21 "THEN I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a straight way, for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them that seek Him, for good; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. 23 So we fasted and besought our God for this; and He was entreated of us. Then I separated twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, 25 and weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his princes, and all 26 Israel there present, had offered; I even weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents; of gold an hundred talents; and twenty 27 bowls of gold, of a thousand darics; and two vessels of fine 28 bright brass, precious as gold. And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a free-will offering unto the Lord, the God of 29 your fathers. Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fathers' houses of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers 30 of the house of the Lord. So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God. 31 "Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of 32 the enemy and the lier in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days."
Golden Text: "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him." Ezra 8:22.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What is the chronology of this lesson? Note 1. (2) What was the condition of the Jews at Jerusalem? Note 2. (3) What was Ezra's object? Note 3. (4) Who was his chief Counselor? and how did he seek Him? V. 21. Note 4. (5) Why would he not ask aid from the king? V. 22. Note 5. (6) What was the result of their seeking God? V. 23. (7) Whom did Ezra make treasurers? V. 24. (8) How much did he place in their hands? Vs. 25-27. Note 6. (9) What charge did he give them? Vs. 28-30. Note 7. (10) How was their journey prospered? Vs. 31, 32. Note 8.
NOTES.
1. The time of this lesson was in the "seventh year of Artaxerxes." Ezra 7:7, 8. Artaxerxes Longimanus (long-handed) was the son and successor of Xerxes, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. The seventh year of his reign, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, was B.C. 457. Here begin the 2,300 prophetic year-days of Daniel 8 and 9. The "going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem" met its plenary fulfillment in the decree of the seventh chapter of Ezra, which, from verses 12 to
