Ezra 7:1

UNDER ARTAXERXES I; EZRA RETURNS FROM BABYLON

"After these things in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia ..."

This verse establishes the chronology of this chapter which features Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, but the problem centers in the question of just which one of the two kings of Persia named Artaxerxes is the one spoken of here.

Those kings were Artaxerxes I (Longimanus) who reigned 465-425 B.C., and Artaxerxes II (Mnemon) who ruled in 405(4) to 358 B.C. Depending upon which one of these monarchs was meant, there is a gap between Ezra 6 and Ezra 7 here of either 58 years or 117 years. There is a sharp disagreement among scholars on this. C. F. Keil,[1] Merrill F. Unger,[2] Henry H. Halley,[3] John C. Whitcomb, Jr.,[4] F. C. Cook,[5] and Stephen S. Short[6] affirm that Artaxerxes I is the monarch mentioned; and Raymond A. Bowman[7] and Emmett Willard Hamrick[8] designate Artaxerxes II as the ruler spoken of here. H. G. M. Williamson in his award winning commentary (in 1985) made no choice between them writing that, "Assuming that this king is Artaxerxes I (465-425 B.C.), `after these things' covers some fifty-seven years (much more, of course, if Artaxerxes II is intended)."[9] This writer's opinion is that the evidence strongly favors Artaxerxes I.

In the interval indicated by the words "after these things," Ahasuerus had ruled, during which the events centering around the names of Mordecai and Esther had occurred; and some scholars have supposed that Esther's influence might have been a factor in the favorable attitude of Artaxerxes I.

Ezra 7:1-10

THE ABBREVIATED GENEALOGY OF EZRA

"Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest - this Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him. 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 Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on 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. For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances."

The events centered around the name of Ezra must be accounted among the most wonderful things that ever happened to God's people. The immense dimensions of Ezra's request of Artaxerxes stagger the imagination; and the authority given to Ezra by that monarch, making him, in fact, ruler of the entire province beyond the River, with the power of life and death to enforce his reforms appears to have been directly the result of Divine favor and intervention, as positively indicated by Ezra's thanksgiving at the end of the chapter. It seems quite unlikely that Ezra's `request' would have included all that the king gave, unless the request came following the king's decision to turn the government of the satrapy over to Ezra.

The purpose of this genealogy is to show the importance of Ezra as a direct descendant of the great High Priest Aaron. It is also significant that he had a copy of the Law of Moses (Ezra 7:14); and this, we may believe, was also true of many faithful descendants of Aaron through the long centuries between the Exodus and the return from Babylon, making it utterly impossible for any forged document such as the so-called P Code to have been fraudulently imposed upon Israel. That Ezra was in full possession of the Torah indicates the preservation of it through the ages.

"Priests, Levites, singers, porters, Nethinim, ..." (Ezra 7:6). Oesterley wrote that, "That all these various classifications of Israelites should have been available to return with Ezra witnesses a considerable communal organization among the Jews during their captivity."[10]

"On the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the frst day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem" (Ezra 7:9). All of this journey occurred in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I; and Whitcomb gave the date of this journey as being, "From March 27 to July 24,457 B.C., a journey of exactly four months."

"The direct distance between Babylon and Jerusalem is about 520 miles; but the circuitous route usually followed by armies or other large groups was not direct, but went through Carchemish and the Orontes Valley, a distance of about 900 miles."[11]

That Ezra and his company required 120 days to complete this journey, averaging only about eight miles a day was probably due to the dangers encountered and other difficulties associated with moving a large number of people.