PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Adeney, Walter F. (Walter Frederic) · 116,604 words · 154 reading sections
_Introductory: Ezra And Nehemiah._
Produced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Julia Neufeld and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) _Editor of "The Expositor"_ AUTHORIZED EDITION, COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED BOUND IN TWENTY-F…
742 wordsSECTION 2_Introductory: Ezra And Nehemiah._
Now, there are several things in our narrative that tend to show that the Chronicler belongs to a comparatively late period. Thus in Nehemiah xii. 22 he mentions the succession of priests down "to the reign of Darius the Persian." The position of this phrase in connection with the previous lists of names makes it clear…
878 wordsSECTION 3_Introductory: Ezra And Nehemiah._
Three successive embassies from the living heart of Judaism in Babylon go up to Jerusalem, each with its own distinctive function in the promotion of the purposes of the mission. The first is led by Zerubbabel and Jeshua in the year B.C. 537.[3] The second is conducted by Ezra eighty years later. The third follows shor…
798 wordsSECTION 4_Introductory: Ezra And Nehemiah._
The question when The Law was moulded into its present shape introduces a delicate point of criticism. But the consideration of its popular reception is more within the reach of observation. In the solemn sealing of the covenant the citizens of Jerusalem--laity as well as priests--men, women, and children--all delibera…
659 wordsSECTION 5_Introductory: Ezra And Nehemiah._
The exterior aspect of the stern, strict Judaism of these days is by no means attractive. But the interior life of it is simply superb. It recognises the absolute supremacy of God. In the will of God it acknowledges the one unquestionable authority before which all who accept His covenant must bow; in the revealed trut…
250 wordsSECTION 6_Cyrus._
EZRA i. I. The remarkable words with which the Second Book of Chronicles closes, and which are repeated in the opening verses of the Book of Ezra, afford the most striking instance on record of that peculiar connection between the destinies of the little Hebrew nation and the movements of great World Empires which fre…
658 wordsSECTION 7_Cyrus._
Little or no weight can be attached to the statement of Josephus, who inserts in the very language of the decree a reference to the foretelling of the name of Cyrus by "the prophets," as a prime motive for issuing it, and adds that this was known to Cyrus by his reading the book of Isaiah.[4] Always more or less untrus…
743 wordsSECTION 8_Cyrus._
Now things often present themselves in a true light to a new-comer who approaches them with a certain mental detachment, although they may have been grievously misapprehended by those people among whom they have slowly shaped themselves. Cyrus was a man of real genius; and immediately he came upon the scene he must hav…
1,049 wordsSECTION 9_Cyrus._
[5] Gal. iv. 4. [6] Jer. xxv. 11, 12. [7] Jer. xxix. 10. [8] Jer. xxvii. 6. The question of the chronological exactness of this fulfilment of prophecy troubles some minds that are anxious about Biblical arithmetic. The difficulty is to arrive at the period of seventy years. It would seem that this could only be don…
877 wordsSECTION 10_The Royal Edict._
[9] Rom. i. 19. [10] Acts x. 34, 35. EZRA i. 2-4, 7-11. It has been asserted that the Scripture version of the edict of Cyrus cannot be an exact rendering of the original, because it ascribes to the Great King some knowledge of the God of the Jews, and even some faith in Him. For this reason it has been suggested th…
794 wordsSECTION 11_The Royal Edict._
Secondly, Cyrus actually asserts that God has charged him to build Him a temple at Jerusalem. Again, this may be the language of princely courtesy; but the noble spirit which breathes through the decree encourages us to take a higher view of it, and to refrain from reading minimising comments between the lines. It is p…
854 wordsSECTION 12_The Royal Edict._
[11] Hag. ii. 6-8. The assumed willingness of their neighbours to contribute at a hint from the king suggests that the exiles were not altogether unpopular. On the other hand, it is quite possible that, under the oppression of Nabonidas, they had suffered much wrong from these neighbours. A public persecution always e…
924 wordsSECTION 13_The Royal Edict._
