Persia, which resulted in Zerubbabel’s favor, and so pleased the king that he issued letters for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and conferred many other favors on the Jews.  Chaps. 3, 4.  The preceding and following parts are made up of extracts from 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, in which the compiler has made a free use of his biblical sources, at one time abridging the narrative, at another making explanatory additions, and again transposing the order of events contrary to historical truth.  Some, as Keil, think that the writer made use of the Alexandrine version; others, that he drew from the original Hebrew.  His design was to exhibit the liberality of Cyrus and Darius towards the Jews as a pattern for the heathen rulers of Judea in his own day. (Keil.) Neither the author nor the date of the book is known, but it cannot be placed earlier than the second century before Christ.

6.  The second book of Esdras (called also the fourth, when the first is reckoned as the third) is extant in a Latin, an Arabic, and an Ethiopic version.  The Greek original has not thus far been found.  The Arabic and Ethiopic are thought to represent the primitive text more correctly than the Latin:  as they want the two introductory and closing chapters of the latter, which are generally admitted to be spurious additions by a later hand; and contain, on the contrary, a long passage after chap. 7:35, which is not found in the Latin, and is thought to be genuine.

7.  If we reject the first two and last two chapters of the Latin version, which do not belong to the original work, the remainder of the book has entire unity from beginning to end.  It consists of a series of pretended visions vouchsafed to Ezra through the angel Uriel in the thirtieth year after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, while he mourned over the desolate and distressed condition of the covenant people with fasting and prayer.  Of these visions, the first six, which are preparatory to the last, pertain mainly to the method of God’s dealing with men, the end of the present age, the introduction of the coming age, and the glorification of Zion, with the heavy judgments of God that shall accompany these events.  Many of these revelations are made through the medium of symbols.  In the seventh and last revelation, a voice addresses Ezra out of a bush, as it did Moses of old.  Upon his complaining that the law has been burnt, he is directed to take five ready scribes, with a promise that the holy writings which are lost shall be restored to his people.  The next day the voice calls to him again, commanding him to open his mouth and drink the cup which is offered to him, “full as it were with water, but the color of it was like fire.”  Upon this he is filled with the spirit of inspiration, and dictates to his five scribes in forty days 204 books (according to some 94).  Of these the last 70 are secret, to be delivered only “to such as be wise among the people.”  The rest are to be published