Ezra & Nehemiah: Israel Alive Again

By Fredrick Holmgren

When the Jews returned to Israel from captivity in Babylon in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. they faced many hardships. Despite these struggles, Ezra and Nehemiah believed that God was working with them to accomplish his purpose, which was to restore a faithful community. Israel Alive Again interprets the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the context of the Hebrew Bible, exploring the theological meanings of these often slighted books, and emphasizing their relevance for the church today. Like the other commentaries in the series, Israel Alive Again is intended for the layperson, student, and pastor. Its theological exposition makes it valuable to scholars as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Release date: Apr 30, 1987
• ISBN: 9781467447607

Fredrick Holmgren

Research Professor of Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. 

Book preview

ISRAEL ALIVE AGAIN

Ezra 1:1–11

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS (1:1)

Cyrus: Yahweh’s Servant

The overthrow of Babylonian rule and the rise of the Persians under Cyrus in 539 B.C.E. sparked new hope in the eyes of the Jewish exiles. Even before the full collapse of the Babylonians, one prophet confidently predicted that Yahweh had chosen Cyrus to rescue and restore Israel. This prophet, whose oracles are recorded in Isa. 40–55, proclaimed deliverance and a new beginning to Israelites swept into slavery by the Babylonian army. God, he announced, would create this marvelous happening with the help of Cyrus, his anointed (i.e., his messiah; cf. Isa. 44:24–28, 45:1–6). During the era of this prophet (ca. 550–540 B.C.E.), who is commonly called Second Isaiah, Cyrus was beginning to emerge as the dominant military leader in the ancient Near East. Although an unlikely messiah to many, the prophet’s hope was well placed. Eventually Cyrus, with the help of the Medes, defeated the Babylonians and, as a wise and humane king of the Persian empire, sent home again the many peoples that the Babylonians had deported. Not only did he resettle these many peoples in their homelands, but he also assisted them in reestablishing their temple worship. What Cyrus did for other captive nations, he did also for Israel. The decree of Cyrus, which the author of Ezra has paraphrased for Jewish readers in 1:2–4, is in full accord with Persian governmental policy.

The God Who Surprises Us

Sometimes help is found in unusual people and places. That Second Isaiah should see a Persian ruler serving Yahweh’s purposes for Israel created questions in many minds (Isa. 45:9–13). But the prophet proved right. What a surprise! The Bible records many such surprises in life: Egyptian rulers were the salvation of Joseph and his people; a Canaanite woman turns out to be more righteous than Judah the patriarch because of her daring act on behalf of her dead husband (Gen. 38:26); the princes of Judah, normally the opponents of Jeremiah, defend him when his life is threatened (Jer. 26:16); Gamaliel, a Pharisee, rescues the apostles from a mob (Acts 5:33–40); some Pharisees warn Jesus to flee for his life (Luke 13:31).

Cyrus belongs to this list of surprising people. Israelite priests and kings are the anointed or the messiahs of Yahweh (see Heb. mashiah in Lev. 4:16; 1 Sam. 2:10) and so is Cyrus (Isa. 45:1). Similarly, just as Yahweh stirred up Israelites (i.e., awakened them to action; see Hag. 1:14; Ezra 1:5), so Yahweh stirred up Cyrus to make a decree that would allow the Jews to return to the land (Ezra 1:1). The God who acts is not restrained by the borders that separate Israelites from the rest of the world. God works for the good of his people through Cyrus, a foreign ruler. In fact, Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to this Persian king (1:2). Although, in the text, these are words spoken by Cyrus, they are presented to us by the Jewish author who fully believes that Yahweh has chosen Cyrus and his successors as special servants to accomplish his will (cf. Ezra 6:22; 7:6, 27; Neh. 2:6).

Yahweh Stirred up the Spirit of Cyrus

The author does not explain how Yahweh stirred up (or awakened) Cyrus to make a decree that allowed Jewish exiles to return home. This royal proclamation broke open a new future for the Jews. The Persian ruler’s striking generosity (even if influenced by self-interest) was a mystery to our author. He could understand the decree of Cyrus only as evidence of God at work in the Persian empire. He does not, however, attempt to explain the mystery—and we should not assume that he has a simplistic view of God’s relationship to the world. Although he attributes the release of the exiles to the work of God, surely he knows that charitable acts of this kind are not everyday occurrences. Tradition and experience must have made him fully aware of the presence of long-term, unrelieved suffering. In the midst of such oppression, people hope for release. One thinks of the hopes of those who were caught up in the Nazi horror or of people today who long for deliverance from cruel governments. Sometimes deliverance comes—sometimes not. The absence or presence of divine saving acts in the midst of evil resists understanding; it is not fully predictable and cannot be convincingly explained by philosophical or theological argument.

