Ezra 7:25-26

The Appointment Of Judges And The Levels Of Punishment Permitted (Ezra 7:25).

Ezra 7:25

‘And you, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God which is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are in Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God, and teach you him who does not know them.'

Ezra was also to appoint magistrates and judges who were to judge ‘all such as know the laws of your God' in Beyond The River, that is, those who saw themselves as members of the covenant with YHWH. There may have been complaints from the returnees and those who had united with them in the pure worship of YHWH that the judges appointed in the area of Beyond the River so little understood the Law of God that they were unable to judge on important matters, and were indeed unable to judge them fairly. This would very much explain why Ezra was being sent to establish a new group of magistrates and judges who both knew the Law of God and knew the law of the king. They would then be able to judge on all matters related to the community.

It may also be that Artaxerxes had also learned of serious disquiet among the community of returnees concerning certain things which needed to be remedied if their prayers in the Temple were to be effective. This comes out later with regard to the issue of foreign wives who were introducing idolatry among the returnees, thus bringing great displeasure to the God of Heaven, something no doubt drawn to Artaxerxes attention by his Jewish advisers. They may well have stressed that God would not hear their prayers for the king while such things were going on.

But a number of people had joined the community additionally to the returnees (Ezra 6:21), and where some of these among the community might be ignorant of the laws of God, Ezra was to teach them accordingly. Law and order was difficult if people did not know what was required of them. Thus Ezra was to be both a teacher and a judge in the community, setting up a panel of magistrates and judges to oversee the judicial needs of the community.

The area described as Beyond the River was widespread. It included people of many nations, many of whom would have had no knowledge of YHWH. It is inconceivable that the kings of Persia, who so favoured people looking to their ancient gods, would have sought to turn them to Yahwism. So it is quite clear that Artaxerxes' statements have to be interpreted of those who did see themselves as committed to the Law of God.

‘After the wisdom of God which is in your hand.' In Ezra 7:14 it was ‘the Law of God which was in his hand'. This appears to confirm that by ‘the wisdom of God' Artaxerxes means His Law, indicating the great respect that he had for it.

Ezra 7:26

‘And whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it be to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.'

Ezra was made responsible, not only to ensure that the law of God was obeyed, but also the law of the king. He thus had religious and civil responsibility, a combination that Jews of course constantly had to face up to when they were living outside the land. The severer of the punishments then listed were possibly in respect of the law of the king, although the Law of God certainly demanded the death penalty for certain gross sins such as murder and adultery. He and his judges were given quite awesome powers. These included the right to pass the death penalty, the right to order banishment, the right to confiscate goods, and the right to imprison. The actual carrying out of the punishment would no doubt be by the Persian authorities.

This putting of local religious law on a par with the law of the king appears to have been a Persian policy. In 519 BC Darius instructed the Egyptian satrap to gather ‘wise men' among ‘the warriors, priests and scribes of Egypt' so that they may ‘set down in writing the ancient laws of Egypt'. This could only have been in order for these laws to be in some way incorporated into the legal system in Egypt.

(End of Aramaic section).