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Introduction
The oldest Jewish tradition is that Ezra is the author of this book, as he was the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles. Ezra was a priest of Israel – that is, a descendant of Moses’ brother Aaron. Ezra doesn’t appear personally in the book until the seventh chapter, which occurs almost a century after the book’s history begins.
The last two verses of 2 Chronicles are practically identical to the first three verses of Ezra, tightly linking the two books and indicating that what happened in the book of Ezra happened after what happened in the books of Chronicles. What happened in between the books of Chronicles and the book of Ezra was the 70 years of Babylonian Captivity. It was during those 70 years that most of the events in the book of Daniel took place. As for the events in the book of Esther, they took place during the same general time period as the events in the book of Ezra. That is, not all Jews returned when Cyrus allowed it; many continued living among the Diaspora.
Jerusalem had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon after he had exiled most of its inhabitants to his kingdom. The book of Ezra is about Jews returning to Jerusalem in order to rebuild it in the hope of Messiah. That is, returning Jews believed in the promises of God, especially to David about a descendant of his reigning as king over a realm more impressive than David’s or Solomon’s. What was revealed after Ezra’s time – in the New Testament – is that Messiah’s kingdom would be as much greater than David’s and Solomon’s by the same measure that heaven is greater than earth. For the kingdom of Messiah would be a heavenly one, not an earthly one.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah have everything to do with each other, and, indeed, were treated as one book in the oldest manuscripts and commentaries. At the end of Nehemiah, I have written a conclusion to Ezra and Nehemiah viewed as a whole.
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Ezra 1
King Cyrus of Persia Releases the Jews to Rebuild Jerusalem
Ezra 1:1-4
The last verses of 2 Chronicles match the first verses of Ezra. (See the introduction to the book above for more on what this linkage means.)
Ezra 1:1-3 – With the reign of Cyrus, the kingdom of Persia has superseded the kingdom of Babylon per the prophecy of Daniel (Dan 2). It is also fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy. The word of the Lord to Jeremiah about this issue included these:
Jer 25:12 ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the LORD, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
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Jer 29:10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
Jer 29:11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
The book of Ezra is describing the fulfillment of God’s promise to Jeremiah that the exile would only last seventy years. But it is a fulfillment in the same way that Joshua was a fulfillment of God’s promise to Moses (Deut 18:15) and Solomon was a fulfillment of God’s promise to David (2 Sam 7:12-16), which is to say that the fulfillment was only a “down payment” that foreshadowed the ultimate and far greater fulfillment through Messiah.
Through Messiah, the seventy years in Babylon (exile from Jerusalem, captivity in Babylon) was a symbolic representation of a human life on earth. And thus the return to Jerusalem symbolizes our return to God at death.
Ps 90:10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Before the second coming of Messiah, we “flew away” to Sheol (Hades) below; ever since, we “fly away” to heaven. Sheol was apart from God; heaven is with Him. The old covenant believers just hope to live again somehow; new covenant believers know where we’re going who’ll be there to receive us. That’s why Psalm 90 was written by a old covenant believer, but this hymn be written by a new covenant believer:
Some glad morning when this life is over
by albert brumley © Albert E Brumley & Sons, Chandos Music Company
I’ll fly away
To a home on God’s celestial shore
I’ll fly away
I’ll fly away, oh, Glory
I’ll fly away
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by
I’ll fly away
Just a few more weary days and then
I’ll fly away
To a land where joy shall never end
I’ll fly away
Thus Jer 29:11 initially speaks to the future God was giving Israel after the Babylonian Captivity, but this was just a down payment for the fullness of this promise which was that God was going to give us the future of a whole new life after death – eternal life.
Jer 29:10 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
Jer 29:11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Thus the old covenant provided “a future and a hope,” but the new covenant a far greater “future and hope.”
Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
Another plus to this better promise of the better covenant is that the Jerusalem above does not have to be rebuilt. It was fully prepared for us. It is the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly one.