Instead of an explanation, Ezra 1:1 offers a witness—it affirms that the decree of Cyrus is a shaft of light in the darkness of this world and which provides a glimpse of God’s character and purpose for humankind. Abraham Heschel’s comment is to the point: The essence of Jewish religious thinking does not lie in entertaining a concept of God but in the ability to articulate a memory of moments of illumination by His presence. Israel is not a people of definers but a people of witnesses: ‘Ye are My witnesses’ (Isa. 43:10) (God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 140).

The author of Ezra, together with Second Isaiah, bears witness to God’s intervening act through Cyrus. By means of a foreign ruler, God expressed his loving-kindness to Israel! This divine act through Cyrus made a deep impress on the Jewish community; it helps us understand the positive view of the Persian rulers in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Frequently, the author of these books underscores the necessity of separation from foreigners whose presence would defile the community, but there is no rebuke, actual or implied, of Cyrus or any of the Persian rulers. The relationship is a positive one, and those returning to the land are expected to obey the law of God and the law of the Persian king (Ezra 7:26).

Crisis and Response

In times of crisis a community’s response is not always a normative one. Sometimes, in order to survive, a community may involve itself in contradictory policies. Such is the case with the postexilic community. On the one hand, separation from all that is foreign is emphasized; on the other hand, there is appreciation for, and (limited) cooperation with, the Persian government. This twofold emphasis was an attempt to confront the community’s chief problem: survival. It was recognized that the community would survive only if assimilation with peoples of other religious traditions was halted and if the community leadership cooperated with the Persian government. In normal times community leadership may have acted differently, but in a time when the life of the community was threatened, whatever promoted survival (short of repudiation of its basic beliefs) was done.

Jeremiah’s Prophecy Fulfilled

The author of these lines considers the decree of Cyrus to be the beginning of the accomplishment of the prophetic word spoken by Jeremiah. The reference may be to a number of Jeremiah’s oracles concerning the future, but uppermost in the author’s mind (most likely) is Jeremiah’s prophecy of a seventy-year captivity for the people of Judah (see Jer. 25:11; 29:10; cf. 2 Chron. 36:21). The number seventy should not be taken with any literalness; it is an approximate figure. Numbers in the Hebrew Bible are often inexact, traditional expressions. See, for example, the frequent occurrence of the following figures: three, seven, thirty, forty, and seventy.

The emphasis in v. 1, however, is not on the number seventy, but on the fact of restoration which Jeremiah and others had confidently proclaimed. For many persons, the devastation of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians, together with deportation, seemed to mark the end of the nation’s life (cf. Lam. 5:22; Isa. 40:27; Ps. 89). Expectation of deliverance was not great. But then there arose a new king over the ancient world (see Exod. 1:8). In contrast to the one that arose in Egypt during Moses’ time, this new king, Cyrus, replaced oppression (Isa. 47:6) with humaneness. It is an astonishing occurrence; there is release, a return to the land—a new beginning. Jeremiah is remembered as the one who forecasted this marvelous event. The narrator sees the prophet’s oracle as a true word of God. Underneath the seeming matter-of-fact narrative of v. 1 lies a settled joy and confidence created by this wonder brought about by God—and Cyrus (cf. Ezra 6:14). The words are prose; the thought is poetry.

Jeremiah’s Oracles: Not Completely Fulfilled

The restoration predicted by the prophets took place. Their oracles spoke the truth. We must be careful, however, not to overemphasize this point. The actual character of the restored community appears rather drab and incomplete when compared to the exalted language employed by the prophets to describe the coming age of restoration (cf., e.g., Jer. 30–31; Isa. 49:22–26; 54:1–17; Ezek. 37:15–28).

This gap between the prophecy and the fulfillment is explained, in part, by the hyperbolic language that the prophets used. Hyperbole often occurs in present-day speech (I’ve told you a million times!) and was freely used by ancient writers. According to Paul, Christians sit with God in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). This image does not appear at first sight to fit the routine kind of life that often takes place within the Church. Yet it has meaning for Christians who know that something new and wonderful has come to them in Jesus Christ. Although the exaggerated language of the prophets appears to expect a more spectacular restoration movement than was actually the case, to many of those who participated in the return the prophets spoke the truth even if they were not exactly right concerning some aspects of Judah’s future.

