Ezra 7

The scene shifts nearly sixty years to Ezra, a priest descended from Aaron and “a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses,” who “had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach” it. Artaxerxes sends him to Jerusalem with a generous royal letter, granting him funds, authority to appoint magistrates and teachers, and freedom to beautify the temple. Ezra blesses God, “who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king,” for the good hand of his God was on him.