John 14:3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus was speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem that He Himself – not any man or group of men – built.
Gal 4:26 …the Jerusalem above…
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Heb 12:22 …the heavenly Jerusalem…
Ezra 1:4 – Back to the earthly Jerusalem, exiles who did not make the return to Jerusalem were encouraged to support those who did.
The Return Begins
Ezra 1:5-11
Not only did exiles and/or their children return to Israel, but they were accompanied by freewill offerings of their fellow Jews as well as items from Solomon’s temple that Nebuchadnezzar had hauled off to Babylon when he took the exiles seventy years before.
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Ezra 2
A Census of the Returnees
Census data in the Bible is like genealogical data – good for reference purposes, but not smooth reading.
People Returning
Ezra 2:1-35
Ezra 2:2 – The Nehemiah and Mordecai who are named here are different from the ones in the books of Nehemiah and Esther. It’s also true that I am not the only Mike who ever lived.
Priests Returning
Ezra 2:36-39
Priests were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Both men were Levites – that is, descendants of Levi.
Levites Returning
Ezra 2:40-60
Levites were descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob.
Priests Removed from Office
Ezra 2:61-63
The qualifications for priests were codified in the Law of Moses.
Census Totals
Ezra 2:64-67
Roughly 50,000 men made for an impressive caravan, but this was but a tiny remnant of the once great nation. Even at the nation’s birth, when they came out of Egypt, they were more than ten times that amount.
Extra Gifts for the House of the Lord
Ezra 2:68-69
Perhaps it was the sight of the temple site that moved them. In any case, it would have been a very emotional time for the people returning.
Cities beyond Jerusalem Re-Settled
Ezra 2:70
Many priests and Levites were needed in Jerusalem to make and keep the temple functional, but many were also needed to live among all the people of the nation. Moses and Joshua had established this distribution from the beginning of the nation.
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Ezra 3
Altar and Sacrifices Restored
Ezra 3:1-7
Ezra 3:1-3 – The first step of rebuilding the temple of the Lord was to build the altar and resume offering animal sacrifices – and to do it all according to the Law of Moses. These are things they could not do while they held captive in Babylon.
Ezra 3:4-5 – They next began resuming celebration of the feasts Moses designated, beginning with the Feast of Booths.
Ezra 3:6-7 – At this stage, they had not yet attempted to lay again the foundation of the house of the Lord.
Temple Restoration Begun
Ezra 3:8-13
Ezra 3:8-9 – A year after their return to Jerusalem, the former exiles make the personnel assignments necessary to begin reconstruction of the temple.
Ezra 3:10:11 – Moses had been the one to establish the procedures of the tabernacle including all the rules for offering sacrifices to the Lord. These instructions are found in the Law of Moses (Ex, Lev, Num, and Deut). David, however, is the one who gave the expanded directions appropriate to the transition from tabernacle to temple. This included directions for musical instruments and choirs. Some of these directions are found in the book of Psalms which David put together, writing as many as half the psalms himself.
Ezra 3:12-13 – Their mixed emotions can be easily understood: grief over the loss, joy over the opportunity for a new beginning.
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Ezra 4
It is a feature of this world that work for the Lord draws out adversaries.
Adversaries Hinder the Work
Ezra 4:1-7
A Letter of Complaint to King Artaxerxes
Ezra 4:8-16
King Artaxerxes Responds, Halting the Work
Ezra 4:17-24
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Ezra 5
Temple Work Resumed
Ezra 5:1-5
Ezra 5:1 – These two prophets – Haggai and Zechariah – authored the two Old Testament books that bear their names; those books are the 10th and 11th among the 12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. (Major and Minor Prophets)
Prophets sustained the nation of Israel – encouraging or warning, as appropriate – throughout its history. As one of them himself (Hosea) said,
Hos 12:13 But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel from Egypt,
And by a prophet he was kept.