Reinterpretation of Jeremiah’s Prophecy

However, it is clear to us—as it was to some later religious leaders in Israel—that the community formed by the returning exiles did not accomplish completely the words of Jeremiah or those of other prophets. Judah was not fully restored (Jer. 29:14; 30:18–21); she was not ruled over by her own king (Jer. 30:8–9, 21); the palace was not rebuilt in its former place (Jer. 30:18; contrast Ezekiel’s view in 43:7–8); Judah did not become a power among the nations (Isa. 45:14; 49:22–23). This last hope was held to as late as the time of Haggai (520 B.C.E.), who envisioned Jewish supremacy under Zerubbabel (Hag. 2:4–9, 21–23).

This lack of complete fulfillment of the prophetic oracles moved some persons, including the author of Daniel, to regard the seventy-year prophecy of Jeremiah as standing unfulfilled. Daniel gives a new interpretation to Jeremiah’s words. Zechariah (1:12), the Chronicler (2 Chron. 36:20–23), and apparently Ezra (1:1) thought the prophet meant approximately seventy years. But the author of Daniel understands Jeremiah to be speaking of seventy weeks of years, that is, 490 years (Dan. 9:1–2, 24). Other, later writers also became convinced that Jeremiah’s prophecy remained unfulfilled and made suggestions as to the real meaning of the oracle (see, e.g., 1 Enoch 85–90). Further, some people in our own day look to the future for the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s seventh-century B.C.E. oracle.

The difference of opinion expressed by biblical authors concerning the understanding of Jeremiah’s prophecy and its fulfillment underscores the diversity of opinion present in Scripture. A prophetic oracle, such as Jer. 29:10–14, may be interpreted (e.g., by Ezra 1:1) and then later be reinterpreted (e.g., by Dan. 9:2) without embarrassment. In the book of Ezekiel we have an example of a prophet reinterpreting one of his own oracles. Ezekiel prophesies that Nebuchadnezzar will completely destroy Tyre (ch. 26), but when the Babylonian king is unable to bring this about, the prophet changes his prophecy and offers Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar as compensation (Ezek. 29:17–20). Ezekiel makes no apology for this alteration. Biblical writers did not possess our firm philosophical doctrines of inspiration and authority.

Ezra 1:1 reflects the elation of a community of Jews who believed that God intervened at high levels to bring his people home again. The author does not subject Jeremiah’s prophecy to searching analysis to see if the fulfillment matches completely the prophecy. He is not writing strict history; rather his words are the witness of a thankful heart. He remembers Jeremiah’s words, and though the time period is not exact, they are words that affirm his own convictions: the return was not by chance; Yahweh brought it about. The witness of Ezra 1:1 is not nullified by the reinterpretation of a later writer.

THE DECREE OF CYRUS (1:2–6)

There are three representations of the decree of Cyrus in the Bible (Ezra 1:2–4; 2 Chron. 36:23; Ezra 6:3–5); the first two depict Cyrus as acknowledging that it is Yahweh, the God of heaven (Ezra 1:2), who has selected him to act on behalf of the Jews. But according to a Babylonian text, the Cyrus Cylinder, Cyrus views himself as the righteous ruler who is chosen by Marduk to restore the ancient worship of Babylon. Further, Cyrus speaks of his worship of Marduk and requests the gods to intercede on his behalf before the deities Bel and Nebo. It is probable that both the Hebrew and Babylonian texts are true reports of what happened, even though at first sight they appear to be contradictory. We know little of the personal faith of Cyrus; some scholars presume that he embraced the worship of Ahura Mazda as did his successors, but the issue is debated.

In any case, Cyrus was not a committed worshiper of Yahweh or Marduk. But neither did he regard Marduk and Yahweh as a threat to Persian religion or government. It may be that he conceived of them, together with other deities, as local representations of the God he himself worshiped. If this were the case, it is not surprising that when he addresses the Babylonians, he uses the name Marduk, and when he deals with Israel, he employs the name Yahweh.

Yahweh, the God of Heaven

The expression the God of heaven occurs twenty-two times in the Hebrew Bible—twelve of them in Ezra and Nehemiah. With the possible exception of Gen. 24:3, 7, this designation appears only in postexilic literature. It is a respected divine title within the Jewish community, as may be seen in the statement of Nehemiah (which was for Jewish ears only) that he fasted and prayed before the God of heaven (Neh. 1:4–5). But God of heaven reflects the affirmations of many religions in the ancient world and probably is to be seen as a somewhat neutral title. Jews and Persians are able to affirm each other by the use of this phrase while filling this title with meaning that is peculiar to their own beliefs. In its use, the Jews intend one meaning and the Persians another. For this reason we can well understand why the title is found mostly in contexts of Persian-Jewish