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Ezra 7:1-11

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

1. Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, 2. The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, 3. The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, 4. The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, 5. The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest: 6. This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he [was] a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. 7. And there went up [some] of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 8. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which [was] in the seventh year of the king. 9. For upon the first [day] of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first [day] of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. 10. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do [it], and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. 11. Now this [is] the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, [even] a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel.

Ezra 7:1-11 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Ezra 7:1

Theological / Devotional

Now after these things. The author makes a marked division between the first and second sections of the book by means of an expression used nowhere else in the book of Ezra. The actual time interval between events described in ch. 6 and in ch. 7 seems to have been almost 58 years — from the spring of 515 B.C. (see ch. 6:15) to the early months of 457 B.C. (see ch. 7:7). Artaxerxes. For the spelling of the king’s name see Additional Note on Chapter 4. With the majority of conservative scholars, this commentary holds that the Artaxerxes here mentioned is Artaxerxes Longimanus, who reigned from 465-423 B.C. For a summary of the evidence in favor of this view, see Additional Note at the close of this chapter. Ezra the son of Seraiah. Ezra was probably the great-great-grandson of Seraiah. In the language of the Bible writers, every descendant is a “son,” and every ancestor a “father.” Christ is “the son of David,” and David “the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1). Joram “begat Ozias [Uzziah]” (Matt. 1:8), his great-great-grandson (see 1 Chron. 3:11, 12, where Uzziah’s other name, Azariah, is used). Ezra probably omits the names of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, who were undistinguished, and claims descent from Seraiah, the last high priest to minister in Solomon’s Temple (2 Kings 25:18). Azariah, the father of Seraiah, is mentioned only in the genealogical list of 1 Chron. 6:13, 14 and in Ezra 7:1, but Azariah’s father Hilkiah is no doubt the high priest of Josiah’s time (2 Kings 22:4-14; 2 Chron. 34:14-22).

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