Ezra 7:27

_BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF OUR FATHERS, WHICH HATH PUT SUCH A THING AS THIS IN THE KING'S HEART, TO BEAUTIFY THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WHICH IS IN JERUSALEM:_ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers. This devout thanksgiving is in unison with the whole character of Ezra, who discerns the hand of God in every event, and is always ready to express a pious acknowledgment for the divine goodness....

27,28 Two things Ezra blessed God for: 1. For his commission. If any good appear in our hearts, or in the hearts of others, we must own that God put it there, and bless him; it is he that worketh in us, both to will and to do that which is good. 2. For his encouragement: God has extended mercy to me. Ezra was a man of courage, yet he ascribed this not to his own heart, but to God's hand. If God give us his hand, we are bold and cheerful; if he withdraw it, we are weak as water. Whatever we are enabled to do for God and those around us, God must have all the glory....

An abrupt transition from the words of Artaxerxes to those of Ezra. Compare a similar abrupt change in Ezra 6:6. The language alters at the same time from Chaldee to Hebrew, continuing henceforth to be Hebrew until the close of the book....

EXPOSITION THE DECREE OF ARTAXERXES WITH RESPECT TO EZRA (Ezra 7:11). The present decree was of the nature of a _firman _granted to an individual. It embodied, in the first place, a certain number of provisions which were temporary. Of this character were— 1. the permission accorded to all Persian subjects of Israelite descent to accompany Ezra to Jerusalem (verse 13); 2. the commission to Ezra to convey to Jerusalem certain offerings made by the king and his chief courtiers to the God of Israel (verses 15, 19); 3. the permission given him to convey to Jerusalem the free-will offerings of Jews and others resident in Babylonia (verse 16); 4. permissi

BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF OUR FATHERS,.... This is Ezra's thanksgiving to God for the above decree: WHICH HATH PUT SUCH A THING AS THIS IN THE KING'S HEART; which he rightly took to be of God, who wrought in him to will and to do: TO BEAUTIFY THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WHICH IS IN JERUSALEM; to provide for the ornamenting of it, for vessels in it, as well as for sacrifices; for as for the building of it, that was finished....

II. THE RETURN UNDER EZRA AND HIS REFORMATION CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The journey of Ezra to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1)_ 2. The decree of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11) 3. Ezra's thanksgiving (Ezra 7:27) Ezra 7:1. The record of the return under Zerubbabel and the rebuilding of the temple ends with the previous chapter. Many years passed after the temple had been built before the godly Ezra and his companions returned to Jerusalem. No record whatever is in existence covering the years which intervened between Zerubabbel's expedition and work, and Ezra's expedition. The critics claim that “it was in these apparently barren years that the priestly c

EZRA 7:27 F. EZRA'S THANKSGIVING. This purports to be in the very words of Ezra. The narrative is here continued in Hebrew again....

BLESSED, &C. These two verses (27, 28) resume the Hebrew language....

_Blessed_be _the Lord God of our fathers_ R.V. BLESSED BE THE LORD, THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS. A similar phrase occurs in Ezra 8:28; Ezra 10:11. We find it elsewhere in 1 Chronicles 29:18; 2 Chronicles 20:6. Cf. Acts 3:13. The thanksgiving of Ezra relates to the blessing which had been vouchsafed not to himself personally but to the whole nationality. _hath put_into _the heart_ as in Nehemiah 2:12;...

3. Ezra's thanksgiving and compliance TEXT, Ezra 7:27-28 27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to adorn the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, 28 and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty princes. Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of the LORD my God upon me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. COMMENT In _Ezra 7:27_ Ezra pours out his heart in gratitude to God for inciting the king to do so much for the Temple at Jerusalem. Note the personal tone of these words! _Ezra 7:28_ continues Ezra's thanks, now for