Of the sons of Joab; Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
Ezra 8:9 simply gives names of persons. It stands as part of the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading ones who went up from the captivity. It is not an expressed precious promise of God to His people. The verse belongs to the account of Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem with the decree of Artaxerxes. That journey is presented as the final stage of that decree.
Ezra 8 belongs to B.C. 458, closing the fifty-eight years between B.C. 515 and B.C. 458. That date falls about threescore years after the first return and two-score years after the completion of the temple. The story of Esther falls in that interval before it, more nearly in the middle of the reign of Xerxes from B.C. 485 to 474. His third year was B.C. 482, his seventh year when Esther was made queen was B.C. 478, and Haman's plot fell in his thirteenth year, B.C. 472. Ezra 8 shows a helpless group of Israelites fasting and praying at the river Ahava before traveling through dangerous country. God's hand was upon those who sought Him, and He answered their prayer by protecting them on the journey.
Ezra 8:9 simply gives names of persons. It stands as part of the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading ones who went up from the captivity. It is not an expressed precious promise of God to His people. The verse belongs to the account of Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem with the decree of Artaxerxes. That journey is presented as the final stage of that decree.
Ezra 8 belongs to B.C. 458, closing the fifty-eight years between B.C. 515 and B.C. 458. That date falls about threescore years after the first return and two-score years after the completion of the temple. The story of Esther falls in that interval before it, more nearly in the middle of the reign of Xerxes from B.C. 485 to 474. His third year was B.C. 482, his seventh year when Esther was made queen was B.C. 478, and Haman's plot fell in his thirteenth year, B.C. 472. Ezra 8 shows a helpless group of Israelites fasting and praying at the river Ahava before traveling through dangerous country. God's hand was upon those who sought Him, and He answered their prayer by protecting them on the journey.