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Ezra The Scribe....
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Ezra was a priest and scribe, He was a direct descendant of
Aaron, through Eleazar (Ezra 7:1-5). His father was Seraiah, the chief
priest who was executed at Riblah by direct order of Babylonian King
Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:18-21). What we know about Ezra is found in
Ezra chapters 7 to 10, and Nehemiah chapters 8 to 10, where he led the
second group of exiles that returned from Babylon to
Jerusalem.
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The book of Ezra covers a period of nearly 80 years, from
about 536 B.C., when the first Jews returned from the Babylonian
exile, to about 458 B.C., when Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. It marks
the transition time from the fall of the Babylonians (who conquered
Jerusalem, destroyed the first Temple, and took the Jews, including the
prophet Daniel, away into exile), to the rise of the
Persians who in turn conquered the Babylonian empire and allowed
the Jews to return to their homeland. |
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536-516 B.C. - Zerubbabel the governor oversaw the
beginning of the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra chapters 3 to 6).
"In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of
God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the
rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites and all who had returned
from the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work, appointing Levites twenty
years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of The Lord."
(Ezra 3:8)
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"When the seventh month came and the Israelites had
settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in the square
before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of
the Law of Moses. Also The Ten Commandments
and The Bible, which The Lord had commanded for Israel. So on the first
day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the
assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to
understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the
square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others
who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book
of the Law." (Nehemiah 8:1-3) |
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