Secondly, the resident neighbours fell in with the recommendation of the king ungrudgingly, and gave rich contributions for the expedition. They could not go themselves, but they could have a share in the work by means of their gifts--as the home Church can share in the foreign mission she supports. The acceptance of t…
782 wordsSECTION 14_The Royal Edict._
[12] 1 Esdras ii. 14. It is not without significance that the treasurer who handed over their temple-property to the Jews was named "Mithredath"--a word that means "given by Mithra," or "devoted to Mithra." This suggests that the Persian sun-god was honoured among the servants of Cyrus, and yet that one who by name at…
275 wordsSECTION 15_The Second Exodus._
Ezra ii. 1-67. The journey of the returning exiles from Babylon has some points of resemblance to the exodus of their fathers from Egypt. On both occasions the Israelites had been suffering oppression in a foreign land. Deliverance had come to the ancient Hebrews in so wonderful a way that it could only be described a…
737 wordsSECTION 16_The Second Exodus._
On the other hand, it is to be observed that this individualism was not absolute. The people were arranged according to their families, and the names that distinguished the families were not those of the present heads of houses, but the names of ancestors, possibly of captives taken down to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. A…
737 wordsSECTION 17_The Second Exodus._
The second name is Jeshua.[15] The man who bears it was afterwards the high-priest at Jerusalem. It is impossible to say whether he had exercised any sacerdotal functions during the exile; but his prominent place shows that honour was now offered to his priesthood. Still he comes after the royal prince. [15] This name…
785 wordsSECTION 18_The Second Exodus._
After the leaders and the people generally come the successive orders of the temple ministry. We begin with the priests, and among these a front rank is given to the house of Jeshua. The high-priest himself had been named earlier, next to Zerubbabel, among the leaders of the nation, so distinct was his position from th…
733 wordsSECTION 19_The Second Exodus._
Nothing is more inspiriting in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ than its complete reversal of this dismal process of reflection, and its promise of the Golden Age in the future. The most exalted Hebrew prophecy anticipated something of the kind; here and there it lit up its sombre pages with the hope of a brilliant …
495 wordsSECTION 20_The New Temple._
EZRA ii. 68-iii. Unlike the historian of the exodus from Egypt, our chronicler gives no account of adventures of the pilgrims on the road to Palestine, although much of their way led them through a wild and difficult country. So huge a caravan as that which accompanied Zerubbabel must have taken several months to cove…
750 wordsSECTION 21_The New Temple._
[24] 1 Esdras v. 47. [25] Matt. vi. 29. In the centre of the mosque known as the "Dome of the Rock" there is a crag with the well-worn remains of steps leading up to the top of it, and with channels cut in its surface. This has been identified by recent explorers as the site of the great Altar of Burnt-offerings. It …
662 wordsSECTION 22_The New Temple._
The particular kind of sacrifice offered on the great altar was the burnt-offering. Now we do occasionally meet with expiatory ideas in connection with this sacrifice; but unquestionably the principal conception attached to the burnt-offering, in distinction from the sin-offering, was the idea of self-dedication on the…
838 wordsSECTION 23_The New Temple._
Here then is a further proof of devotion on the part of the Jews from Babylon--though it is scarcely hinted at in the narrative, though we can only discover it by a careful comparison of facts and dates. Labour is expended on the fields; long weary months of waiting are endured; when the fruits of toil are obtained, th…
741 wordsSECTION 24_The New Temple._
All this gladness centred in the building of a temple, and therefore ultimately in the worship of God. We take but a one-sided view of Judaism if we judge it by the sour ideas of later Pharisaism. As it presented itself to St. Paul in opposition to the gospel, it was stern and loveless. But in its earlier days this rel…
562 wordsSECTION 25_The Limits Of Comprehension._
