by the king, his counselors, and the people of Babylon (part of the Medo-Persian Empire now) which would include vast amounts of silver and gold and he was to use these resources to buy whatever was needed to make sacrifices in the Temple again. It's amazing to me that a foreign king would take it upon himself to make sure that the Jews had enough money to buy all the animals, wine, oil, wheat and salt needed to make all their sacrifices so that they could freely obey the Law at the king's expense. The rest of the money was given to them as a gift to do with as they pleased. There was no expectation of repayment, and no accounting was required--the king's only request/requirement was that the money first be used to make sure that the sacrifices could be made to the LORD. It seems that the king found even more vessels that had been stolen from the Temple (or he had made new ones to replace them) and these were to be delivered by Ezra to be put into the LORD's service. The king also said that if anything was missing that was needed for the LORD's service, payment to make such articles was authorized to be made from the royal treasuries--the king was bankrolling the worship of God and taking the full cost of it upon himself. This is the total opposite of the "separation of church and state" that we so often hear about in the West--yet the king did not suppose that he was to act as scribe or priest to be the teacher of the people or the one to offer the sacrifices. He only realized that the LORD had blessed him and his people with great wealth because they were to use it to take care of the LORD's people and that all the blessings the king experienced were because of the Abrahamic Covenant--"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) Specifically, the king gave Ezra a "checkbook" for the royal treasuries from the province Beyond the River (remember, these were the peoples that lived in the Land while the Israelites were in Exile and they weren't happy that they were returning and rebuilding, and now they are being made to fund the reconstruction and resettlement effort). The province Beyond the River was to pay any amount requested by Ezra up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. These are massive amounts and I'll let you make those conversions or look them up in a concordance of some kind, but suffice it to say that the king is trying to make sure that he provides everything needed until the Land can start producing for itself, as it will take some time to be able to plant and grow the wheat, grapes (and turn them into wine) and olives (and turn them into oil). It was not that the kind was going to perpetually pay for everything out of the royal treasuries, but the king understands that there is no way that the people can start offering the required sacrifices because they are returning from captivity with nothing. He will have to supply them with the items needed for their sacrifices for a time. Moreover, the king made all the priests, Levites, doorkeepers, singers, and Temple servants--anyone who worked in full-time service to the LORD--tax exempt and free from paying and duty, tribute, custom, or toll. Essentially, he was telling everyone that these people were to be treated as members of the royal family, for no one charges tax or duty to their king or his sons. Jesus even makes a point of this in the New Testament about why He should have been exempted from the poll tax as He was the Son of God. People would understand the great honor that the king was bestowing on them and that he was telling everyone that these servants of the LORD were under the same protection that his own sons should be under. Then the king decided to deal with the issue of the corrupt government officials who had given issues to Ezra and the people last time. Ezra was given the authority to name new magistrates and judges for the entire province who could govern the province according to what was in the book of the Law. Ezra would be responsible for teaching not only the Jews, but also all the inhabitants of the Province the Law of the LORD, for the Law was not only given to the Jews, but to all who would live in the Land. Artaxerxes is exercising great wisdom and understanding in his decree that he needs to be a blessing to the Jews, but the Jews need to teach the Law to his people so that they can experiences the blessings, and not the curses of the Law. The king also gives Ezra the authority to execute capital punishment as prescribed by the Law for anyone living in the province Beyond the River who disobeyed the Law (those who were living in open rebellion to the LORD and His commandments and statutes). Lesser punishments of banishment, confiscation of goods and imprisonment were also allowed. This is a big deal for a king to give a people the right to choose their leaders, obey their laws given to them by God, and punish people according to that Law. We don't see the Jews having the same freedom under the Romans as they could only fine and imprison their own citizens but could not exercise capital punishment without the permission of the Romans (yet they did it anyways several times with stoning and then just blamed it on the people being an uncontrollable mob). The chapter ends with Ezra praising the LORD for putting such a thing into the heart of the king, for it obviously came from the mind and heart of God Himself, and once again blessing Ezra and His people with His steadfast, unfailing, covenant love that we have read so much about. It is apparently the LORD's steadfast love on Ezra that moved the heart of the king and his counselors (his cabinet as we would call them today) to act in this way. Ezra was encouraged and took as many men of Israel with him as would volunteer to go, for there would be much work to do in the reconstruction and resettlement efforts. We'll start next time with a genealogy of all those who travelled with Ezra. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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