translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EZR

label: NET study note

text: If the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7:1 is Artaxerxes I Longimanus (ca. 464–423 B.C. ), Ezra must have arrived in Jerusalem ca. 458 B.C. , since Ezra 7:7-8 connects the time of his arrival to the seventh year of the king. The arrival of Nehemiah is then linked to the twentieth year of the king ( Neh 1:1 ), or ca. 445 B.C . Some scholars, however, have suggested that Ezra 7:7 should be read as “the thirty-seventh year” rather than “the seventh year.” This would have Ezra coming to Jerusalem after, rather than before, the arrival of Nehemiah. Others have taken the seventh year of Ezra 7:7-8 to refer not to Artaxerxes I but to Artaxerxes II, who ruled ca. 404–358 B.C . In this understanding Ezra would have returned to Jerusalem ca. 398 B.C. , a good many years after the return of Nehemiah. Neither of these views is certain, however, and it seems better to retain the traditional understanding of the chronological sequence of returns by Ezra and Nehemiah. With this understanding there is a gap of about fifty-eight years between chapter six, which describes the dedication of the temple in 516 b.c. , and chapter seven, which opens with Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem in 458 b.c.


text: Apparently it took the caravan almost four months to make the five hundred mile journey.


text: Ezra 7:12-26 is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.


text: At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic ( 7:12-26 ) back to Hebrew.