Category Archives: Ezra

Cyrus King of Persia: “Build The Temple of God!” 1-4 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—this fulfilled the Message ofGodpreached by Jeremiah—Godprodded Cyrus king of Persia to make an official announcement throughout his kingdom. He wrote it out as follows: From Cyrus king of Persia, a Proclamation:God, the God of the heavens, […]

1-58 These are the people from the province who now returned from the captivity, exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried off captive. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his hometown. They came in company with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The numbers of the […]

The Building Begun: “The Foundation of The Temple Was Laid” 1-2 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled into their towns, the people assembled together in Jerusalem. Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brother priests, along with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his relatives, went to work and built the Altar […]

The Building Stopped: Cease Rebuilding in That City 1-2 Old enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building The Temple of theGodof Israel. They came to Zerubbabel and the family heads and said, “We’ll help you build. We worship your God the same as you. We’ve been offering sacrifices to him since […]

The Building Resumed: “Help the Leaders in the Rebuilding” 1-2 Meanwhile the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the authority of the God of Israel who ruled them. And so Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak started again, rebuilding The Temple […]

1-3 So King Darius ordered a search through the records in the archives in Babylon. Eventually a scroll was turned up in the fortress of Ecbatana over in the province of Media, with this writing on it: Memorandum In his first year as king, Cyrus issued an official decree regarding The Temple of God in […]

Ezra Arrives 1-5 After all this, Ezra. It was during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia. Ezra was the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of […]

1-14 These are the family heads and those who signed up to go up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: From the family of Phinehas: Gershom Family of Ithamar: Daniel Family of David: Hattush Family of Shecaniah Family of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him 150 men signed up Family of […]

Ezra Prays: “Look at Us . . . Guilty Before You” 1-2 After all this was done, the leaders came to me and said, “The People of Israel, priests and Levites included, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring people around here with all their vulgar obscenities—Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, Amorites. […]

Ezra Takes Charge 1 Ezra wept, prostrate in front of The Temple of God. As he prayed and confessed, a huge number of the men, women, and children of Israel gathered around him. All the people were now weeping as if their hearts would break. 2-3 Shecaniah son of Jehiel of the family of Elam, […]