EZRA iv. 1-5, 24. The fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra introduces the vexed question of the limits of comprehension in religion by affording a concrete illustration of it in a very acute form. Communities, like individual organisms, can only live by means of a certain adjustment to their environment, in the settleme…
686 wordsSECTION 26_The Limits Of Comprehension._
[27] 2 Kings xvii. 25-28. [28] _Ant._, XII. v. 5. [29] The "Osnappar" of Ezra iv. 10. These neighbours assert that they worship the God whom the Jews at Jerusalem worship, and that they have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esar-haddon, the Assyrian king to whom, in particular, they attribute their being brought …
752 wordsSECTION 27_The Limits Of Comprehension._
All this looks very miserable. But let us examine the situation. We should show a total lack of the historical spirit if we were to judge the conduct of Zerubbabel and his companions by the broad principles of Christian liberalism. We must take into account their religious training and the measure of light to which th…
699 wordsSECTION 28_The Limits Of Comprehension._
It cannot be denied, however, that in their refusal the Jews gave prominence to racial and not to religious distinctions. Yet even in this matter it would be unreasonable for us to expect them to have surpassed the early Christian Church at Jerusalem and to have anticipated the daring liberalism of St. Paul. The follow…
847 wordsSECTION 29_The Limits Of Comprehension._
Unfortunately the returned captives at Jerusalem did not feel conscious of any such spiritual centre of unity. They might have found it in their grandly simple creed, in their faith in God. But their absorption in sacrificial ritual and its adjuncts shows that they were too much under the influence of religious externa…
269 wordsSECTION 30_The Mission Of Prophecy._
EZRA v. 1, 2. The work of building the temple at Jerusalem, which had been but nominally commenced in the reign of Cyrus, when it was suddenly arrested before the death of that king, and which had not been touched throughout the reigns of the two succeeding kings, Cambyses and Pseudo-Bardes, was taken up in earnest in…
711 wordsSECTION 31_The Mission Of Prophecy._
The two prophets who now proclaimed their message in Jerusalem appeared at a time of deep depression. They were not borne on the crest of a wave of a religious revival, as its spokesmen to give it utterance. Pagan orators and artists flourished in an Augustan age. The Hebrew prophets came when the circumstances of soci…
737 wordsSECTION 32_The Mission Of Prophecy._
[35] Hag. i. 5, 7. [36] Hag. ii. 9. Haggai began to prophesy on the first day of the sixth month of the second year of Darius.[37] So effective were his words that Zerubbabel and his companions were at once roused from the lethargy of despair, and within three weeks the masons and carpenters were again at work on the…
793 wordsSECTION 33_The Mission Of Prophecy._
[39] Psalm cxviii. 8, 9. Have we not met with the same mistaken discouragement and the same deceptive excuses for it in the work of the Church, in missionary enterprises, in personal lives? Every door is shut against the servant of God but one, the door of prayer. Forgetting this, and losing sight of the key of faith …
720 wordsSECTION 34_The Mission Of Prophecy._
Then this impression of the power and presence of God in their destinies was deepened in the Jews by the manifest Divine authority with which the prophets spake. They prophesied "in the name of the God of Israel"--the one God of the people of both kingdoms now united in their representatives. Their "Thus saith the Lord…
301 wordsSECTION 35_New Difficulties Met In A New Spirit._
EZRA v. 3-vi. 5. It is in keeping with the character of his story of the returned Jews throughout, that no sooner has the chronicler let a ray of sunshine fall on his page--in his brief notice of the inspiriting mission of the two prophets--than he is compelled to plunge his narrative again into gloom. But he shows th…
909 wordsSECTION 36_New Difficulties Met In A New Spirit._
[43] Ezra v. 5. The peculiar form of Providence which is brought before us in the present instance is the Divine observation. It is difficult to believe that, just as the earth is visible to the stars throughout the day while the stars are invisible to the earth, we are always seen by God although we never see Him. Wh…
671 wordsSECTION 37_New Difficulties Met In A New Spirit._
