Ezra 7:14

Seven counselors. In Esther 1:14 the seven counselors appear as seven princes, who “saw the king’s face” and “sat the first in the kingdom.” No inscriptions have thus far been found to explain further the functions of this group. The conjecture has been made that it refers to the heads of the seven great Persian families, which, according to Herodotus (iii. 84), had privileges that went beyond those enjoyed by other families, including the right of unrestricted access to the royal presence. The law of thy God. Ezra’s commission included the duty of carrying out an investigation into the religious conditions in the province of Judea. For this, the law of God would, of course, be made the standard. The words concerning the law have frequently been understood by critical scholars as implying that Ezra was the author, or at least an editor, of the law referred to. That this view is incorrect can be seen from v. 25, which indicates that this law was already well known to the Palestinian Jews before Ezra’s arrival. It is therefore obvious that “the law of thy God” was a book, or books, already in the possession of Ezra, and of the Jews in Palestine as well. The nature of this law, already known to the Jews of Babylon and Palestine, is revealed in Neh. 8.