The book of Nehemiah has much in common with the book of Ezra. One can pretty easily group together Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther together as a core set of post-exilic historical narratives. Out of these four books, Chronicles is very similar to Samuel and Kings both in terms of the format as well as the content. Esther (which is the next book after Nehemiah) is very similar to Ruth in that it’s presented as a stand-alone story that has a clear narrative and moral arc.
Ezra and Nehemiah don’t have any close parallels in the other OT books, but are exceptionally similar to each other. They both have a diary-esque kind of flavor as they intermix narrative descriptions of factual events with commentary on their emotions reacting to those situations. Both of these books are highly personal, reflecting the viewpoint of their authors during a major transitional period for their nation.
Ezra and Nehemiah both have a “return to Jerusalem” story, they both have some kind of building project they undertake to help restore Jerusalem to its former glory, and they both face hostility and resistance from their non-Israelite neighbors. They also both face a moral crisis of some kind due to Judeans not properly following the Law (in the case of Ezra, it was intermarriage with foreigners, in the case of Nehemiah, it’s wealthy Judeans charging excessive interest rates on loans to other Judeans during a famine). Both Ezra and Nehemiah seek to restore a religious festival to popular observance, with Ezra re-instituting the Passover and Nehemiah re-instituting the festival of Booths. Since the book describe similar events, they also have similar themes and messages.
There are many other similarities in the writing style and general historical setting, but I want to also point out some of the differences. Perhaps the most important difference is that Ezra is a priest and a scribe, while Nehemiah is a royal official from the Persian king’s court, and Nehemiah is appointed to be governor of Judah. In essence, this means that Nehemiah is acting as a political official and a formal element of the Persian administration, while Ezra is a religious official. They are both in positions of authority, but different kinds of authority. I think this gives them different perspectives, though Nehemiah is still obviously very devout. I don’t think there is any real distinction between Ezra and Nehemiah’s moral systems, but we do see differences between their spheres of authority. Ezra attempts to rebuild the temple (the religious center) and Nehemiah attempts to rebuild the city wall (necessary for military defense).
When reading Nehemiah, my readers should observe two parallel narratives that are interwoven throughout the book. The first is the narrative of Nehemiah himself. This is a highly personal narrative about his own journey first in captivity, as a servant to the king, then his return to Jerusalem, and lastly his challenges and accomplishments as governor of Judea. One thing I like a lot about Nehemiah (and to a similar extent Ezra) is the records of his emotional state in various situations. I remember commenting at length about the earlier books in the OT that tended to have very dry and emotionless descriptions, even in the narrative portions. Nehemiah is a welcome break from that trend.
The second narrative is the story of Judah’s redemption in the midst of their ongoing subjugation to a foreign power. As described above, that story involves Judah battling external enemies (in a political sense), attempting to rebuild the city and facing a moral crisis all at the same time. They are weak, but God is with them and they accomplish much.
Reading through this book, what I see over and over again is the struggles and weakness of the Jewish people. I see their fear in the face of powerful and threatening adversaries, but I see them persisting and struggling and fighting to rebuild.
Overall, I think Nehemiah is a longer book than Ezra and it is more complex, but I don’t think there is anything else that I need to cover in the Introduction; everything else can be discussed more appropriately in each chapter’s commentary. Therefore, let us begin with the first chapter of Nehemiah.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Bible Commentary - Ezra 10
In this chapter, Ezra and the people agree to divorce their foreign wives.
This is the final chapter in the book of Ezra, and it concludes the story about the Judeans and their foreign wives. I mentioned in the previous chapter that I found the conclusion of this book rather abrupt. Every time I read Ezra, I always find myself wondering, “what next?” What happened after the foreign wives were sent away? Did the men remarry Judean women? What happened to Ezra? Did he stay in the promised land or move back to Babylon? Granted, nobody ever writes about their own death, so it’s not like Ezra could write a full account of his life, but without following through into Judah’s later history, this book always felt incomplete to me.
Nevertheless, I will analyze what this chapter does tell us and then after this we move on to the book of Nehemiah.
Beginning in verse 1, we can see that the people emphatically support Ezra. As we read through the chapter we see that Ezra is supported by both the people and the nation’s leaders. To me, this raises the question of why the leaders of Judah did not address the problem before Ezra arrived. From last chapter we saw that the leaders clearly knew that Judeans were marrying foreigners (they were the ones who told Ezra). Here we see that both the people and the leaders acknowledge their foreign marriages are a sin. This is in contrast to previous periods in Israel’s history when the people sinned deliberately and rebelled against God and against Moses and some of the other leaders. I think in this book we see the people much more contrite and humble, compared to their earlier rebellious attitude. In my opinion, I think the Judeans were sincerely broken by their time under Babylonian rule.
However, if they knew it was a sin, and knew it was happening, why didn’t they do anything about it? It’s nice that the people are willing to stop sinning, but why did they need Ezra to come and prod them into motion? It seems to suggest that the leadership (without Ezra) was simply not strong and decisive enough to take action against sin. That said, it seems like they have all the necessary leadership structures in place to enforce Ezra’s order when he commands the people to gather in Jerusalem and separate from their foreign wives.
In the previous chapter I also discussed why intermarrying with foreigners would be considered a sin by Ezra. In verse 3 we see that Ezra’s response is to “fix the glitch”; along with the support of the community leaders, Ezra demands that every Judean separate from his foreign wife. It’s an interesting story if you think about it in terms of biblical morality. A priest moves to Jerusalem, and then tells hundreds of people that they should get divorces. I think it would be fascinating to hear someone preach about this at a church, since it runs contrary to the morality narrative that you normally hear about the sanctity of marriage. Without going into all the details, I will just say that Judah in the restoration era is a substantially different historical context than Judah in the New Testamental period. I think the best way to understand this chapter is the way that Ezra presents it: a call for the people to separate themselves from the idolatry and sin that surrounds them on every side.
This is one of the big differences between Judaism and Christianity: Judaism is generally a call to separate oneself from a sinful world, while Christianity is generally a call to go into a sinful world and transform it. Judaism generally strives to create a utopian society separate from the rest of the world and invite people into it (under strict conditions). Christianity still aims to create a utopia, but it does so by going out into the world and being like salt mixed in with a bowl of dough. From this context, Ezra is asking the people to separate themselves from the idolatrous foreigners so that they could be wholly dedicated to God.
The rest of the chapter just flows through the logistics of fulfilling Ezra’s command which I don’t find particularly interesting. There are a few minor notes I would like to include.
First, in verse 4, the people tell Ezra to “be courageous and act”. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but this reminds me of God’s command to Joshua in Joshua 1:9 when the LORD tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous”.
Second, I find it a surprisingly human touch when Ezra mentions the heavy rain in verse 9. As far as I can remember, this is the first (and possibly only) reference to weather as an element of a biblical story. The bible references weather frequently as a reward or judgement from God (e.g. you have sinned therefore you will have a long drought), but as a neutral component of everyday life I can’t think of any other place the bible discusses weather. For instance, search the bible for words like “cloudy” or “sunny” or anything like that. It might depend on your translation but at least for the NASB I can’t find anything.
