The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 31, 1916

Assignment for September 3-9

September 3: Psalms 137, 130, 80, 77. September 4: Psalms 37, 67, 49, 53. September 5: Psalms 50, 10, 13 to 15. September 6: Psalms 25 to 27, 36, 89. September 7: Psalms 92, 93, 123, 102. September 8: Ezra 1 to 4. September 9: Ezra 5 to 7.

This Week's Psalms

Of the psalms given in this week's assignment, Dr. Anderson says: “Written presumably by Asaph, Ethan, and others, during the time of the Babylonian captivity, most likely the latter portion thereof, during the reign of Belshazzar, who knew not Daniel, and under whom the persecution and distress of the Jews were the greatest. These psalms relate chiefly to the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives, mingled with exhortations, encouragements, and assurance of divine help and final deliverance from their persecutors.”

Ezra: the Man and the Book

The name Ezra means help. The famous scribe and priest bearing this name lived in Babylon in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and by this monarch was commissioned to lead a large company of captive Jews to Jerusalem. Not only was he given a liberal provision of silver and gold and other offerings for the house of the Lord, but a royal decree commanded that he should receive all needed assistance from the keepers of the king’s treasures beyond the river. Ezra was a reformer. He desired not only to rebuild the temple and reestablish its services, but to see the laws and customs of the ancient faith observed in the daily life of the chosen people.

The book of Ezra contains a record of events that occurred about the time of the close of the exile of the Jews in Babylon. “It comprises accounts of the favors bestowed upon the Jews by Persian kings; of the rebuilding of the temple; of the mission of Ezra to Jerusalem, and his regulations and reforms. Such records forming the subject of the book of Ezra, we must not be surprised that its parts are not so intimately connected with each other as we might have expected if the author had set forth his intention to furnish a complete history of his times.”

Of the authorship and history of the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, Amos R. Wells says: “From the fact that the first part of the book of Ezra is written in the first person, it is thought that Ezra himself wrote it. Others think that both this book and Nehemiah were written by others, but contain extracts from the first-hand accounts of the two leaders. In ancient times the two books were united, and in the Vulgate they are called First and Second Esdras. They are written in Hebrew, with the exception of certain letters and other quoted documents in Ezra, which are kept in the original Aramaic, or Chaldee. Ezra covers seventy-nine years; and Nehemiah, after an interval of about twelve years, continues the story.”