Ezra: The Return and the Word

Ezra at a Glance

After seventy years in Babylon, God did what He said He would do. Ezra records how a remnant of His people came home. Ezra and Nehemiah were one book in the Hebrew Bible, so the two should be read together.

• Author. Ezra the scribe, a priest of Aaron's family (Ezra 7:1–5). He writes in the first person from the middle of chapter 7, and he drew the earlier chapters from records and royal letters. Parts of the book (4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26) are in Aramaic, the language of the Persian court.
• Date. The events run from about 538 BC to 457 BC. Ezra probably finished the book about 450 BC.
• Written To. The community of the return in Judah, a small people rebuilding under the rule of Persia.
• Setting. The Persian Empire under Cyrus, Darius I, and Artaxerxes I. The first six chapters cover about twenty-two years (538–516 BC). A gap of about fifty-eight years follows, the years of Esther, before Ezra arrives in 458 BC.
• Key Verse. 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 (Ezra 7:10).
• Key Word or Theme. Return and restoration: the temple rebuilt, and the people brought back to the Word of God.