Ezra 7:1-28

The Journey of Ezra to Jerusalem

1. Now after.. Artaxerxes] The interval of time here implied amounted to more than fifty years, from the sixth year of Darius (516 b.c.) to the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (458 b.c.). Between the reign of Darius and Artaxerxes there intervened the reign of Xerxes (485-464 b.c.), to which belong the incidents related in the book of Esther. In the early years of his successor Artaxerxes an effort was made to surround Jerusalem, with a wall (see Ezra 4:12), though with no success. Probably to the same period should be assigned the ministry of the prophet Malachi. From his writings it may be gathered that the religious and moral condition of the Jewish community at Jerusalem was very unsatisfactory. The people were divided into two sections, the one scrupulous in their religious duties, the other sceptical and indifferent (Malachi 3:18). The latter party had contracted marriages with heathen women (Ezra 2:11); oppression and immorality were prevalent (Ezra 3:5); the Temple services were neglected (1:6-14); and the maintenance of the priesthood stinted (Ezra 3:8). Against the continuance of these evils the prophet raised a strong protest, denouncing divine judgment upon the offenders, but promising that God's blessing would attend them upon their reformation (Ezra 3:10; Ezra 4:1).

Ezra.. Seraiah] Ezra was a descendant of the Seraiah who was chief priest in the reign of the last king of Judah (2 Kings 25:18). His genealogy as given in Ezra 7:1 is abbreviated by the omission not only of all the generations separating him from Seraiah, but also of many of those between Seraiah and Aaron: cp. 1 Chronicles 6:3.