And with that, we conclude the book of Ezra. Next, we will read the book of Nehemiah. See you there!
This is the final chapter in the book of Ezra, and it concludes the story about the Judeans and their foreign wives. I mentioned in the previous chapter that I found the conclusion of this book rather abrupt. Every time I read Ezra, I always find myself wondering, “what next?” What happened after the foreign wives were sent away? Did the men remarry Judean women? What happened to Ezra? Did he stay in the promised land or move back to Babylon? Granted, nobody ever writes about their own death, so it’s not like Ezra could write a full account of his life, but without following through into Judah’s later history, this book always felt incomplete to me.
Nevertheless, I will analyze what this chapter does tell us and then after this we move on to the book of Nehemiah.
Beginning in verse 1, we can see that the people emphatically support Ezra. As we read through the chapter we see that Ezra is supported by both the people and the nation’s leaders. To me, this raises the question of why the leaders of Judah did not address the problem before Ezra arrived. From last chapter we saw that the leaders clearly knew that Judeans were marrying foreigners (they were the ones who told Ezra). Here we see that both the people and the leaders acknowledge their foreign marriages are a sin. This is in contrast to previous periods in Israel’s history when the people sinned deliberately and rebelled against God and against Moses and some of the other leaders. I think in this book we see the people much more contrite and humble, compared to their earlier rebellious attitude. In my opinion, I think the Judeans were sincerely broken by their time under Babylonian rule.
However, if they knew it was a sin, and knew it was happening, why didn’t they do anything about it? It’s nice that the people are willing to stop sinning, but why did they need Ezra to come and prod them into motion? It seems to suggest that the leadership (without Ezra) was simply not strong and decisive enough to take action against sin. That said, it seems like they have all the necessary leadership structures in place to enforce Ezra’s order when he commands the people to gather in Jerusalem and separate from their foreign wives.
In the previous chapter I also discussed why intermarrying with foreigners would be considered a sin by Ezra. In verse 3 we see that Ezra’s response is to “fix the glitch”; along with the support of the community leaders, Ezra demands that every Judean separate from his foreign wife. It’s an interesting story if you think about it in terms of biblical morality. A priest moves to Jerusalem, and then tells hundreds of people that they should get divorces. I think it would be fascinating to hear someone preach about this at a church, since it runs contrary to the morality narrative that you normally hear about the sanctity of marriage. Without going into all the details, I will just say that Judah in the restoration era is a substantially different historical context than Judah in the New Testamental period. I think the best way to understand this chapter is the way that Ezra presents it: a call for the people to separate themselves from the idolatry and sin that surrounds them on every side.
This is one of the big differences between Judaism and Christianity: Judaism is generally a call to separate oneself from a sinful world, while Christianity is generally a call to go into a sinful world and transform it. Judaism generally strives to create a utopian society separate from the rest of the world and invite people into it (under strict conditions). Christianity still aims to create a utopia, but it does so by going out into the world and being like salt mixed in with a bowl of dough. From this context, Ezra is asking the people to separate themselves from the idolatrous foreigners so that they could be wholly dedicated to God.
The rest of the chapter just flows through the logistics of fulfilling Ezra’s command which I don’t find particularly interesting. There are a few minor notes I would like to include.
First, in verse 4, the people tell Ezra to “be courageous and act”. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but this reminds me of God’s command to Joshua in Joshua 1:9 when the LORD tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous”.
Second, I find it a surprisingly human touch when Ezra mentions the heavy rain in verse 9. As far as I can remember, this is the first (and possibly only) reference to weather as an element of a biblical story. The bible references weather frequently as a reward or judgement from God (e.g. you have sinned therefore you will have a long drought), but as a neutral component of everyday life I can’t think of any other place the bible discusses weather. For instance, search the bible for words like “cloudy” or “sunny” or anything like that. It might depend on your translation but at least for the NASB I can’t find anything.
And with that, we conclude the book of Ezra. Next, we will read the book of Nehemiah. See you there!
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Bible Commentary - Ezra 9
In this chapter, Ezra discovers that the people are intermarrying with other peoples and prays to confess his guilt before the LORD.
We are nearing the conclusion of the book of Ezra. In fact, this particular story arc (relating to intermarriage with foreigners) constitutes the subject of both this chapter and the next chapter, which is the last chapter in the book.
As with every book in the bible, I think it is helpful for us to understand the author’s bias and intentions when reading it. For many books (like Kings and Chronicles) we do not know who is the author, but with Ezra we do, and I think that can help guide our interpretation. As I previously discussed, Ezra is a scribe with a special focus on guiding Judah to do “the right thing”, i.e. living in obedience to the Law of Moses and the commands of David.
The majority of this book is Ezra’s descriptions of what happened during the restoration before he personally returned to Jerusalem. We see Ezra place a special focus on the reconstruction of the temple and the Passover. Now that Ezra has arrived in Jerusalem, we see him continue in the same pattern where I believe he is still focused on ensuring that Judah obeys the Law, but now he’s in a position to influence events. Intermarriage with foreigners might seem like a much more mundane detail than the rest of the book, but I think it’s included for two reasons. First, while it may be subtle, I think intermarriage with foreigners is an existential threat to Judah. Second, I think it’s included because it is a meaningful example of Ezra’s responsibilities in the nascent community. Ezra does not have a firm conclusion at the end of the book, which suggests that it may not have been intended to end here. It’s possible that Ezra planned to continue appending to his journal but for whatever reason he was unable to do so. Either way, I think the book of Ezra is still an excellent (if short) account of the early transitional period when Judah was returning to the promised land and some of the challenges they faced during that time.
There are a few questions I want to ask, and then subsequently answer.
First, why did the elders approach Ezra to tell him about this? I think from this passage we can infer that Ezra was considered an authority figure in the community. Besides having a letter from the king himself, he is also leading an expedition of nearly 1,000 men to Jerusalem. It would appear that Ezra is one of the elders of the community.
Second, why is it such an important issue for Judeans to be intermarrying with foreigners, that it is the first thing brought up to Ezra when he settles in the land? Previously I described this as an existential threat, which is pretty strong language but I think it’s deserved in this case. In essence, if they intermarry with non-Judeans, it threatens to undermine the cohesion and culture of the Jewish community. Since they are outnumbered, they risk being absorbed into the larger Middle eastern society in which they exist. I think this is a real threat. We have already seen the almost gravitational pull of idolatry from the surrounding peoples luring both Israel and Judah into sin, and intermarriage with foreigners is a simple continuation of that same threat.
It’s a strange thing, because in modern society intermarriage can often be positioned as a good thing. Interracial marriage, inter-cultural marriage, are considered positive values by many people. Nobody dies, nobody is hurt, in fact these are voluntary marriages so nobody is being forced into it. I think it’s a subtle thing; if you want to keep people alive, then sure, intermarriage is completely fine. However, if you want to keep a culture alive, then there are real reasons why you would seek to keep your culture as isolated as possible from the surrounding forces, especially when your culture is a minority in the region, which is the case here. Since we can see that Ezra’s driving purpose is to maintain the purity of Judah’s faith and devotion to the LORD, his abhorrence of intermarriage with foreigners is a natural result of that attitude.
