For Teaching

1 Esdras 8: What the Passage Says

327 claims across 96 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Esdras 8 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

In the seventh year of King Artexerxes, Esdras the priest and scribe goes up from Babylon to Jerusalem, carrying a letter from the king that lets any willing Jews travel with him, provides gold, silver, and supplies for the temple sacrifices, frees temple workers from taxes, and gives Esdras power to appoint judges. The chapter lists the family heads who went with him, the gathering at the river Theras, the sending for priests and Levites, and the weighing out of the gold, silver, and holy vessels handed to twelve priests for the journey. After they arrive and deliver everything, the rulers report that Israelites, including the leaders, have married women from the surrounding peoples; Esdras tears his clothes, fasts, and prays a confession while lying on the ground before the temple. A large crowd gathers, Jechonias proposes an oath to put away the foreign wives along with their children, and Esdras takes an oath from the chief priests and Levites of all Israel, and they swear to it.

Claim by Claim

8:1
- After these things, Artaxerxes reigned as king of the Persians.
- Esdras came.
- Esdras was the son of Saraias.
- Saraias was the son of Ezerias.
- Ezerias was the son of Helchiah.
- Helchiah was the son of Salum.
8:2
- Salum was the son of Sadduc.
- Sadduc was the son of Achitob.
- Achitob was the son of Amarias.
- Amarias was the son of Ezias.
- Ezias was the son of Meremoth.
- Meremoth was the son of Zaraias.
- Zaraias was the son of Savias.
- Savias was the son of Boccas.
- Boccas was the son of Abisum.
- Abisum was the son of Phinees.
- Phinees was the son of Eleazar.
- Eleazar was the son of Aaron.
- Aaron was the chief priest.
8:3
- This Esdras went up from Babylon.
- Esdras was a scribe.
- Esdras was highly skilled in the law of Moses.
- The law of Moses was given by the God of Israel.
8:4
- The king honoured Esdras.
- Esdras found favour in the king's sight in all his requests.
8:5
- Some of the children of Israel went up with Esdras.
- Some of the priests went up with him.
- Some of the Levites went up with him.
- Some of the holy singers went up with him.
- Some of the gatekeepers went up with him.
- Some of the temple servants went up with him.
- They went up to Jerusalem.
8:6
- This took place in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes.
- This took place in the fifth month.
- This was the king's seventh year.
- They set out from Babylon on the first day of the first month.
- They came to Jerusalem.
- The Lord gave them a prosperous journey.
8:7
- Esdras had very great skill.
- Esdras omitted nothing of the law and commandments of the Lord.
- Esdras taught all Israel the ordinances and judgments.
8:8
- A written commission came from King Artaxerxes.
- The commission came to Esdras.
- Esdras was a priest.
- Esdras was a reader of the law of the Lord.
- What follows is a copy of that commission.
8:9
- King Artaxerxes addressed Esdras the priest and reader of the law of the Lord.
- Artaxerxes sent him greeting.
8:10
- Artaxerxes said he had determined to deal graciously.
- Artaxerxes said he had given order that those of the nation of the Jews within his realm who were willing should go with Esdras to Jerusalem.
- The order covered priests and Levites as well.
- The going was to be voluntary.
8:11
- Artaxerxes said that as many as wished should depart with Esdras.
- Artaxerxes said this seemed good to him.
- Artaxerxes said this seemed good to his seven friends the counsellors.
8:12
- The purpose was that they might look into the affairs of Judea and Jerusalem.
- This was to be done in accordance with what is in the law of the Lord.
8:13
- They were to carry the gifts to the Lord of Israel to Jerusalem.
- The king and his friends had vowed those gifts.
- All the gold and silver that could be found in the country of Babylon was also to go to the Lord in Jerusalem.
8:14
- What the people give for the temple of the Lord their God at Jerusalem was included.
- The temple of the Lord their God is at Jerusalem.
- Silver and gold were to be collected for bullocks, rams and lambs.
- Things belonging to those offerings were also to be provided.
8:15
- The purpose was that they might offer sacrifices to the Lord.
- The sacrifices were to be offered on the altar of the Lord their God.
- That altar is in Jerusalem.
8:16
- Artaxerxes told Esdras that whatever he and his brethren decided to do with the silver and gold, they should do.
- It was to be done according to the will of Esdras's God.
8:17
- Holy vessels of the Lord were given to Esdras for the use of the temple of his God in Jerusalem.
- Esdras was to set them before his God in Jerusalem.
8:18
- Whatever else Esdras remembered as needed for the use of the temple of his God, he was to supply it.
- It was to be supplied out of the king's treasury.
8:19
- King Artaxerxes commanded the keepers of the treasures in Syria and Phenice.
- Whatever Esdras the priest and reader of the law of the most high God sent for, they were to give him.
