Category: Exile and Return Notes

Ezra’s Prayer about Intermarriage Ezra is told by the priests that those who returned have intermarried with the neighboring people who practiced abominations in God’s sight. Ezra concludes with a heartfelt prayer of confession and thanks that God has not treated them as they deserve.

List of the Family Heads Returning With Ezra Ezra provides a list of the number of men from each family that will be returning with him The Return to Jerusalem Before they leave, they all meet and Ezra discovers that there are no Levites. Ezra sends word and many Levites come with them. He divides…

Ezra Comes to Jerusalem Ezra details his lineage and his journey from Babylon to Jerusalem under the reign of King Artaxerxes. Artaxerxes’ Letter to Ezra In the letter, Artaxerxes authorizes Ezra to collect money from those still in Babylon and to use it for the temple. He also instructs how much Babylon will provide and…

The Decree of Darius Darius finds the record of the command to rebuild the temple and replies to Tattenai telling him that they should be allowed to continue the rebuilding. He also tells him to provide anything they lack and to provide animals for the daily sacrifices. The Completion and Dedication of the Temple Work…

Tattenai’s letter to Darius Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, inquires of Darius who has given permission for the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt. The rest of this chapter is devoted to the text of the letter he sends.

Opposition to the Rebuilding The enemies of Judah and Benjamin come first and offer their assistance to rebuild the temple. But Zerubbabel does not accept their help. Then they send a letter to the king to inform him that Jerusalem was destroyed because of their rebellion and sedition. The king consults the archives and sees…

Rebuilding the Altar The priests first rebuilt the altar and began all the regular sacrifices according to what had been written in the law of Moses. Rebuilding the Temple The workers paid for cedar to be brought in from Lebanon and began work on the foundation of the temple. The people were overwhelmed, some wept…

The inventory continues of all the people who left Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Some were unable to verify there lineage to confirm they were of Israel, so they were excluded from the priesthood and considered unclean. An offering was taken from this group for the funds needed to begin the cleanup efforts.

The List of Exiles Who Returned This chapter begins the listing of some of the key exiles who returned from Babylon to their towns in Judah. The format is a list by family of how many people from each group returned.

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return Cyrus of Persia issues a decree that honors God and he not only credits God with his victories but proclaims that the temple in Jerusalem is to be rebuilt. He also gives back all the gold and silver articles that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple to be restored…