Lastly, Ezra’s prayer constitutes the majority of this chapter, and I don’t have too much to say about it. I think the language is striking, particularly Ezra’s focus on Judah’s sin and God’s mercy to them through the restoration. In fact, it’s not even a prayer as many people regard prayers, because Ezra does not ask the LORD for anything, it is simply a confession of God’s great mercy and their guilt and sin both before and after that mercy. I think Ezra’s prayer is a concise statement of what he personally thinks about this entire period of their history. After passing through the great trauma of the exile, Judah is now entering a period of tremendous hope; to them, the blessing and favor of God is evident through the kind treatment they are receiving from their Persian rulers. Ezra does not see this as variance in Judah’s relationship with the Persians, he clearly sees events in their history as a reflection of Judah’s relationship with the LORD, and it is the ups and downs of their relationship with the LORD that governs the political reality faced by Judah. Ezra sees great hope in the restoration, and he is legitimately afraid that Judah is going to mess it up by continuing to sin against the LORD.
In the next chapter, we see Ezra’s response to this great sin.
We are nearing the conclusion of the book of Ezra. In fact, this particular story arc (relating to intermarriage with foreigners) constitutes the subject of both this chapter and the next chapter, which is the last chapter in the book.
As with every book in the bible, I think it is helpful for us to understand the author’s bias and intentions when reading it. For many books (like Kings and Chronicles) we do not know who is the author, but with Ezra we do, and I think that can help guide our interpretation. As I previously discussed, Ezra is a scribe with a special focus on guiding Judah to do “the right thing”, i.e. living in obedience to the Law of Moses and the commands of David.
The majority of this book is Ezra’s descriptions of what happened during the restoration before he personally returned to Jerusalem. We see Ezra place a special focus on the reconstruction of the temple and the Passover. Now that Ezra has arrived in Jerusalem, we see him continue in the same pattern where I believe he is still focused on ensuring that Judah obeys the Law, but now he’s in a position to influence events. Intermarriage with foreigners might seem like a much more mundane detail than the rest of the book, but I think it’s included for two reasons. First, while it may be subtle, I think intermarriage with foreigners is an existential threat to Judah. Second, I think it’s included because it is a meaningful example of Ezra’s responsibilities in the nascent community. Ezra does not have a firm conclusion at the end of the book, which suggests that it may not have been intended to end here. It’s possible that Ezra planned to continue appending to his journal but for whatever reason he was unable to do so. Either way, I think the book of Ezra is still an excellent (if short) account of the early transitional period when Judah was returning to the promised land and some of the challenges they faced during that time.
There are a few questions I want to ask, and then subsequently answer.
First, why did the elders approach Ezra to tell him about this? I think from this passage we can infer that Ezra was considered an authority figure in the community. Besides having a letter from the king himself, he is also leading an expedition of nearly 1,000 men to Jerusalem. It would appear that Ezra is one of the elders of the community.
Second, why is it such an important issue for Judeans to be intermarrying with foreigners, that it is the first thing brought up to Ezra when he settles in the land? Previously I described this as an existential threat, which is pretty strong language but I think it’s deserved in this case. In essence, if they intermarry with non-Judeans, it threatens to undermine the cohesion and culture of the Jewish community. Since they are outnumbered, they risk being absorbed into the larger Middle eastern society in which they exist. I think this is a real threat. We have already seen the almost gravitational pull of idolatry from the surrounding peoples luring both Israel and Judah into sin, and intermarriage with foreigners is a simple continuation of that same threat.
It’s a strange thing, because in modern society intermarriage can often be positioned as a good thing. Interracial marriage, inter-cultural marriage, are considered positive values by many people. Nobody dies, nobody is hurt, in fact these are voluntary marriages so nobody is being forced into it. I think it’s a subtle thing; if you want to keep people alive, then sure, intermarriage is completely fine. However, if you want to keep a culture alive, then there are real reasons why you would seek to keep your culture as isolated as possible from the surrounding forces, especially when your culture is a minority in the region, which is the case here. Since we can see that Ezra’s driving purpose is to maintain the purity of Judah’s faith and devotion to the LORD, his abhorrence of intermarriage with foreigners is a natural result of that attitude.
Lastly, Ezra’s prayer constitutes the majority of this chapter, and I don’t have too much to say about it. I think the language is striking, particularly Ezra’s focus on Judah’s sin and God’s mercy to them through the restoration. In fact, it’s not even a prayer as many people regard prayers, because Ezra does not ask the LORD for anything, it is simply a confession of God’s great mercy and their guilt and sin both before and after that mercy. I think Ezra’s prayer is a concise statement of what he personally thinks about this entire period of their history. After passing through the great trauma of the exile, Judah is now entering a period of tremendous hope; to them, the blessing and favor of God is evident through the kind treatment they are receiving from their Persian rulers. Ezra does not see this as variance in Judah’s relationship with the Persians, he clearly sees events in their history as a reflection of Judah’s relationship with the LORD, and it is the ups and downs of their relationship with the LORD that governs the political reality faced by Judah. Ezra sees great hope in the restoration, and he is legitimately afraid that Judah is going to mess it up by continuing to sin against the LORD.
In the next chapter, we see Ezra’s response to this great sin.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Bible Commentary - Ezra 8
In this chapter, Ezra describes the men who traveled with him to Jerusalem and the temple offering they brought.
This chapter reveals Ezra to be the proper scribe that he is, with a long list of names and numbers. Jewish scribes have a well-earned reputation for being precise and detail-oriented, and Ezra is no exception.
I would also like my readers to note how Ezra shifts from third person to first person. In fact he begins speaking in the first person after finishing the king’s letter (see. Ezra 7:28), but before that he wrote his own introduction in the third person. I think the first person section strongly indicates that this book was indeed written by a historical Ezra, and at the same time it shows that sometimes authors in the OT write about themselves in the third person, which may be relevant when assigning authorship to the later prophetic books.
In verses 2-14, Ezra lists first the clan (or family) and then the family patriarch and number of men from that family who were returning. The number of men adds up to just about 1,000 (including women and children, we could expect the total to be around 2500-3000). On the one hand, to my modern mind, this sounds like a large group. I’ve gone on roadtrips with 3-4 people before so the thought of traveling with over 2,000 people seems like a lot to me. On the other hand, this is a very different kind of world they lived in. Remember that the journey took four months and they were traveling through a much more dangerous world than you usually find today. Sadly, it would probably be about as dangerous for 3,000 Jews to travel (on foot) through Iran and Iraq as it was for Ezra and his compatriots 2,500 years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Lastly, I would also like to point out that the size of the group returning with Ezra is much smaller than the number of returning exiles documented in Ezra 2. In that case the number totaled around 50,000 (Ezra 2:64-65). It appears that all of the most willing and capable men left with the first group and the other, following groups are smaller.
