Introduction
Just to set the historical context:
God calls Abraham to be a people for Him, to carry the written Word, and to be the lineage to Christ. They were also called to evangelize the world, though the Israelites never seem to have understood that.
Abraham’s descendants spent time as slaves in Egypt and were led to freedom by Moses, probably about 1533BC.
A time of leadership by judges was followed by the Age of the Kings (Saul, David, Solomon…). The kingdom was split into two at the time of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. The northern kingdom is called Israel and contains ten tribes. The southern kingdom is called Judah and contains the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.Levi is scattered among both countries.
Though both kingdoms continued to rebel against God, Judah at least occasionally turned to Him.
God has the Assyrians totally destroy Israel and scatter her people in 640BC (their normal procedure when conquering a country). Babylon takes over the region, destroying Assyria and taking Judah captive in 507BC.
Jeremiah had prophesied that the descendants of Jacob would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years in order to punish them for their rebellion and evil. Nebuchadnezzar began to co-reign with his father, destroyed Assyria, and first put Judah under subjection to the Babylonian Empire in 527BC and Cyrus of Persia destroyed the last king of Babylon in 457BC; Seventy years of Babylonian rule.
Jews began to return to their homeland in about 457BC, after a decree issued by Cyrus the Great allowing all people to return to their homelands. People from all twelve tribes returned to the region that had been the nation of Judah. They arrived in waves over the course of a number of years.
These post-captivity books tell us the story of this return and the challenges faced by the people of Israel. They give us many lessons to help us in our own walk with God. Above all, He wants obedience from us. We are called to live a life of righteousness and of love to our fellow humans.
Just a note about arrangements:
I believe God directed each man to write his book in the order He, God, wanted it to be in. If we want to know the real message of each book we must read it as originally written.
However, it also helps our understanding when we can put the events in each book in historical order. To aid that understanding, I have rearranged things a bit so you can see how each story relates to the others in history.
And a note about dates: Secular, and sadly, most Christian historians use the dates given by Ptolemy in the second century AD as their basis for all ancient history. You will find all textbooks, Wikipedia, and even Bible footnotes based on these dates.
Unfortunately, Ptolemy’s dates contradict not just Biblical prophecy, but Jewish and Persian histories, and Josephus (1st century AD and history pulled from older sources not available to Ptolemy.)
For example, to fit the amount of time he gave the Persian Empire, Ptolemy says there were ten kings of Persia, while Josephus, who had access to the library of Alexandria, says there were only six (two before Cyrus the Great). Persian and Hebrew tradition agrees more with Josephus.
Why would Ptolemy give so much time to Persia? He based his history on the work of Greek historians, who had written down Oral Traditions of the Persians (their enemies, by the way).
Unfortunately, with all the language differences, the Greeks didn’t realize that “Artaxerxes” was not a name, but a title (“Worthy to be King”). So when they heard stories about “Ahasuerus, son of Darius” and Artaxerxes, son of Darius” they thought they were hearing about four different people instead of two. This caused them to record five Darius’ when there were really only two, and even to invent a second Alexander in their own history, since Persian records say the first Persian king by the name Darius fought with Alexander of Greece, while they knew for a fact that Alexander the Great had fought with the last Persian Darius (there was, in fact, only one Darius the Persian according to Hebrew and Persian history). All these doubling of kings greatly expanded the timeline for Persia.
Some use Solar Eclipse dates to support Ptolemy’s timeline, but to do so they must assume the ancients didn’t notice the effects of an extra fourth of a day every year. This seems rather a silly assumption. Wouldn’t you notice if Christmas occurred in the winter when you were a kid, but in the spring when you were an adult? Humans have been aware of the extra fourth day/year just about since the Flood.
If we readjust the dates to match the Bible and Persian and Hebrew tradition, it all fits together perfectly. And after all, who would know what happened better? The men who lived the events and wrote them down themselves, or Ptolemy who lived 600 years later…or even us, who live some 2300 years later?!)
So, my dates have been adjusted to correlate with the dates given in the Bible and accommodate the most recent archeological discoveries. See “The Wonders of Biblical Chronology” by Philip Mauro for a more complete explanation of biblical dates.
Ezra
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally combined into one book called Esdras. In fact, in the Jewish Bible they still are.
Ezra led the spiritual restoration of Judah, while Nehemiah led the physical restoration.
Ezra did not return with the first wave of Jews to come back to Judah in 457BC. He returned in a second wave about 447BC. He does tell us of the first return and what happened during it. He then, personally, returned and helped in the restoration. Many believe he also wrote the books of Chronicles from a combination of written records and oral traditions.
Ezra 1- The Command to Return
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing,…
Legend says that someone, maybe Daniel, showed Cyrus Jeremiah and Isaiah’s prophecies where Cyrus is called by name many years before he was born. The new king was so impressed he thought he had better do just what the scripture prophesied he would.
… saying,
2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3 “Who is there among you of all His people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (He is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.”
Cyrus appears to have faith in the One True God.
Darius the Mede mentioned in the book of Daniel was probably Cyrus of Persia’s Uncle Father-in Law (brother to his mom and dad to his wife). Jewish history says Darius and Cyrus co-ruled for a short time with Darius actually being the senior king. After Daniel is pulled out of the lion’s den and his enemies thrown in, …
“(Daniel 6) 25 Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.
26 ‘I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
27 ‘He delivers and rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.’
28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”
So Cyrus would be familiar with this mighty God, and had been commanded to respect and honor him.
4 “And whosoever remains in any place where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
Not everyone would be able to go back to Judah. Some would be too old or ill. Others wouldn’t have the money for the trip or would have such good jobs and homes they wouldn’t want to leave. Cyrus commanded those people to help financially those who could go back.
5 Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
Two of these priests were probably Haggai and Zachariah.
6 And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered.
The people gladly gave to rebuild their homeland.
7 Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods;
These were the many great riches taken in the time of the captivity. Cyrus was generous enough or believed in God enough to restore them.
8 Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.
Sheshbazzar was the Babylonian name for Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah.
9 And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives,
10 Thirty basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.
11 All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.
That is quite a lot of riches!