Ezra is a book of Narrative History and Genealogies.
Key personalities include Cyrus, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Darius I, Artaxerxes I, and Zerubbabel.
Ezra’s purpose was to accurately record the events of the return from the Babylonian exile, after a seventy-year period and the events that surround the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. God is faithfulness in fulfilling His promises and so the Jews return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.
Chapters 1-6 – a relatively small number of Jews return to the city of Jerusalem and immediately prepare to construct the new temple. They began the planning, the gathering of materials, and then begin the construction.
The building drags on because the surrounding enemies begin oppressing and frightening them. Twenty years later, it is completed.
“And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat,
Ninmah Temple appears behind ruins of a low-lying flat building (which is thought to represent an altar). Babylon.
And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel” (6:21-22).
Chapters 7-10 – the second group of Jews returns to Israel. Ezra is included in this return. He teaches the Law, but has problems with intermarriage and addresses the pagan women who brought their religious practices with them.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel (7:10).
Key personalities include Cyrus, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Darius I, Artaxerxes I, and Zerubbabel.