Verse 15 is a fascinating observation. Ignoring demographic questions for now, one obvious implication is that the Levites are somehow much less motivated to return to the promised land than “the people and the priests”. My NIV bible notes suggested that the Levites may have had some advantageous economic situation in Babylon and that returning to Jerusalem would have reduced their standard of living. It’s certainly interesting that out of 1,000 returning men, Ezra was only able to find 38 Levites (v. 18-19).
The other side of this verse is that Ezra finds the Levites essential and basically refuses to leave without them. Why is Ezra so determined to bring Levites with him? It is because Ezra, as a scribe, is trying to get things “right”. I am guessing that Ezra has some kind of vision for what temple ministry done correctly looks like, and he is trying to make sure that this vision is fulfilled. 1 Chronicles 23-26 lays out a structure for how temple ministry should be carried out, and the role of the Levites in particular is given in 1 Chron 23. I believe that Ezra was familiar with the text of Chronicles and was intending to follow those regulations as his organizing principle behind temple ministry.
Remember the role of the scribe is to study, practice and teach the Law. While the Law of Moses takes supremacy in the heart of every religious Jew, anything commanded by David would have also been regarded as authoritative. Since David created an exclusive role for the Levites in temple ministry, obeying the commands of David would require Ezra to have Levites with him for temple services*.
Verses 21-23 show more directly the dangerous nature of Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem. This is one of the most important reasons why Ezra (and the other Jews) traveled in such large groups, because it was simply safer to go in larger groups than smaller ones. Even with a group of around 1,000 men Ezra is still concerned about their safety and they fast and pray for a safe journey.
Verses 24 and onwards focuses on the offering of gold and silver that was given by the king, the royalty and the people of Judah in exile. The emphasis in this chapter was on the responsibility of the men administrating the offering. The money is weighed while they are in exile and then weighed again when they reach Jerusalem. Therefore any loss or theft would be noticeable and the priests and Levites who carried the offering would have been held accountable.
While Ezra documents all of his precautions for their safe travel and the offering, apparently everything goes smoothly. Everyone arrives safely in Jerusalem and the offering is also fully accounted upon arrival. Once again I would say that Ezra appears to be detail-oriented and a responsible steward towards everything under his care, and he is successful because of it.
In the next chapter, Ezra faces his first challenge in Jerusalem, when he discovers that the people had been intermarrying with foreigners.
*One counterpoint here is that Levites had most likely gone with Jerubbabel and Jeshua as part of the first group of returning exiles. This means that Ezra bringing Levites with him was not strictly necessary, but I still feel like Ezra’s primary motivation was adherence to David’s ordinances.
This chapter reveals Ezra to be the proper scribe that he is, with a long list of names and numbers. Jewish scribes have a well-earned reputation for being precise and detail-oriented, and Ezra is no exception.
I would also like my readers to note how Ezra shifts from third person to first person. In fact he begins speaking in the first person after finishing the king’s letter (see. Ezra 7:28), but before that he wrote his own introduction in the third person. I think the first person section strongly indicates that this book was indeed written by a historical Ezra, and at the same time it shows that sometimes authors in the OT write about themselves in the third person, which may be relevant when assigning authorship to the later prophetic books.
In verses 2-14, Ezra lists first the clan (or family) and then the family patriarch and number of men from that family who were returning. The number of men adds up to just about 1,000 (including women and children, we could expect the total to be around 2500-3000). On the one hand, to my modern mind, this sounds like a large group. I’ve gone on roadtrips with 3-4 people before so the thought of traveling with over 2,000 people seems like a lot to me. On the other hand, this is a very different kind of world they lived in. Remember that the journey took four months and they were traveling through a much more dangerous world than you usually find today. Sadly, it would probably be about as dangerous for 3,000 Jews to travel (on foot) through Iran and Iraq as it was for Ezra and his compatriots 2,500 years ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Lastly, I would also like to point out that the size of the group returning with Ezra is much smaller than the number of returning exiles documented in Ezra 2. In that case the number totaled around 50,000 (Ezra 2:64-65). It appears that all of the most willing and capable men left with the first group and the other, following groups are smaller.
Verse 15 is a fascinating observation. Ignoring demographic questions for now, one obvious implication is that the Levites are somehow much less motivated to return to the promised land than “the people and the priests”. My NIV bible notes suggested that the Levites may have had some advantageous economic situation in Babylon and that returning to Jerusalem would have reduced their standard of living. It’s certainly interesting that out of 1,000 returning men, Ezra was only able to find 38 Levites (v. 18-19).
The other side of this verse is that Ezra finds the Levites essential and basically refuses to leave without them. Why is Ezra so determined to bring Levites with him? It is because Ezra, as a scribe, is trying to get things “right”. I am guessing that Ezra has some kind of vision for what temple ministry done correctly looks like, and he is trying to make sure that this vision is fulfilled. 1 Chronicles 23-26 lays out a structure for how temple ministry should be carried out, and the role of the Levites in particular is given in 1 Chron 23. I believe that Ezra was familiar with the text of Chronicles and was intending to follow those regulations as his organizing principle behind temple ministry.
Remember the role of the scribe is to study, practice and teach the Law. While the Law of Moses takes supremacy in the heart of every religious Jew, anything commanded by David would have also been regarded as authoritative. Since David created an exclusive role for the Levites in temple ministry, obeying the commands of David would require Ezra to have Levites with him for temple services*.
Verses 21-23 show more directly the dangerous nature of Ezra’s journey to Jerusalem. This is one of the most important reasons why Ezra (and the other Jews) traveled in such large groups, because it was simply safer to go in larger groups than smaller ones. Even with a group of around 1,000 men Ezra is still concerned about their safety and they fast and pray for a safe journey.
Verses 24 and onwards focuses on the offering of gold and silver that was given by the king, the royalty and the people of Judah in exile. The emphasis in this chapter was on the responsibility of the men administrating the offering. The money is weighed while they are in exile and then weighed again when they reach Jerusalem. Therefore any loss or theft would be noticeable and the priests and Levites who carried the offering would have been held accountable.
While Ezra documents all of his precautions for their safe travel and the offering, apparently everything goes smoothly. Everyone arrives safely in Jerusalem and the offering is also fully accounted upon arrival. Once again I would say that Ezra appears to be detail-oriented and a responsible steward towards everything under his care, and he is successful because of it.
In the next chapter, Ezra faces his first challenge in Jerusalem, when he discovers that the people had been intermarrying with foreigners.
*One counterpoint here is that Levites had most likely gone with Jerubbabel and Jeshua as part of the first group of returning exiles. This means that Ezra bringing Levites with him was not strictly necessary, but I still feel like Ezra’s primary motivation was adherence to David’s ordinances.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Bible Commentary - Ezra 7
In this chapter, Ezra returns to Jerusalem from exile.
This chapter has two main sections. The first section is Ezra’s autobiography and the second section is King Artaxerxes’s letter of authorization for Ezra. I will discuss these two sections in turn.
