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| EZRA |
| Explanatory Footnotes - page 2 |
| divergent details. All the loose ends tie up neatly. Real life is messier. Here is a typical case: a document was searched for in Babylon, but it unexpectedly turned up in remote Ecbatana, where (history says) Cyrus spent the summer of his first year as king. Such details sugest that Ezra is based on accurate and detailed historical sources. 10:1 Unprecedented Response Ezra's grief over Israel's spiritual compromise was similar to that of many prophets. But the people's response to Ezra was unprecedented. Pre-exile prophets like Amos or Jeremiah never saw such heartfelt repentance. Evidently the exile really had purified Israel. 10:17 Corrputed Religious Leaders The problem Ezra had eveidently expected to solve in a day (verse 13) took, in fact, two months to sort out. Intermarriage must have been more widespread than he realized. The list of those involved shows that the priests and Levites, who were the religious leaders, had a higher proportion of intermarriage than the rest of the people. |