Ezra 7:1-28
1 Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
2 The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
3 The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
4 The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
5 The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest:
6 This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.
7 And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9 For upon the first day of the first month begana he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
11 Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel.
12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time.
13 I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
14 Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king,b and of his seven counsellors, to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand;
15 And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,
16 And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:
17 That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.
18 And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.
19 The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.
20 And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.
21 And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,
22 Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measuresc of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.
23 Whatsoeverd is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
24 Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.
25 And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.
26 And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment,e or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:
28 And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.
Ezra 7:1. Ezra the son, or grandson of Seraiah. His genealogy was of the highpriests' line in several ages; and the dignity of his birth might be one cause of his being so much noticed while in Babylon. It appears from the sixth chapter of the first of Chronicles, that he omits many of his ancestors who were of less note. Considering that Ezra was now a prince as well as a priest, it was proper to trace his birth.
Ezra 7:6. Ezra a ready scribe in the law of Moses. This is said in the third person, and might modestly be so said, compared with other scribes, who had not much opportunity of learning in Babylon. If otherwise, as bishop Watson notes in his answer to Thomas Paine, such parentheses might once have stood in the margin.
Ezra 7:9. The first day of the first month. He moved with forty two thousand people after the latter rain, travelled the circuitous route north of the Euphrates, and being heavily encumbered, we need not wonder that the journies occupied four months. From the river Ahava, as in chap. Ezra 8:31, they would leave Babylon to the south.
Ezra 7:14. His seven counsellors. Seven satraps having conspired against Smerdis the usurper and slain him, the kings who succeeded to the throne were, in honour of this heroic deed, surrounded by seven counsellors, who possessed the first honours of the empire.
Ezra 7:22. A hundred measures of wheat. Hebrews כוריז corizt. From the root kôr, Latin, corus; a dry measure, containing ten ephahs, about the load of an ass. Our miners use the word for the côr, or corf, in which they draw up coals from the bottom of the pit. The wheat, wine &c. were for the workmen.
Ezra 7:26. Let judgment be executed unto death. The scale of four degrees of punishment corresponds with the degrees of crime, which intimates that justice was accurately administered in the Persian empire.
REFLECTIONS.
This chapter ushers us into a new reign, pregnant with new mercies to Israel. The good Zerubbabel was now dead, and probably all his pious contemporaries. But God raised up a gracious protector in the person of Artaxerxes, the Ahasuerus in Esther, whose edict was as balm to heal the deep wounds of the Hebrews; and God raised up another great and good governor in the person of Ezra. Hence whether we consider the rich favours of this heathen prince, the piety of Ezra, or the extensive powers of his commission; we see the richest traces of that same divine hand, which has never ceased to care for the church. Oh that the innumerable signs we have of his peculiar care might make us confident of his never ceasing love, that we may live happy at all times, and dependant on him alone.
We have Ezra's qualifications for the high duties to which he was called. He had prepared his heart, from his youth, to seek the Lord; and to teach Israel his statutes and judgments. Here is a model for all young men designated for the sacred ministry, or for public life. They know not to what they may be called, nor of what they may have need before they die; therefore they should lay in a store of useful knowledge and literature; and above all, a good groundwork of real conversion and solid piety. Then if providence call them to a more exalted station, they are qualified to discharge it with credit to themselves, and happiness to their connections.
Ezra accustomed himself to trace the kind regards of providence in all that befel him. He left the interior parts of Babylon with many eminent persons of his nation, and with a multitude of men, women, and children; and heavily encumbered with property. They had gone destitute into captivity, and now return clothed and enriched. He crossed the Euphrates, and reached Jerusalem in four months; and gratefully remarks, that he arrived there “according to the good hand of the Lord.” Let us, after him, learn to see the divine goodness in the daily occurrences of life. Remarks of this nature strikingly set God before us, and have a powerful effect in promoting gratitude to him, and trust in his holy providence.
Ezra's piety was of the most enlightened kind. Struck with the bounty of his gracious king, he does not record on his journal any fulsome compliments of homage and flattery; but he blesses the God of his fathers, who had put it into the king's heart to beautify and enrich the house of the Lord. True piety, and an enlightened faith, will look through all secondary causes to God, the doer and the giver of all good things. Thus we find every age fruitful in the divine goodness and care. May we so trace his allwise and bounteous hand, as to adore him in all his ways, and bear some resemblance to him in goodness and love.