Beginning with Ezra’s biography, from his genealogy (v. 1-5) we see that Ezra is a priest, a descendant of Aaron and perhaps more interestingly, a descendant of Zadok. In the book of Chronicles, Zadok showed up several times as a prominent figure in the story, and I suggested at the time that it was because the descendants of Zadok may have been increasingly important in the post-exilic era when Chronicles was written. What we see here is that Ezra, one of the authors of the post-exilic histories, is himself a descendant of Zadok. According to Jewish tradition, Chronicles was also written by Ezra which if it were true, would help to explain the bias in Chronicles towards the priestly line of Zadok, though that bias could also be explained by other factors so I don’t think it necessarily indicates Ezra’s authorship.
We also see that Ezra is a scribe, which is something I mentioned in the introduction. I am very interested in learning about the scribal class, because the Jewish scribes are the secret hands behind the OT. Think about it: how many books have we read where we do not know the author? Basically all of them? Especially for the histories like Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, many books in the OT do not have a specific author and it may not even be possible that they had a single author when the book spans over more than a hundred years of time. Behind every book in the OT there is a lineage of scholars who wrote, guarded and transmitted the book down from generation to generation until it reached the present day.
As in the case of Ezra, many of these scholars would have been passionate individuals who dedicated their lives to study the Law, practice it and teach it to others. While many of them lived and died without recognition in modern times, they did not live without making a difference. In fact, I would suspect that many of the scholars who curated the biblical books did not have realized how their diligence to preserve the history of God’s interactions with Israel would change the world. Without men such as Ezra, who “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD”, we might not have the Law with us today and simply put, our knowledge of God and his salvation plan would have been diminished.
Verse 7 also tells us that Ezra went up with priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and “temple servants”. This is another similarity between the book of Ezra and Chronicles, because Chronicles spent a great deal of space discussing the various components of the temple ministry (see e.g. 1 Chron 9, 26). Since all of these groups of people were involved with the temple ministry, it is another way of showing Ezra’s focus on the temple ministry as his central mission for traveling to Jerusalem.
That said, I would also like to point out that Ezra returns to Jerusalem after the temple has been finished. The main people involved with building the temple were Jerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1-2). Ezra is coming in a second wave of refugees, and while he writes about the construction of the temple (likely having interviewed sources who were there), he was not himself involved with its construction.
So what was Ezra’s purpose? Why did he spend four, dangerous months hiking through modern day Iran and Iraq (v. 9)? Ezra’s immediate purpose is given in the letter from Artaxerxes. Ezra is being sent on behalf of the king for several reasons: to “inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem” (v. 14), to bring the king’s offering for the temple (v. 15) and to appoint judges for the Trans-Euphrates province to enforce Jewish religious law on their people. As such, it appears that Ezra is being placed in a role of local authority, being given power to enforce not only their own Law, but also the laws of the king (v. 26).
While these are the reasons the king sent Ezra, I’m not sure that they are the reasons Ezra went. I think Ezra went to Jerusalem because firstly, like most other religious Jews, he wanted to return to the land of the covenant with God. Second, I think Ezra wanted to fulfill his role as a scribe: to instruct the people in Jerusalem and ensure that they are properly obeying the Law of the LORD.
The terms of the letter to Ezra are highly favorable, giving him liberty to collect money as needed from the royal treasury, an offering for the temple, freedom from taxes, and authority to enforce the religious and royal laws. It’s no wonder that Ezra repeatedly thanks God for his favorable treatment (v. 6, 27, 28).
Ultimately, Ezra is going to Jerusalem to see if the people are properly following the Law. In the next chapter, we will learn more about Ezra’s companions and journey.
This chapter has two main sections. The first section is Ezra’s autobiography and the second section is King Artaxerxes’s letter of authorization for Ezra. I will discuss these two sections in turn.
Beginning with Ezra’s biography, from his genealogy (v. 1-5) we see that Ezra is a priest, a descendant of Aaron and perhaps more interestingly, a descendant of Zadok. In the book of Chronicles, Zadok showed up several times as a prominent figure in the story, and I suggested at the time that it was because the descendants of Zadok may have been increasingly important in the post-exilic era when Chronicles was written. What we see here is that Ezra, one of the authors of the post-exilic histories, is himself a descendant of Zadok. According to Jewish tradition, Chronicles was also written by Ezra which if it were true, would help to explain the bias in Chronicles towards the priestly line of Zadok, though that bias could also be explained by other factors so I don’t think it necessarily indicates Ezra’s authorship.
We also see that Ezra is a scribe, which is something I mentioned in the introduction. I am very interested in learning about the scribal class, because the Jewish scribes are the secret hands behind the OT. Think about it: how many books have we read where we do not know the author? Basically all of them? Especially for the histories like Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, many books in the OT do not have a specific author and it may not even be possible that they had a single author when the book spans over more than a hundred years of time. Behind every book in the OT there is a lineage of scholars who wrote, guarded and transmitted the book down from generation to generation until it reached the present day.
As in the case of Ezra, many of these scholars would have been passionate individuals who dedicated their lives to study the Law, practice it and teach it to others. While many of them lived and died without recognition in modern times, they did not live without making a difference. In fact, I would suspect that many of the scholars who curated the biblical books did not have realized how their diligence to preserve the history of God’s interactions with Israel would change the world. Without men such as Ezra, who “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD”, we might not have the Law with us today and simply put, our knowledge of God and his salvation plan would have been diminished.
Verse 7 also tells us that Ezra went up with priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and “temple servants”. This is another similarity between the book of Ezra and Chronicles, because Chronicles spent a great deal of space discussing the various components of the temple ministry (see e.g. 1 Chron 9, 26). Since all of these groups of people were involved with the temple ministry, it is another way of showing Ezra’s focus on the temple ministry as his central mission for traveling to Jerusalem.
That said, I would also like to point out that Ezra returns to Jerusalem after the temple has been finished. The main people involved with building the temple were Jerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1-2). Ezra is coming in a second wave of refugees, and while he writes about the construction of the temple (likely having interviewed sources who were there), he was not himself involved with its construction.
So what was Ezra’s purpose? Why did he spend four, dangerous months hiking through modern day Iran and Iraq (v. 9)? Ezra’s immediate purpose is given in the letter from Artaxerxes. Ezra is being sent on behalf of the king for several reasons: to “inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem” (v. 14), to bring the king’s offering for the temple (v. 15) and to appoint judges for the Trans-Euphrates province to enforce Jewish religious law on their people. As such, it appears that Ezra is being placed in a role of local authority, being given power to enforce not only their own Law, but also the laws of the king (v. 26).
While these are the reasons the king sent Ezra, I’m not sure that they are the reasons Ezra went. I think Ezra went to Jerusalem because firstly, like most other religious Jews, he wanted to return to the land of the covenant with God. Second, I think Ezra wanted to fulfill his role as a scribe: to instruct the people in Jerusalem and ensure that they are properly obeying the Law of the LORD.
The terms of the letter to Ezra are highly favorable, giving him liberty to collect money as needed from the royal treasury, an offering for the temple, freedom from taxes, and authority to enforce the religious and royal laws. It’s no wonder that Ezra repeatedly thanks God for his favorable treatment (v. 6, 27, 28).
