< Previous | Contents | Next >
Ezekiel is singular in the frequency with which he refers to the Pentateuch (e.g., Ezekiel 27; 28:13; 31:8; 36:11, 34; 47:13, etc.). He shows also an acquaintance with the writings of Hosea (Ezekiel 37:22), Isaiah (Ezekiel 8:12; 29:6), and especially with those of Jeremiah, his older contemporary (Jeremiah 24:7, 9; 48:37).
•EZEL a separation, (1 Samuel 20:19), a stone, or heap of stones, in the neighbourhood of Saul’s residence, the scene of the parting of David and Jonathan (42). The margin of the Authorized Version reads, “The stone that sheweth the way,” in this rendering following the Targum.
•EZER treasure. (1.) One of the sons of Seir, the native princes, “dukes,” of Mount Hor (Genesis 36:21, 27). (2.) 1 Chronicles 7:21; (3.) 4:4. (4.) One of the Gadite champions who repaired to David at Ziklag (12:9). (5.) A Levite (Nehemiah 3:19). (6.) A priest (12:42).
•EZRA help. (1.) A priest among those that returned to Jerusalem under Zerubabel (Nehemiah 12:1).
(2.) The “scribe” who led the second body of exiles that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem B.C. 459, and author of the book of Scripture which
bears his name. He was the son, or perhaps grandson, of Seraiah (2 Kings 25:18-21), and a lineal descendant of Phinehas, the son of Aaron (Ezra 7:1-5). All we know of his personal history is contained in the last four chapters of his book, and in Nehemiah 8 and 12:26.
In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (see DARIUS), he obtained leave to go up to Jerusalem and to take with him a company of Israelites (Ezra 8). Artaxerxes manifested great interest in Ezra’s undertaking, granting him “all his request,” and loading him with gifts for the house of God. Ezra assembled the band of exiles, probably about 5,000 in all, who were prepared to go up with him to Jerusalem, on the banks of the Ahava, where they rested for three days, and were put into order for their march across the desert, which was completed in four months. His proceedings at Jerusalem on his arrival there are recorded in his book.
He was “a ready scribe in the law of Moses,” who “had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” “He is,” says Professor Binnie, “the first well-defined example of an order of men who have never since ceased in the church; men of sacred erudition, who devote their lives to the study of the Holy Scriptures, in order that they may be in a condition to interpret them for the instruction and edification of the church. It is significant that the earliest mention of the pulpit occurs in the history of Ezra’s ministry (Nehemiah 8:4). He was much more of a teacher than a priest. We learn from the account of his labours in the book of Nehemiah that he was careful to have the whole people instructed in the law of Moses; and there is no reason to reject the constant tradition of the Jews which connects his name with the collecting and editing of the Old Testament canon. The final completion of the canon may have been, and probably was, the work of a later generation; but Ezra seems to have put it much into the shape in which it is still found in the Hebrew Bible. When it is added that the complete organization of the synagogue dates from this period, it will be seen that the age was emphatically one of Biblical study” (The Psalms: their History, etc.).
For about fourteen years, i.e., till B.C. 445, we have no record of what went on in Jerusalem after Ezra had set in order the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the nation. In that year another distinguished personage, Nehemiah, appears on the scene. After the ruined wall of the city had been built by Nehemiah, there was a great gathering of the people at Jerusalem