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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 7:1 - 7:1
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Ezr 7:1-10 form the introduction to the narrative which follows of Ezra's return to Jerusalem and his ministry there, and speak in general terms of himself and his arrival at Jerusalem with a band of exiles. They are followed, vv. 11-26, by a copy of the royal commission, and a thanksgiving, Ezr 7:27, Ezr 7:28, on the part of Ezra, for the mercy of God bestowed upon him.
Ezr 7:1-6
What follows is slightly combined with the former occurrences by the formula “after these things,” without any more exact chronological definition; comp. Gen 15:1; Gen 22:1, and elsewhere. Between the dedication of the temple in the sixth year of Darius and the arrival of Ezra in Jerusalem, a period of fifty-seven years had elapsed. “In the reign of Artachshasta king of Persia, went up Ezra,” etc. The verb of the subject עֶזְרָא does not follow till Ezr 7:6, where, after the interposition of the long genealogy, Ezr 7:1-5, the distant subject is again taken up in עֶזְרָא הוּא. It is all but universally agreed that Artaxerxes Longimanus is intended by אַרְתַּחְשַׁסְתָּא; the explanation of this appellation as Xerxes in Joseph. Antiq. xi. 5. 1, for which Fritzsche (on 1 Esdr. 8:1) has recently decided, being a mere conjecture on the part of that not very critical historian. The fact that the Artachshasta of the book of Nehemiah (Neh 1:1; Neh 5:14; Neh 13:6) can be no other than Artaxerxes, is decisive of this point: for in Neh 13:6 the thirty-second year of Artachshasta is mentioned; while according to Neh 8:9; Neh 12:26, Neh 12:36, Ezra and Nehemiah jointly exercised their respective offices at Jerusalem.
(Note: Very superficial are the arguments, and indeed the whole pamphlet, Etude Chronologique des livres d'Esdras et de Néhémie, Paris 1868, p. 40, etc., by which F. de Saulcy tries to show that the Artachshasta of Ezra 7 and of Nehemiah is Artaxerxes II (Mnemon).)
Ezra is called Ben Seraiah, whose pedigree is traced to Eleazar the son of Aaron; Seraiah the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, was the father of Josedec the high priest carried into captivity (1Ch 6:14, etc.), and was himself the high priest whom Nebuchadnezzar slew at Riblah (2Ki 25:18-21). Between the execution of Seraiah in the year 588 and the return of Ezra from Babylon in 458 b.c., there is a period of 130 years. Hence Ezra could have been neither the son nor grandson of Seraiah, but only his great or great-great-grandson. When we consider that Joshua, or Jeshua (Ezr 2:2), the high priest who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel, was the grandson of Seraiah, we cannot but regard Ezra, who returned thence 78 years later, as a great-great-grandson of Seraiah. Moreover, we are justified in inferring from the fact that Ezra is not, like Joshua, designated as Ben Josedech, that he did not descend from that line of Seraiah in which the high-priestly dignity was hereditary, but from a younger son, and hence that his immediate ancestors were not (though his forefathers from Seraiah upwards were) of high-priestly descent. Hence the names of Ezra's ancestors from Seraiah up to Aaron (Ezr 7:1-5) agree also with the genealogy of the high-priestly race (1Ch 6:4-14), with the one deviation that in Ezr 7:3, between Azariah and Meraioth, six members are passed over, as is frequently the case in the longer genealogies, for the sake of shortening the list of names. - In v. 6 Ezra, for the sake of at once alluding to the nature of his office, is designated בת מָהִיר סֹוףֵ ר, a scribe skilful in the law of Moses. The word סֹופֵר means in older works writer or secretary; but even so early as Jer 8:8 the lying pen of the סֹפְרִים is spoken of, and here therefore סֹופֵר has already attained the meaning of one learned in the Scripture, one who has made the written law a subject of investigation. Ezra is, however, the first of whom the predicate הַסֹּופֵר, ὁ γραμματεύς, is used as a title. He is so called also in the letter of Artaxerxes (Ezr 7:11), because he is said (Ezr 7:9) to have applied his heart to seek out and to do the law of the Lord, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgment, i.e., because he had made the investigation of the law, for the sake of introducing the practice of the same among the congregation, his life-task; and the king granted him all his desire, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. The peculiar expression עָלָיו אֱלֹהָיו יהוה כְּיַד which is found only here and in Ezr 7:9, Ezr 7:28, Ezr 8:18; Neh 2:8, Neh 2:18, and in a slightly altered guise in Ezr 8:22, Ezr 8:31, “according to the good hand of his God, which was over him,” means: according to the divine favour or divine care arranging for him; for the hand of God is הַטּובָה, the good (Ezr 7:9, and Ezr 8:18), or לְטֹובָה, Ezr 8:22. בַּקָּשָׁה, the desire, request, demand, occurs only here and in the book of Esther.
Ezr 7:7-10
With Ezra went up a number of Israelites, priests, and Levites. מִן partitive: a part of the whole. That they went up with Ezra appears from the context, and is expressly stated both in the royal edict (Ezr 7:13) and in the further description of the expedition (Ezr 7:28, Ezr 8:1). They went up in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and reached Jerusalem in the fifth month of that year. - In Ezr 7:8 Ezra is again, as in Ezr 7:6, the subject of the sentence; the intervening seventh verse being really only in apposition with Ezr 7:6. - In Ezr 7:9 the time occupied by the journey is more precisely defined; כִּי is explanatory. Namely, on the first day of the first month, he had appointed the journey from Babylon, etc. The Keri יְסֻד הוּא can only mean, ipsum erat fundamentum profectionis, as J. H. Mich. after R. Sal. explains it, for יְסֻד is pointed as the construct state. The departure of the expedition from the place of meeting occurred, according to Ezr 8:31, on the twelfth day of the first month. Since, however, they encamped three days there, making the final preparations for their journey, eleven days might easily elapse between the period when the whole caravan had assembled, and the day of actual departure. The Keri offers no appropriate signification; for since הוּא can only be taken for the subject, and הם יְסֻד for the predicate, the sentence would contain an anacoluthon. To translate הוּא by ipsum cannot be justified by the usages of the language, for there is no such emphasis on יְסֻד as to cause הוּא to be regarded as an emphatic reference to the following noun. יסד must be pointed יָסַד or יסַּד, as the third pers. perf. Kal or Piel, meaning to arrange, to appoint, and הוּא referred to Ezra. On הַטּובָה אֱלֹהָיו כְּיַד, comp. Ezr 7:6. The hand of his God graciously arranged for him, for he had prepared his heart to seek and to do the law of Jahve, i.e., to make the law of God his rule of action. לְבָבֹו הֵכִין, like 2Ch 12:14; 2Ch 19:3; 2Ch 30:19. To teach in Israel statutes and judgments, as both are prescribed in the law of God.