Ultimately, Ezra is going to Jerusalem to see if the people are properly following the Law. In the next chapter, we will learn more about Ezra’s companions and journey.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Bible Commentary - Ezra 6
In this chapter, the temple is completed and the exiles celebrate the Passover again.
As we might have expected from the previous chapter, the king once again issues a directive to search the royal archives from the former king Cyrus’s order to rebuild the temple and when he finds it, king Darius orders that Cyrus’s order be fulfilled and he gives further donations for the dedication of the temple and sacrifices on behalf of the king. Although Cyrus’s exact motivation can be somewhat hard to discern, I think it’s possible that Darius wants to enforce his predecessor’s order because it projects an aura of royal infallibility if different kings never contradict each other. For instance, in the books of Daniel and Esther there are several times it says that the order of a king may not be repealed. If a king claims, or even implies, that he made a mistake, then it undermines the notion that the king has a divine mandate to rule.
Once the order is found, it’s very unlikely that Darius will contradict it, but he actually goes further by also commanding for royal support. The entire cost of the temple is paid out of taxes from the Trans-Euphrates region and additional animal sacrifices as the priests require are also given so long as they pray for the king’s life and reign (v. 10).
On one hand, we can see this as a joyful victory for the Judean exiles. They have finished the temple and can now offer sacrifices to the LORD. On the other hand, I think what stands out to me here is how the fate of the Judeans is determined largely by the decisions of their foreign rulers. While under the authority of a hostile king, the temple is halted, and while under the authority of a friendly king the temple is constructed. If another king rises up who is hostile to Judah, there is nothing they can do to fight back and control their own destiny. To be sure, the LORD reigns over the earth and can lead even these foreign kings wherever he wishes, but I think it’s notable how powerless the Jews appear through this story.
The chapter concludes with another Passover service, the first one that we have seen since the Babylonian exile over 70 years ago.
Tangent: It’s possible that this really was the first Passover in a generation, because the statutes generally require Jews to perform all animal sacrifices at the temple. With the temple destroyed, the Jews may not have sacrificed any animals during the Babylonian exile. Certainly one of the biggest issues that the rabbis of the Babylonian exile had to resolve was the proper way to follow the Law when the Law itself commands that all sacrifices be performed at the temple. It’s possible that they could have chosen to build a new tabernacle and offered sacrifices there, but there is no historical evidence that they ever did so.
In modern times Jews do not sacrifice animals on the Passover precisely because there is no modern Jewish temple. Without a temple, modern orthodox Jewish interpretation of the Law forbids any animal sacrifice for any reason. A fuller explanation of modern Jewish law is beyond the scope of this post, but I’m just mentioning it because it’s possible the reconstruction of the temple coincides with the restoration of the Jewish festivals and sacrificial offerings. End tangent.
We have evidence from the bible that the Passover may have been especially significant to the returning exiles in Jerusalem. The reason we know this is that Kings and Chronicles are two books covering roughly the same time period and they were written before and after the exile respectively. Therefore we can contrast the structure and focus of these two books to figure out some of the details of how their religious views changed over time. As a basic first principle, whatever events or topics received greater attention in Chronicles compared to Kings were likely more important to the returning exiles than to the pre-exilic Israelites.
Bringing us back to the topic at hand, the Passovers celebrated during the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah were barely discussed at all in the book of Kings but received extensive coverage in the book of Chronicles (2 Chron 30, 35). While we certainly have strong evidence that the Passover was celebrated before the exile (since the book of Exodus is clearly pre-exilic), it appears to have taken on a renewed importance during the restoration era.
I can only speculate as to the reasons why, so that is exactly what I am going to do. My guess is that the post-exilic Jews placed a renewed emphasis on the Passover precisely because it could serve as a connection point to their pre-exilic religious traditions. Securely placed as the first and most important religious festival in the book of Exodus, it is a logical starting point for rebuilding the temple worship system.
In that sense, Chronicles’ particular focus on the Passover celebrations under Hezekiah and Josiah serves a dual purpose. The first, obvious purpose is to highlight the historical role of the Passover celebration in Judah’s history in order to affirm the continuing sanctity and relevance of the Passover in the “modern” times of the restoration era when this book was written. The second, less obvious purpose is that both Hezekiah and Josiah themselves were trying to restore the temple worship system in their own lifetimes, even before the exile. In that sense, it is actually something that both Hezekiah and Josiah have in common with the returning exiles of the restoration era.
To make my point more directly, what are the three things that the returning exiles have done first? They built the temple, they initiate the daily sacrificial offerings (v. 9) and they celebrated the Passover. What were the first three things that Hezekiah did when he became king (2 Chron 29-30)? He cleansed the temple, began daily sacrifices, and celebrated the Passover. What were the first three things that Josiah did (2 Chron 34-35)? He destroyed the altars of Baal, repaired the temple and celebrated the Passover.
It’s almost as if the author of Chronicles was trying to put together a how-to guide for national revival and then the book of Ezra is documenting the Jews of his own time walking through that same process, building the temple and then using the temple as the basis for their sacrificial system and national festivals.
To reiterate my previous point, I believe this same system of temple offerings and national festivals existed before the exile as well, though in many respects it was less centralized (we have considerable evidence that the Israelites worshiped at many different high places, e.g. Gibeon in 1 Kings 3:4). We also know that when the kingdom was divided between north and south, Jeroboam constructed two idols in the northern kingdom specifically to keep the people from going down to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. Therefore in the pre-exilic period, the temple worship system never had the same unifying power as what it attained in the post-exilic period. I think it was always meant to be a unifying force across all twelve tribes, but for political reasons it simply never happened until after the exile and the complete destruction of the northern kingdom, when, for all intents and purposes, “Israel” simply became “Judah”. Political unity came through the destruction of the non-Judean tribes, essentially.
I’m writing all this because I really want to give my readers, to the best that we can discern, a sense of what life was like for Ezra and his contemporaries: their struggles, their victories, their hopes and dreams and their self-perception.
The central issue reflected in Chronicles and Ezra is “restoration”. They are still under the power of the Persians, but they have been granted a certain measure of favor with their masters to go and rebuild their society. A particular emphasis is placed on rebuilding their religious system in the same way that Hezekiah and Josiah did, following the pattern established by David. David stands above all others, not only as an embodiment of devotion to the LORD to be emulated, but as a foreshadow to the expected messiah, who would come to free the Judeans from their oppressors and bring about a great deliverance.
Make no mistake about it: the Jews expected that their religious devotion to the LORD would produce an eventual political deliverance from their enemies. The binary language in Deuteronomy and elsewhere leaves little room for misinterpretation. It says that if Israel is faithful to obey the LORD’s commands, then they will be set above all other nations, blessed and victorious in every sphere of life (Deut 28:1-14). In the same way, the LORD threatens to destroy Israel and cast them out of the promised land if they fail to obey the covenant and serve other gods. The Jews have seen the fulfillment of this second half of the Law when they were taken to Babylon in the exile, and now that they are restoring the temple worship system, there can be no doubt that they are waiting for God to fulfill the first half, blessing them and making them the greatest nation on earth.
