EZRA, Chapter 1
If the Book of Chronicles ends with the decree of Cyrus, the Book of Ezra records what happens when the remnant steps onto the road home. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah form a single, continuous work, recording a second Exodus. Where the first Exodus delivered Israel from pagan bondage into a wilderness of promise, Ezra-Nehemiah records a deliverance out of pagan exile back into a ruined land, where the promise must be rebuilt stone by stone, altar by altar, and wall by wall.
Covering the initial returns from Babylon under Persian decree, the narrative moves in two distinct…
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