A Letter of Complaint to King Darius
Ezra 5:6-17
The letter asks Darius to determine whether or not King Cyrus had issued the proclamation letter claimed by the returning exiles – the one mentioned in Ezra 1:1-4 as their authority, and repeated several times between that chapter and this one.
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Ezra 6
King Darius Finds the King Cyrus Decree…and Supplements It
Ezra 6:1-12
King Darius delivers nothing that the adversaries who sent were hoping for. Quite to their surprise, he sides with the Jews and adds his own decrees to insure they are helped and not hindered.
The Temple Completed and Dedicated
Ezra 6:13-18
With the authorization and additional support from King Darius, the Jews complete the restoration of the temple. Everything about this “second temple” was less glorious than what had been the case with Solomon’s temple. Yet the people built this one, dedicated it, celebrated it, and offered sacrifices through it just the same. This would be the case until 70 AD when the Romans destroyed it. Herod the Great, who ruled from 37 BC until 4 BC, gave the site a major upgrade around 20 BC, and this was what the apostles were admiring at the beginning (Mt 24:1; Mk 13:1; Lk 21:5) of the Olivet Discourse. It was all consumed when Jerusalem was burned to the ground in 70 AD. (It has never been re-built since then and it has been sitting under the Muslim Dome of the Rock for a thousand years.)The period from this restoration of the temple to 70 AD is called the period of “Second Temple Judaism.” Isaiah wrote about it this way:
Is 6:13 “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”
Isaiah wrote this when kings still reigned in Judah – thus during period prior to “Second Temple Judaism.” Note that he prophesies a “stump” of a “felled” tree, which speaks of the more modest temple that the returning exiles constructed on Solomon’s site. Note also that he speaks of this stump being “subject to burning,” which speaks of the Roman destruction in 70 AD which was just that: a burning. In other words, the Babylonians reduced the tree to a stump in 586 BC and the Romans reduced that stump to ashes in 70 AD. (Key Dates in for Israel)
The Passover and Unleavened Bread Observed
Ezra 6:19-22
Having resumed the Feast of Booths in Ezra 3, the Jews now resume Passover and Unleavened Bread. (Feasts of Israel)
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Ezra 7
The events of Ezra 1 through Ezra 6 cover a period about about 80 years. This chapter is the first time in the book that Ezra mentions himself. He’s been writing history up to this point; now he becomes part of the history. Born as an exiled Jew in Babylon, he now migrates to Jerusalem.
Ezra Journeys from Babylon to Jerusalem
Ezra 7:1-10
Ezra 7:6 – In the New Testament, we often see “scribes” in league with the Pharisees opposing men of God, but it was not always so. Ezra, with “the hand of the Lord his God…upon him” was obviously a man like Jacob, Joseph, and Daniel.
Ezra 7:10 – Ezra provides the three-step sequence that Jesus Himself followed, but that the Pharisees famously did not. See BSN note on Matt 23:1-3.
***** While we should definitely adhere to the three-step sequence that Ezra articulated so well, we must also note one key distinction. It is that “the law of the Lord” which was Ezra’s focus was the law of Moses (Ezra 7:6), whereas “the law of the Lord” on which we focus is the law of Jesus. This distinction is consistent with the reality that Ezra was under the old covenant and we are under the new covenant. Jesus gives a foundational understanding of what it means to be under His law instead of the Law of Moses in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7). (For some explanation, see the BSN notes on those chapters, and also The Law of Moses in the Kingdom of God.)
One important aspect of this distinction is that we read the Old Testament that Ezra did, but we don’t read it the way he did. It’s the same God and the same fundamental principles, but the teaching of Moses was according to the flesh while the teaching of Jesus is according to the spirit. The most obvious example of this is that the Law of Moses pertained to Jews – physical descendants of the man Abraham. But the law of Jesus pertains to everyone – physical descendants of Adam (Jew and Gentile alike). Consistent with this distinction, Moses’ teaching was about behavior but Jesus’ teaching is about the motives of behavior (the heart). The New Testament helps us navigate these two different ways of interpretation. As Paul explains…
2 Cor 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2 Cor 3:2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
2 Cor 3:3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Cor 3:4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
2 Cor 3:6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
2 Cor 3:8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
2 Cor 3:9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
2 Cor 3:10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
2 Cor 3:11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
2 Cor 3:12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
2 Cor 3:13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
2 Cor 3:14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
2 Cor 3:15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
2 Cor 3:16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Note the conclusion here: the goal of the law of the Lord Jesus is to make us like Him.
