Ezra 8:1

These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.

The verse opens the genealogy and family record of the chief of the fathers and leaders who went up with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. It belongs to the account of a large group of Jews who made that return in response to the invitation to return. It concerns the second company that went up, not the first.

Ezra was a Jewish priest and scribe highly favored by Artaxerxes Longimanus king of Persia. He was not with the first company but organized this second company of about 1,800 Israelite men. Artaxerxes Longimanus succeeded Xerxes after Darius Hystaspes. He renewed and greatly enlarged the decree of Cyrus and Darius.

Before the journey Ezra convened the captive Jews at the river Ahava and took counsel with them about the decree authorizing their return. The company left Babylon for Jerusalem in 457 B.C., in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, under the decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the commonwealth. They carried the third and last portion of the great decree.

This marks Ezra's first personal part in the seventy-nine years from the first year of Cyrus in 536 B.C. to 457 B.C. It was his honor in bringing the last portion to Jerusalem to prepare the people spiritually and forward the rebuilding. By another reckoning the going up was in B.C. 458, fifty-eight years after the time of Ezra 7 in B.C. 515, with the story of Esther and the middle of the reign of Xerxes from B.C. 485 to 474 falling between the two.

The decree of Artaxerxes marks the beginning of the prophecy of Daniel 9:25 and of the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. The remainder of the book beginning here records the experiences of the Jews at Jerusalem, their backsliding, their humility, their seeking of God, and the faithful reproofs given by Ezra and others. Their journey through a dangerous land was made safely with fasting and prayer, as God helped those who sought him.

The verse is simply names of persons, not an expressed promise and not a precious promise to God's people. It thus proves that not every verse in the Bible can be counted as a promise.

❧