kings and peoples who shall put forth their hand to make invalid the
command or to destroy the house of God at Jerusalem. Exactly will it be
executed.

[Sidenote: Ezra 6:13,14]
Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and
Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did exactly as Darius the king had
given command. And the elders of the Jews built and prospered. And they
finished the building according to the command of the God of Israel and
according to the decree of Cyrus and Darius.

I. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are
the chief sources of information regarding Jewish history during the
Persian period. They fall into nine general divisions: (1) the return of
the Babylonian exiles and the revival of the Judean community, Ezra 1-4;

(2) the rebuilding of the temple, 5-6; (3) Ezra's expedition and the
priestly reformation, 8-10, and Nehemiah 8-10; (4) Nehemiah's work in
rebuilding the walls, Nehemiah 1:1-7:5; (5) census of the Judean
community, 7:6-69; (6) measures to secure the repopulation of Jerusalem,
11; (7) genealogy of the priests and Levites, 12:1-26; (8) dedication
of the walls, 12:27-43; and (9) Nehemiah's later reform measures,
12:44-13:31. It is evident that Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one
book, and that they come from the same author as I and II Chronicles.
This important fact is demonstrated by the presence of the same marked
characteristics of thought and literary style in both of these books. The
closing verses of II Chronicles are also repeated verbatim at the
beginning of Ezra.

Throughout these books the interest is religious and ceremonial rather
than civil and national. They constitute in reality a history of the
Jerusalem temple and its institutions. The whole may properly be
designated as the "Ecclesiastical History of Jerusalem." It traces the
history of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom from the earliest times to
the close of the Persian period. Its author, who is commonly known as the
Chronicler, evidently lived during the earlier part or middle of the Greek
period. Certain characteristics of his literary style and point of view
indicate that he wrote about 250 B.C. His peculiarities and methods of
writing are clearly revealed by a comparison of the older parallel history
of Samuel-Kings with the books of Chronicles. In general he lacks the
historical spirit and perspective of the earlier prophetic historians. He
also freely recasts his