Luke 6:40 “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
By contrast, the goal of the Law of Moses was to establish and maintain a nation until Messiah could be born and raised in it. Ezra’s goal was admirable: to become a Levite like Moses. Our goal is to become like Jesus, and if Ezra could have switched places with us, he would have done so in a heartbeat.
Matt 13:16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.
Matt 13:17 “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Don’t ever allow yourself to get bogged down in the Old Testament. If you don’t understand how some part of it relates to Jesus, search for a part you can understand that way. If you can’t find one, go back to reading the New Testament exclusively until you find in it a way to understand some part of the Old Testament. That won’t take long because the New Testament is constantly explaining the Old Testament and how it applies to Jesus. In fact, the New Testament hardly ever quotes itself, but practically every page of it quotes the Old Testament.
***** Let’s be the kind of priests to our respective families that Ezra was to the Israel of his day. That is, let us deal with them in the way God has always wanted his priests to deal with His people.
Heb 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;
Heb 5:2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;
Heb 5:3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.
Heb 5:4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.
Heb 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,
“YOU ARE MY SON,
TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”;
Heb 5:6 just as He says also in another passage,
“YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER
ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”
You are as called to be a priest as Christ was, for as He was called to the priesthood through the Scriptures, so also are you:
1 Tim 2:8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
Let us see in Aaron and Ezra – and especially in Jesus – patterns of priestly service to follow.
King Artaxerxes’ Decree on Behalf of Ezra
Ezra 7:11-26
A theme of the book of Ezra is the power of official letters to advance and safeguard the work of God. We saw it in the previous chapter with the letter that King Darius sent, confirming the proclamation of King Cyrus and supplementing that proclamation with additional support. We see it again in this letter of King Artaxerxes. For you and me, the Bible is the official letter governing and guiding our lives as men and as priests of our families. Increasing familiarity with the authorizing “letter” will make us increasingly confident in the execution of our assigned duties.
Ezra 7:21-22 – Whatever qualities we need to be righteous men, husbands, and fathers, He will supply us…abundantly.
Phil 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
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Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
Heb 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Ezra 7:23 – Let us not attempt to be godly men, husbands, and fathers without zeal!
Eccl 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…
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John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”
Please repeat after me: “My family is His house.”
Josh 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Ezra 7:25 – Teach your older children to be priests for the younger ones.
Ezra 7:26 – Don’t impose punishments rashly, unwisely, or unfairly – but neither should we flinch at imposing them when necessary.
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Heb 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
My father disciplined me, and though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I sure do now.
Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
The King’s Kindness
Ezra 7:27-28
“Lord, thank You for the Bible – the ‘letter’ that authorizes and empowers the life I now live on Your behalf.”
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Ezra 8
Census of Those Migrating with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem
Ezra 8:1-14
This list amounts to several thousand men, women, and children.
Ezra Sends for Levites
Ezra 8:15-20
Priests were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Both Aaron and Moses were Levites – that is, descendants of Levi. But only Aaron was named a priest; Moses was not. Thus priests were a subset of the Levites, and thus there were always more Levites to tap for help than there were priests.
The Protection of God Invoked
Ezra 8:21-23
Ezra had the good sense to realize that claiming the support of God for your mission on the one hand while holding out the other for a donation without which you claim you won’t be able to go is sending a mixed message.
