Ezra 7:1-5

SECTION SECOND.

THE ACTS OF EZRA. CHAPS. 7-10.

EZRA’S GOING UP TO JERUSALEM, Ezra 7:1-10.

1. After these things Fifty-seven years after the events narrated at the close of the last chapter.

In the reign of Artaxerxes In the seventh year of his reign, as appears from Ezra 7:7-8. So that between the sixth year of Darius Hystaspes, with which the last chapter closed, (vi, 15,) and the present date, fall the last thirty years of Darius, (for he reigned thirty-six years,) and the whole of Xerxes’ reign of twenty years, and the first seven years of this Artaxerxes, who was the son and successor of Xerxes the Great, the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther. The Artaxerxes of this chapter and of the Book of Nehemiah is commonly known as Artaxerxes Longimanus. According to Ctesias, he was the youngest of three sons who survived Xerxes, and succeeded to the throne by assassinating his eldest brother, and taking advantage of the absence of the other, who was at the time satrap of Bactria. Troubles accompanied this irregular accession, and rebellions broke out in various parts of the empire, and it occupied all the first years of his reign to restore peace to his vast dominions. From all we can gather outside the Scriptures as to the character of Artaxerxes, he seems to have been a weak and irresolute prince. He reigned forty years, a longer period than that of any previous Persian king. Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:14; Nehemiah 13:6) mentions his thirty-second year, which fact serves to show that he cannot be identified with Xerxes, as some have proposed, since Xerxes reigned but twenty years. Ezra, the distinguished priest and scribe, whose acts are recorded in the four following chapters of this book, was born and reared in exile, but by assiduous study had made himself a profound student and most competent scribe in the law of Moses. Ezra 7:6; Ezra 7:11. See notice of his character and life at the close of chap. 10.

Son of Seraiah It is somewhat uncertain whether by this Seraiah we are to understand the immediate father of Ezra, or that distinguished ancestor who was chief priest at the destruction of the temple, and was slain by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. 2 Kings 25:18-21. His son Jehozadak went into exile, (1 Chronicles 6:15,) and, perhaps, had a son Seraiah, who was father of Ezra. It would be very natural, however, for Ezra, in here recording his genealogy, to pass over his immediate ancestors, as he certainly does omit the name of Jehozadak, and link himself at once to that ancestor with whom the acting priesthood at Jerusalem had been broken off. He aims in this record to give the main links of his ancestry back to Aaron, and a comparison with the record of his genealogy, given in 1 Chronicles 6:3-15, will show that he has passed over several other names there registered.