Ezra

Ezra records the return from Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the nation's worship. Its first half tells how Zerubbabel leads a company home and, despite opposition, rebuilds the Temple, finished around 515 BC.

The second half introduces Ezra the scribe, who returns some decades later to teach the Law and reform a community that has drifted, notably by taking foreign wives. Together with Nehemiah, the book shows a chastened people re-founding their life around Scripture and the Temple, and a God faithful to restore what judgement had swept away.