The Return
- When
- 538–457 BC
- Written by
- Ezra
- Chapters
- 10
The big idea
The exiles return under Zerubbabel and rebuild the temple. Later Ezra the scribe comes to teach the law and call the people back to faithfulness.
Themes
- Return and rebuilding
- The word taught
- God moves the hearts of kings
- Repentance
Memory verse
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
Key passages
- 1The decree of Cyrus
- 3The altar and the foundation
- 6The temple finished
- 7:10Ezra prepared his heart
- 9Ezra’s prayer
Links to other Scripture
- Haggai 1–2The prophet of the rebuilding
- Nehemiah 8Ezra reads the law
- Proverbs 21:1The heart of the king
- Acts 17:11Searching the scriptures daily
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Ezra set his heart to seek the law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it. Which of the three is hardest for you?
- The returned exiles rebuilt the altar first, before the temple was finished. What is the first thing you rebuild in your own life?
- Ezra wept over the sins of the people as his own. Is there something you can confess for those around you?
- In one sentence, this book is about…