Their hope is to be free, to be an independent and great kingdom again. They hope to have a godly and righteous king to lead them into glory, like David. They are rebuilding the temple and offering sacrifices to follow the pattern established by David because they want to return to God and be faithful to follow the covenant, which is inextricably tied to their foregoing desire for freedom and blessing.
How do they view themselves? Obviously, there is a lot of humility and self-deprecation. They have suffered greatly and blame themselves for bringing it upon themselves by their idolatry. However, they also see themselves as part of this great tradition, descending from David and Solomon and the other great figures of their past. Theirs is a humility at their present circumstances but an aspiration for greatness and a belief that they are still a great people. In a word, the Jews believe they are still “connected”. They believe that even after everything, they are still connected to their past and through it and through the covenant, they are still connected to God.
Their desire to be free and powerful, their desire for a king like David to come back and lead them to glory; these things do not happen during Ezra’s lifetime. Instead, Ezra celebrates smaller victories like the “encouragement” of the king of Assyria (i.e. Persia) in v. 22. For now, many of these greater hopes will be deferred.
I’ve written perhaps longer than I should have, but I think this is important. I hope my readers understand that these same hopes, dreams and struggles continue until the lifetime of Jesus with only minor adjustments, and that these same expectations powerfully shape the Jews’ reaction to Jesus’s ministry.
In the next chapter, Ezra himself travels to Jerusalem.
As we might have expected from the previous chapter, the king once again issues a directive to search the royal archives from the former king Cyrus’s order to rebuild the temple and when he finds it, king Darius orders that Cyrus’s order be fulfilled and he gives further donations for the dedication of the temple and sacrifices on behalf of the king. Although Cyrus’s exact motivation can be somewhat hard to discern, I think it’s possible that Darius wants to enforce his predecessor’s order because it projects an aura of royal infallibility if different kings never contradict each other. For instance, in the books of Daniel and Esther there are several times it says that the order of a king may not be repealed. If a king claims, or even implies, that he made a mistake, then it undermines the notion that the king has a divine mandate to rule.
Once the order is found, it’s very unlikely that Darius will contradict it, but he actually goes further by also commanding for royal support. The entire cost of the temple is paid out of taxes from the Trans-Euphrates region and additional animal sacrifices as the priests require are also given so long as they pray for the king’s life and reign (v. 10).
On one hand, we can see this as a joyful victory for the Judean exiles. They have finished the temple and can now offer sacrifices to the LORD. On the other hand, I think what stands out to me here is how the fate of the Judeans is determined largely by the decisions of their foreign rulers. While under the authority of a hostile king, the temple is halted, and while under the authority of a friendly king the temple is constructed. If another king rises up who is hostile to Judah, there is nothing they can do to fight back and control their own destiny. To be sure, the LORD reigns over the earth and can lead even these foreign kings wherever he wishes, but I think it’s notable how powerless the Jews appear through this story.
The chapter concludes with another Passover service, the first one that we have seen since the Babylonian exile over 70 years ago.
Tangent: It’s possible that this really was the first Passover in a generation, because the statutes generally require Jews to perform all animal sacrifices at the temple. With the temple destroyed, the Jews may not have sacrificed any animals during the Babylonian exile. Certainly one of the biggest issues that the rabbis of the Babylonian exile had to resolve was the proper way to follow the Law when the Law itself commands that all sacrifices be performed at the temple. It’s possible that they could have chosen to build a new tabernacle and offered sacrifices there, but there is no historical evidence that they ever did so.
In modern times Jews do not sacrifice animals on the Passover precisely because there is no modern Jewish temple. Without a temple, modern orthodox Jewish interpretation of the Law forbids any animal sacrifice for any reason. A fuller explanation of modern Jewish law is beyond the scope of this post, but I’m just mentioning it because it’s possible the reconstruction of the temple coincides with the restoration of the Jewish festivals and sacrificial offerings. End tangent.
We have evidence from the bible that the Passover may have been especially significant to the returning exiles in Jerusalem. The reason we know this is that Kings and Chronicles are two books covering roughly the same time period and they were written before and after the exile respectively. Therefore we can contrast the structure and focus of these two books to figure out some of the details of how their religious views changed over time. As a basic first principle, whatever events or topics received greater attention in Chronicles compared to Kings were likely more important to the returning exiles than to the pre-exilic Israelites.
Bringing us back to the topic at hand, the Passovers celebrated during the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah were barely discussed at all in the book of Kings but received extensive coverage in the book of Chronicles (2 Chron 30, 35). While we certainly have strong evidence that the Passover was celebrated before the exile (since the book of Exodus is clearly pre-exilic), it appears to have taken on a renewed importance during the restoration era.
I can only speculate as to the reasons why, so that is exactly what I am going to do. My guess is that the post-exilic Jews placed a renewed emphasis on the Passover precisely because it could serve as a connection point to their pre-exilic religious traditions. Securely placed as the first and most important religious festival in the book of Exodus, it is a logical starting point for rebuilding the temple worship system.
In that sense, Chronicles’ particular focus on the Passover celebrations under Hezekiah and Josiah serves a dual purpose. The first, obvious purpose is to highlight the historical role of the Passover celebration in Judah’s history in order to affirm the continuing sanctity and relevance of the Passover in the “modern” times of the restoration era when this book was written. The second, less obvious purpose is that both Hezekiah and Josiah themselves were trying to restore the temple worship system in their own lifetimes, even before the exile. In that sense, it is actually something that both Hezekiah and Josiah have in common with the returning exiles of the restoration era.
To make my point more directly, what are the three things that the returning exiles have done first? They built the temple, they initiate the daily sacrificial offerings (v. 9) and they celebrated the Passover. What were the first three things that Hezekiah did when he became king (2 Chron 29-30)? He cleansed the temple, began daily sacrifices, and celebrated the Passover. What were the first three things that Josiah did (2 Chron 34-35)? He destroyed the altars of Baal, repaired the temple and celebrated the Passover.
It’s almost as if the author of Chronicles was trying to put together a how-to guide for national revival and then the book of Ezra is documenting the Jews of his own time walking through that same process, building the temple and then using the temple as the basis for their sacrificial system and national festivals.
To reiterate my previous point, I believe this same system of temple offerings and national festivals existed before the exile as well, though in many respects it was less centralized (we have considerable evidence that the Israelites worshiped at many different high places, e.g. Gibeon in 1 Kings 3:4). We also know that when the kingdom was divided between north and south, Jeroboam constructed two idols in the northern kingdom specifically to keep the people from going down to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. Therefore in the pre-exilic period, the temple worship system never had the same unifying power as what it attained in the post-exilic period. I think it was always meant to be a unifying force across all twelve tribes, but for political reasons it simply never happened until after the exile and the complete destruction of the northern kingdom, when, for all intents and purposes, “Israel” simply became “Judah”. Political unity came through the destruction of the non-Judean tribes, essentially.