Treasures for the House of the Lord Entrusted to the Priests
Ezra 8:24-30
It was wise of Ezra to diversify their holdings in case thieves came upon the caravan. Trusting in the Lord does not mean flaunting reasonable precautions.
The Trip
Ezra 8:31-32
The trip went well because Ezra had sought the Lord and planned well.
Is 32:8 But the noble man devises noble plans;
And by noble plans he stands.
Treasures Placed in the Temple
Ezra 8:33-34
Once their destination was reached, all the treasures were all properly accounted for.
Migration Completed
Ezra 8:35-36
The offering of sacrifices in the temple marked the full transition of the people from exiles in Babylon to locals in Jerusalem. And the delivery of the king’s edicts fortified this renewed Jewish presence in the promised land.
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Ezra 9
Mixed Marriages
Ezra 9:1-4
Moses had told the nation Israel that they were to be “holy.”
Ex 19:5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;
Ex 19:6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
To be “holy” was to be set apart for God’s purposes. The main problem with intermarriage was the compromise in morals it brought about in families. The Canaanites, for example, were immoral people. They had no law as demanding as the Law of Moses and their behavior was notorious for its sexual perversion. An individual intermarriage here or there was not necessarily going to be catastrophic for the nation. Jesus the Messiah, for example, had Gentiles in His bloodline including Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabite. These turned out to be strong women of faith. But viewing things more broadly, foreign spouses usually compromised the faith and morals of an Israelite. It was hard enough to maintain the worship of only one God and keep to a substantive and exacting code of conduct (as the Law of Moses was) for a couple mutually committed to those things; but when one of the spouses worships a different god and has a much weaker code of conduct, the family soon descends into moral anarchy. Get this dynamic working in many families and the society as a whole can quickly become corrupted. This is the alarming situation with which Ezra was presented.
Under the new covenant, the Jew-Gentile distinction no longer matters. That is, the old covenant was according to the flesh and the new covenant is according to the spirit. But the problem of being “unequally yoked” still matters under the new covenant.
2 Cor 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
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2 Cor 6:14 KJV Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
The most important decision any human being ever makes is whom to marry. Therefore, one way of describing parenthood is to say that it is the mission raising an infant to the point of being an adult able to marry wisely.
Prayer of Confession
Ezra 9:5-15
In praying this prayer, Ezra demonstrates how a righteous priest thinks and speaks. He is mediating between God and man. Jesus is the ultimate model of a good priest.
Ezra 9:8 – This is a particularly poignant statement – one that those who seek righteousness in America these days can make as well. Are we many or are we few? If we are many, then why does our country’s decline continue unabated? In any case, the Bible offers us direction about how to pray for our fellow human beings.
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Ezra 10
The previous chapter was about Ezra and his contemporaries acknowledging and confessing the sin; this chapter is about their repentance – that is, the changes they made. Confession of sin is important, but turning from it is equally important.
Reconciliation with God
Ezra 10:1-17
Ezra 10:1-4 – This was a difficult matter to address, but it helped that the people were with Ezra. They wanted what he wanted, which was forgiveness from God, removal of the sin, and a righteous path forward.;
Ezra 10:5-8 – Even though the people had good intentions, Ezra knew that it would be easy for them to backslide and give up at any point on the path of repentance. Therefore, he had them take an oath to follow through. Of course, they could still give up somewhere on the path of repentance, but it with the oath taken it would be doubly hard to do so.
Ezra 10:9-12 – This was a painful solution, but things would only get worse if they didn’t follow through.
Ezra 10:13-14 – Swift and complete repentance is always the best, but some sins require a plan and an extended time period to fully execute. Such was the case here. (Another reminder that it’s always better to avoid sin in the first place than to commit it and successfully repent of it.)
Ezra 10:15 – (Sigh) There are always outliers.
Ezra 10:16-17 – A list of offenders was compiled so that the group’s repentance could be managed through to completion.
List of Offenders
Ezra 10:18-44
Like genealogies and census tabulations, a list like this makes for helpful reference material but not so much for enjoyable reading material.
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