EZRA, the celebrated Jewish scribe and priest, who, about the year B.C. 458, led the second expedition of Jews back from the Babylonian exile into Palestine. This Ezra was a lineal descendant of Phinehas, the son of Aaron,
and ought to be distinguished from the Ezra who went up as one of the chiefs of the priests and Levites under Zerubbabel (Neh. xii. 1-33). In addition to the information given in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, that Ezra was a "scribe," a "ready scribe of the law of Moses," &c., we are told by Josephus that he was high priest of the Jews who were left in Babylon; that he was particularly conversant with the laws of Moses, and was held in universal esteem on account of his righteousness and virtue.
In the year B.C. 457 Ezra was sent by "Artaxerxes Longimanus to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem; and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counsellors freely offered unto the God of Israel," with the free-will offerings which the people and priests offered for the house of God at Jerusalem. At the same time Artaxerxes issued a decree to the keepers of the king's treasure beyond the river, to assist Ezra in everything in which he needed help, and to supply him liberally with money, corn, wine, oil, and salt.
Ezra assembled the Jews who accompanied him on the banks of the river Ahava, where they halted three days in tents. On the twelfth day from their first setting out Ezra and his companions left the river Ahava, and arrived safely at Jerusalem in the fifth month, where he shortly after had the painful duty of enforcing the law which forbade the Jews to intermarry with heathens, many of whom had formed such illegal connections in the land of their captivity, and which they were now called on to dissolve.
In Neh. viii. we read that, on the occasion of the celebration of the feast of the seventh month, subsequently to Nehemiah's numbering the people, Ezra was requested to bring the book of the law of Moses; and that he read therein standing upon a pulpit of wood, which raised him above all the people.
Josephus tells us that he died soon after this celebration of the feast of tabernacles, and was buried at Jerusalem with great magnificence. According to other traditions Ezra returned to Babylon, and died there at the age of 120 years. The Talmudic statement is that he died at Zam-zumu, a town on the Tigris, while on his road from Jerusalem to Susa, whither he was going to converse with Artaxerxes about the affairs of the Jews. A tomb said to be his is shown on the Tigris, about 20 miles above its junction with the Euphrates.
Ezra is considered to be the author of the canon, and worthy to have been the lawgiver, if Moses had not preceded him.
The canonical writings of Ezra are, besides the book which bears his name, most likely the two books of the Chronicles. "Ezram libros Paralipomenon lucubrassent Ebreeorum omnium est fama consentiens" (Huettus, Dem. Evang., iv. 14, p. 341). Some authors have ascribed the books of Nehemiah and Esther likewise to Ezra, although they differ in style.