Ezra 7:6

6 This Esdras went up out of Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel gave: and the king gave him , for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him in all things which he sought.

Ezra 7:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 7:6

This Ezra went up from Babylon
A second time; for that he went up with Zerubbabel is clear from ( Nehemiah 12:1 ) , and is plainly intimated, ( Ezra 5:4 ) ,

and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of
Israel had given;
the meaning is, not that he had a quick hand in writing out copies of it, but was well versed in the knowledge of it; had studied it thoroughly, well instructed in it, and was abundantly qualified to teach it others; he was an eminent doctor of the law; so scribes, in the New Testament, who are the same with the lawyers, were such as were teachers of the law; the word here used in the Arabic language signifies to be expert, as Jarchi F15 learned from one of their doctors:

and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the
Lord his God upon him;
either upon Ezra, giving him favour with the king, and so success and prosperity; or it may denote the divine influence of the God of Ezra upon the heart of the king, moving him to grant what he asked of him, even everything he desired: he seems to have been sent upon an embassy to the king from the chief men at Jerusalem; perhaps the governors of Syria had not so fully made the disbursements the king in his decree had required them to make, since the following commission chiefly respects such things; and he was sent on that errand to acquaint the king with it, as well as to persuade those that remained to return, and to obtain leave for it.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Comment. in Psal. xlv. 1. <arabic> "acutus ingenio et solers fuit", Golius, col. 2272. "in re exercitatus fuit et excultus", Castel. col. 2008. Ethiop. "docuit, erudivit", ib. col. 2007.

Ezra 7:6 In-Context

4 the son of Zaraia, the son of Ozias, the son of Bokki,
5 the son of Abisue, the son of Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the first priest.
6 This Esdras went up out of Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel gave: and the king gave him , for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him in all things which he sought.
7 And of the children of Israel went up, and of the priests, and of the Levites, and the singers, and the door-keepers, and the Nathinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Arthasastha the king.
8 And they came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, this the seventh year of the king.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.