The chronicler distinctly associates the Divine observation with the continuance of the Jews in their work. Because the eye of God was on them their enemies could not cause them to cease until the matter had been referred to Darius and his answer received. This may be explained by some unrecorded juncture of circumstan…
666 wordsSECTION 38_New Difficulties Met In A New Spirit._
The chronicler then proceeds to relate how the search was prosecuted, first among the royal archives at Babylon--in "the house of books."[46] One of Mr. Layard's most valuable discoveries was that of a set of chambers in a palace at Koyunjik, the whole of the floor of which was covered more than a foot deep with terra-…
1,043 wordsSECTION 39_The Dedication Of The Temple._
[51] Ezra v. 8. [52] Ezra vi. 4. [53] 1 Kings vi. 36. [54] Ezra v. 9. The solid character of the temple-building is further suggestive, because the work was all done for the service of God. Such work should never be hasty, because God has the leisure of eternity in which to inspect it. It is labour lost to make it …
997 wordsSECTION 40_The Dedication Of The Temple._
[56] Herodotus, iii. 89. [57] Sayce, Introduction, pp. 57, 58. Darius was credited with a generous disposition, which would incline him to a kindly treatment of his subjects. Of course we must interpret this according to the manners of the times. For example, in his edict about the temple-building he gives orders tha…
652 wordsSECTION 41_The Dedication Of The Temple._
This dedication is an instance of the highest use of man's work. The fruit of years of toil and sacrifice is given to God. Whatever theories we may have about the consecration of a building--and surely every building that is put to a sacred use is in a sense a sacred building--there can be no question as to the rightne…
784 wordsSECTION 42_The Dedication Of The Temple._
[64] Ezra vi. 17. A subsidiary point to be noticed here is that there were just _twelve_ he-goats sacrificed for the twelve tribes of Israel. These were national sin-offerings, and not sacrifices for individual sinners. Under special circumstances the individual could bring his own private offering. But in this great …
765 wordsSECTION 43_The Dedication Of The Temple._
[67] Here, at Ezra vi. 18, the author drops the Aramaic language--which was introduced at iv. 8--and resumes the Hebrew. See page 71. [68] Ezra vi. 21. [69] 1 Cor. v. 7. [70] James i. 27. On this condition, for the people who were thus separate, the festival was a scene of great gladness. The chronicler calls att…
290 wordsSECTION 44_Ezra The Scribe._
EZRA vii. 1-10. Although the seventh chapter of "Ezra" begins with no other indication of time than the vague phrase "Now after these things," nearly sixty years had elapsed between the events recorded in the previous chapter and the mission of Ezra here described. We have no history of this long period. Zerubbabel pa…
665 wordsSECTION 45_Ezra The Scribe._
Secondly, this religious revival appeared in a centre of scientific and literary culture. The Babylonians "had cultivated arithmetic, astronomy, history, chronology, geography, comparative philology, and grammar."[72] In astronomy they were so advanced that they had mapped out the heavens, catalogued the fixed stars, c…
1,061 wordsSECTION 46_Ezra The Scribe._
But some men refuse to be thus tied to antiquarianism. They dare to believe that the Spirit of God is still in the world, whispering in the fancy of little children, soothing weary souls, thundering in the conscience of sinners, enlightening honest inquirers, guiding perplexed men of faith. Nevertheless we are always i…
676 wordsSECTION 47_Ezra The Scribe._
[77] Psalm xxxix. 3. Ezra turned his thoughts to the law of his God; he took this for the subject of his daily meditation, brooding over it until it became a part of his own thinking. This is the way a character is made. Men have larger power over their thoughts than they are inclined to admit; and the greatness or th…
1,035 wordsSECTION 48_Ezra'S Expedition._
[79] Ezra vii. 6. [80] Ezra v. 5. EZRA vii. 11-viii. Like the earlier pilgrimage of Zerubbabel and his companions, Ezra's great expedition was carried out under a commission from the Persian monarch of his day. The chronicler simply calls this king "Artaxerxes" (_Artahshashta_), a name borne by three kings of Persia…
920 wordsSECTION 49_Ezra'S Expedition._
