Ezra Studies

Read Ezra 10:1-44 With Ezra Chapter 10 we come to the end of the Book of Ezra and also the end of the history of the Old Testament people of God. And it is not a happy ending. Although they have experienced the grace of God in getting them back to the Promised Land there […]

EZRA 9 Read Ezra 9:1-15 Almost as soon as the excitement and euphoria had died down after the exiles from Babylon had arrived in Jerusalem there was a problem. Some of the leaders came to Ezra and told him that the people, including priests who should know better, were indulging in detestable practices (v1). What […]

EZRA 8 Read Ezra 8:1-30 The chapter starts with another one of these long lists of names. It is easy just to skip over these names as being unimportant, but we should remember that it is not just a list of names. It is a reminder that there are real people involved and that moving […]

EZRA 7 Read Ezra 7:1-28 We now make a great leap forward in time. Chapter 7 begins with “after these things . . .” that is, after the rebuilding of the Temple and the celebrations that we read about in Chapters 5 and 6. In fact, this is now some sixty years later and some […]

EZRA 6 Read Ezra 6:1-22 The story continues. In the previous chapter the question of whether the people had the authority to rebuild the Temple was referred to the king in Babylon, Darius. Darius ordered that the archives be searched and lo and behold, there was the proclamation of Cyrus allowing the rebuilding of the […]

EZRA 5 Read Ezra 5:1-17 We left the last chapter with the work on the Temple which had begun with such enthusiasm now brought to a halt by some meddlesome troublemakers. It was now some sixteen years since work on the Temple had begun. Would it ever be completed? It was at this point that […]

EZRA 4 Read Ezra 4:1-25 On the face of it, the Israelites who came back from Babylon seem to be a bit churlish. They have received an offer of help to rebuild the Temple from people living not far away who say they worship the same god as them and have been doing so for […]

EZRA 3 Read Ezra 3:1-13 All these people who had travelled from Babylon back to Jerusalem set about the building project. The first task was to build the altar. The main method of corporate worship in the Old Testament was by sacrifice and that required an altar (the Hebrew words for ‘altar’ and ‘sacrifice’ have […]

EZRA 2 Read Ezra 2:1-70 I hope you didn’t fall asleep reading this great long list of Old Testament names. Sometimes these passages can be a little bit difficult to get through. But we must remember that although it is just a long list of names to us, it is about real people who lived […]

EZRA 1 Read Ezra 1:1-11 The Lord is faithful and true. When the Israelites were sent into exile as judgement on their idolatry, they were told by the Lord through his prophet, Jeremiah, that the exile would only last for 70 years. Now God is honouring that promise by enabling his people to return from […]