I’m writing all this because I really want to give my readers, to the best that we can discern, a sense of what life was like for Ezra and his contemporaries: their struggles, their victories, their hopes and dreams and their self-perception.
The central issue reflected in Chronicles and Ezra is “restoration”. They are still under the power of the Persians, but they have been granted a certain measure of favor with their masters to go and rebuild their society. A particular emphasis is placed on rebuilding their religious system in the same way that Hezekiah and Josiah did, following the pattern established by David. David stands above all others, not only as an embodiment of devotion to the LORD to be emulated, but as a foreshadow to the expected messiah, who would come to free the Judeans from their oppressors and bring about a great deliverance.
Make no mistake about it: the Jews expected that their religious devotion to the LORD would produce an eventual political deliverance from their enemies. The binary language in Deuteronomy and elsewhere leaves little room for misinterpretation. It says that if Israel is faithful to obey the LORD’s commands, then they will be set above all other nations, blessed and victorious in every sphere of life (Deut 28:1-14). In the same way, the LORD threatens to destroy Israel and cast them out of the promised land if they fail to obey the covenant and serve other gods. The Jews have seen the fulfillment of this second half of the Law when they were taken to Babylon in the exile, and now that they are restoring the temple worship system, there can be no doubt that they are waiting for God to fulfill the first half, blessing them and making them the greatest nation on earth.
Their hope is to be free, to be an independent and great kingdom again. They hope to have a godly and righteous king to lead them into glory, like David. They are rebuilding the temple and offering sacrifices to follow the pattern established by David because they want to return to God and be faithful to follow the covenant, which is inextricably tied to their foregoing desire for freedom and blessing.
How do they view themselves? Obviously, there is a lot of humility and self-deprecation. They have suffered greatly and blame themselves for bringing it upon themselves by their idolatry. However, they also see themselves as part of this great tradition, descending from David and Solomon and the other great figures of their past. Theirs is a humility at their present circumstances but an aspiration for greatness and a belief that they are still a great people. In a word, the Jews believe they are still “connected”. They believe that even after everything, they are still connected to their past and through it and through the covenant, they are still connected to God.
Their desire to be free and powerful, their desire for a king like David to come back and lead them to glory; these things do not happen during Ezra’s lifetime. Instead, Ezra celebrates smaller victories like the “encouragement” of the king of Assyria (i.e. Persia) in v. 22. For now, many of these greater hopes will be deferred.
I’ve written perhaps longer than I should have, but I think this is important. I hope my readers understand that these same hopes, dreams and struggles continue until the lifetime of Jesus with only minor adjustments, and that these same expectations powerfully shape the Jews’ reaction to Jesus’s ministry.
In the next chapter, Ezra himself travels to Jerusalem.
Bible Commentary - Ezra 5
In this chapter, the Judeans begin building the temple again and the local officials ask the king a second time if the temple should be permitted.
Having been commanded by the authorities in the previous chapter to not build the temple, the Jews decide in verse 2 that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so they simply start rebuilding the temple until someone comes again to tell them to stop. The prophets play a key role as well, encouraging the leaders. Both Haggai and Zechariah have their own prophetic books amongst the minor prophets, so my readers may wish to read those books while going through Ezra and Nehemiah for the additional perspectives.
There are many parallels between this chapter and the previous one. In both chapters, the Judeans begin rebuilding the temple. In both chapters, Persian officials write a letter to the king asking if the Judeans should be permitted to rebuild the city. The next chapter has the Persian king again searching through the royal archives to find past records about Judah.
In both cases I would also say the king is relatively neutral and detached from the situation in Judah. Even in the previous chapter I would not say that Artaxerxes showed any real malice towards the Judeans. Instead, king Artaxerxes’s response was shaped by the tone of the letter that he received and the (real) historical basis in Judah’s rebellions against the Babylonians.
The real difference between these two letters is the reaction of the local Persian authorities. In the previous chapter, the local authorities were Samaritan men hostile to Judah. In this chapter, the local Persian governor and other officials seem much more neutral. Their letter to the king is largely shaped by the response of the Judean elders, who highlight king Cyrus’s (real) order permitting the reconstruction of the temple. I think the key difference is in verse 5: “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews”. By the grace of God, the Jews had favor with their local Persian officials and they were able to control the narrative sent to king Darius. I also think it’s interesting how both letters are able to cite real events in support of opposite conclusions. Asking the king to confirm Jerusalem’s rebellious history, the enemies of Judah stopped the temple, but now asking the king to confirm Cyrus’s order to rebuild the temple, Judah is on the path to success.
I think it’s peculiar how the enemies of Judah disappear entirely from this chapter. What happened to them? Zerubbabel is still the chief leader of the Judeans so it’s not like some huge amount of time has passed, and yet the overt resistance to the Judeans has vanished. We are not given an explanation for this. To the Judeans, it is a windfall; they are permitting to renew construction of the temple under the leadership of the prophets and their efforts go unimpeded.
In the next chapter, the king affirms the Judean efforts and the temple is completed.
Having been commanded by the authorities in the previous chapter to not build the temple, the Jews decide in verse 2 that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so they simply start rebuilding the temple until someone comes again to tell them to stop. The prophets play a key role as well, encouraging the leaders. Both Haggai and Zechariah have their own prophetic books amongst the minor prophets, so my readers may wish to read those books while going through Ezra and Nehemiah for the additional perspectives.
There are many parallels between this chapter and the previous one. In both chapters, the Judeans begin rebuilding the temple. In both chapters, Persian officials write a letter to the king asking if the Judeans should be permitted to rebuild the city. The next chapter has the Persian king again searching through the royal archives to find past records about Judah.
In both cases I would also say the king is relatively neutral and detached from the situation in Judah. Even in the previous chapter I would not say that Artaxerxes showed any real malice towards the Judeans. Instead, king Artaxerxes’s response was shaped by the tone of the letter that he received and the (real) historical basis in Judah’s rebellions against the Babylonians.
The real difference between these two letters is the reaction of the local Persian authorities. In the previous chapter, the local authorities were Samaritan men hostile to Judah. In this chapter, the local Persian governor and other officials seem much more neutral. Their letter to the king is largely shaped by the response of the Judean elders, who highlight king Cyrus’s (real) order permitting the reconstruction of the temple. I think the key difference is in verse 5: “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews”. By the grace of God, the Jews had favor with their local Persian officials and they were able to control the narrative sent to king Darius. I also think it’s interesting how both letters are able to cite real events in support of opposite conclusions. Asking the king to confirm Jerusalem’s rebellious history, the enemies of Judah stopped the temple, but now asking the king to confirm Cyrus’s order to rebuild the temple, Judah is on the path to success.
I think it’s peculiar how the enemies of Judah disappear entirely from this chapter. What happened to them? Zerubbabel is still the chief leader of the Judeans so it’s not like some huge amount of time has passed, and yet the overt resistance to the Judeans has vanished. We are not given an explanation for this. To the Judeans, it is a windfall; they are permitting to renew construction of the temple under the leadership of the prophets and their efforts go unimpeded.
In the next chapter, the king affirms the Judean efforts and the temple is completed.
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