[81] Ezra vii. 26. Now, as in the previous cases of Cyrus and Darius, we are confronted with the question, How came the Persian king to issue such a decree? It has been suggested that as Egypt was in revolt at the time, he desired to strengthen the friendly colony at Jerusalem as a western bulwark. But, as we have see…
790 wordsSECTION 50_Ezra'S Expedition._
[86] Ezra vii. 28. Ezra's aim in leading the expedition may be gathered from the reflection of it in the royal edict, since that edict was doubtless drawn up with the express purpose of furthering the project of the favoured Jew. Ezra puts the beautifying of the temple in the front of his grateful words of praise to G…
658 wordsSECTION 51_Ezra'S Expedition._
But there was little at Jerusalem to attract a new expedition; for the glamour which had surrounded the first return, with a son of David at its head, had faded in grievous disappointments; and the second series of pilgrims had to carry with them the torch with which to rekindle the flames of devotion. Ezra states tha…
1,011 wordsSECTION 52_Foreign Marriages._
[94] Ezra viii. 31. [95] Ezra viii. 22. EZRA ix. The successful issue of Ezra's undertaking was speedily followed by a bitter disappointment on the part of its leader, the experience of which urged him to make a drastic reformation that rent many a happy home asunder and filled Jerusalem with the grief of broken hea…
718 wordsSECTION 53_Foreign Marriages._
Ezra was amazed, appalled. In the dramatic style which is quite natural to an Oriental, he rent both his tunic and his outer mantle, and he tore his hair and his long priestly beard. This expressed more than the grief of mourning which is shown by tearing one garment and cutting the hair. Like the high-priest when he o…
764 wordsSECTION 54_Foreign Marriages._
[97] Ezra ix. 6. [98] _Ibid._ In thus confessing the sin of the people before God, but in language which the people who shared with him a reverence for The Law could hear, no doubt Ezra hoped to move them also to share in his feelings of shame and abhorrence for the practices he was deploring. He came dangerously nea…
1,134 wordsSECTION 55_Foreign Marriages._
[101] Deut. vii. 3. [102] Ezra vii. 14. [103] Ezra ix. 11. Further, his reading of history comes to his aid. He perceives that it was the adoption of heathenish practices that necessitated the severe chastisement of the captivity. God had only spared a small remnant of the guilty people. But He had been very graciou…
614 wordsSECTION 56_The Home Sacrificed To The Church._
EZRA x. Ezra's narrative, written in the first person, ceases with his prayer, the conclusion of which brings us to the end of the ninth chapter of our Book of Ezra; at the tenth chapter the chronicler resumes his story, describing, however, the events which immediately follow. His writing is here as graphic as Ezra's…
827 wordsSECTION 57_The Home Sacrificed To The Church._
[109] Ezra x. 2. [110] Ezra ix. 15. Ezra had not ventured to draw out such a direful programme. But Shecaniah says that this is "according to the counsel of my lord,"[111] using terms of unwonted obsequiousness--unless, as seems less likely, the phrase is meant to apply to God, _i.e._, to be read, "According to the c…
1,215 wordsSECTION 58_The Home Sacrificed To The Church._
Not only was there a successful plea for delay. There was also direct opposition to Ezra's stern proposal--although this did not prove to be successful. The indication of opposition is obscured by the imperfect rendering of the Authorised Version. Turning to the more correct translation in the Revised Version we read, …
780 wordsSECTION 59_The Home Sacrificed To The Church._
We are not called upon to face any such terrible problem, although St. Paul's warning against Christians becoming "unequally yoked with unbelievers"[115] reminds us that the worst ill-assortment in marriage should not be thought of as only concerned with diversity of rank, wealth, or culture; that they are most ill-mat…
323 wordsSECTION 60_The Cost Of An Idealist'S Success._
EZRA iv. 6-23. The fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra contains an account of a correspondence between the Samaritan colonists and two kings of Persia, which follows sharply on the first mention of the intrigues of "the enemies of Judah and Benjamin" at the Persian court in the later days of Cyrus, and which precedes t…
984 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.