EZRA, a canonical book of the Old Testament, comprehending the history of the Jews from the time of Cy-
rus's edict for their return, till the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. It specifies the number of Jews who returned, and Cyrus's proclamation for the rebuilding of the temple, together with the laying of its foundation, the obstruction which it met with, and the finishing of the sacred edifice in the reign of Darius.
The books of Ezra, called in the English version the First and Second Books of Esdras, though held by some, particularly the Greeks, as canonical, are thrown by the English church into the number of apocryphal books, as they are only extant in Greek.