Ezra — Chapter 7

This Esdras went up from Babylon, and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. Lapide: among the Jews, \"scribes\" (Sopherim) were the learned Doctors of the Law — equivalent to what the Greeks called philosophers, the Chaldeans magi, the Gauls druids, the Indians brahmins. Their office: to keep the sacred Scripture uncorrupted, to oversee its correct copying, to interpret it in writing and by word of mouth, to give authoritative responses, to compose treatises, and to expound it in every manner (citing St. Epiphanius, Heresy 15). Ezra excelled above all scribes. \"Scribe\" = Rabbi, Rab, Rabban: the priestly teacher of Scripture.

For upon the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. The journey took exactly four months. Lapide: as Ezra made this journey in the year seven of Artaxerxes, from the sixth year of Darius to year seven of Artaxerxes elapsed 57 years — Ezra was therefore a very old man, well over a hundred, yet strong and vigorous, sustained by God for the benefit of the people.

For Esdras had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel the statutes and judgments. Lapide: learn here from Ezra the proper order of teaching: FIRST, learn fully; SECOND, do yourself what you have learned; THIRD, teach others. So Christ first began to do, then to teach (Acts 1:1). This is the model for every priest as teacher: he must live what he teaches before he teaches it.

The decree of Artaxerxes permitted any Israelite, priest, or Levite who wished to go to Jerusalem with Ezra to do so freely. Lapide: from this year seven of Artaxerxes and from this royal permission many begin to count the seventy weeks until Christ (Daniel 9), as Lapide had argued in his commentary on Daniel.

And whatsoever more shall be necessary for the house of thy God, that thou shalt have occasion to bestow, thou shalt give it out of the king's treasury. Lapide: observe the piety of these pagan kings — Artaxerxes, like Cyrus and Darius before him, paid from his own treasury the expenses of the Temple ministries. Let Christian princes take note.

We also notify you, that touching all the priests and Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nathinites, and the ministers of the house of this God, you have no authority to impose toll, or tribute, or custom upon them. Lapide: this shows that the Jews were servants and tributaries of the Persians; yet the king here exempts the priests, Levites, and all Temple ministers from every tax and public burden. Let Christian princes note this.

But thou, Esdras, according to the wisdom of thy God which is in thy hand, appoint judges and magistrates, that they may judge all the people that is beyond the river. The king grants Ezra quasi-pontifical power of jurisdiction: authority to appoint judges over all the people, with power of death, exile, confiscation, or imprisonment over violators of God's law.