- They were to give it with speed.
8:20
- The amount was up to one hundred talents of silver.
- The amount was up to one hundred cors of wheat.
- The amount was up to one hundred measures of wine.
- Other things were to be given in abundance.
8:21
- All things were to be performed diligently according to the law of God.
- They were to be performed to the most high God.
- The reason was so that wrath should not come upon the kingdom of the king and his sons.
8:22
- Artaxerxes commanded that no tax or other imposition be required of the priests.
- The same exemption applied to the Levites.
- The same exemption applied to the holy singers.
- The same exemption applied to the gatekeepers.
- The same exemption applied to the temple servants.
- The same exemption applied to any who had business in that temple.
- No man was to have authority to impose anything upon them.
8:23
- Artaxerxes told Esdras to appoint judges and justices according to the wisdom of God.
- They were to judge in all Syria and Phenice.
- They were to judge all those who know the law of Esdras's God.
- Esdras was to teach those who do not know it.
8:24
- Whoever transgresses the law of Esdras's God shall be punished diligently.
- Whoever transgresses the law of the king shall be punished diligently.
- The punishment may be death.
- The punishment may be some other punishment.
- The punishment may be a penalty of money.
- The punishment may be imprisonment.
8:25
- Esdras the scribe then spoke.
- Esdras blessed the only Lord God of his fathers.
- Esdras said God had put these things into the heart of the king.
- The purpose was to glorify God's house in Jerusalem.
8:26
- Esdras said God had honoured him in the sight of the king.
- Esdras said God had honoured him in the sight of the king's counsellors.
- Esdras said God had honoured him in the sight of all the king's friends and nobles.
8:27
- Esdras was encouraged by the help of the Lord his God.
- Esdras gathered together men of Israel to go up with him.
8:28
- What follows are the chief men, listed by their families and divisions.
- They went up with Esdras from Babylon.
- This was in the reign of king Artaxerxes.
8:29
- Of the sons of Phinees, Gerson went up.
- Of the sons of Ithamar, Gamael went up.
- Of the sons of David, Lettus the son of Sechenias went up.
8:30
- Of the sons of Pharez, Zacharias went up.
- A hundred and fifty men were counted with him.
8:31
- Of the sons of Pahath Moab, Eliaonias the son of Zaraias went up.
- Two hundred men were with him.
8:32
- Of the sons of Zathoe, Sechenias the son of Jezelus went up.
- Three hundred men were with him.
- Of the sons of Adin, Obeth the son of Jonathan went up.
- Two hundred and fifty men were with him.
8:33
- Of the sons of Elam, Josias the son of Gotholias went up.
- Seventy men were with him.
8:34
- Of the sons of Saphatias, Zaraias the son of Michael went up.
- Seventy men were with him.
8:35
- Of the sons of Joab, Abadias the son of Jezelus went up.
- Two hundred and twelve men were with him.
8:36
- Of the sons of Banid, Assalimoth the son of Josaphias went up.
- A hundred and sixty men were with him.
8:37
- Of the sons of Babi, Zacharias the son of Bebai went up.
- Twenty-eight men were with him.
8:38
- Of the sons of Astath, Johannes the son of Acatan went up.
- A hundred and ten men were with him.
8:39
- Of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones went up.
- Their names were Eliphalet, Jewel and Samaias.
- Seventy men were with them.
8:40
- Of the sons of Bago, Uthi the son of Istalcurus went up.
- Seventy men were with him.
8:41
- Esdras gathered these men to the river called Theras.
- They pitched their tents there three days.
- Esdras then surveyed them.
8:42
- Esdras found none of the priests there.
- Esdras found none of the Levites there.
8:43
- Esdras sent to Eleazar.
- Esdras sent to Iduel.
- Esdras sent to Masman.
8:44
- Esdras sent to Alnathan, Mamaias, Joribas, Nathan, Eunatan, Zacharias and Mosollamon.
- These were principal men.
- These were learned men.
8:45
- Esdras told them to go to Saddeus the captain.
- Saddeus was in the place of the treasury.
8:46
- Esdras commanded them to speak to Daddeus.
- They were to speak to Daddeus's brethren.
- They were to speak to the treasurers in that place.
- They were to ask that men be sent who could execute the priests' office in the house of the Lord.
8:47
- By the mighty hand of our Lord they brought skilful men to us.
- These men were of the sons of Moli.
- Moli was the son of Levi.
- Levi was the son of Israel.
- Among them were Asebebia, his sons and his brethren.
- They were eighteen in number.
8:48
- Asebia came.
- Annus came.
- Osaias his brother came.
- They were of the sons of Channuneus.
- With their sons they were twenty men.
8:49
- There were also temple servants whom David had ordained.
- The principal men had appointed them for the service of the Levites.
- The temple servants numbered two hundred and twenty.
- A list of all their names was produced.
8:50
- Esdras vowed a fast there for the young men before our Lord.
- The purpose was to ask God for a prosperous journey for themselves and those with them.
- The request also covered their children.
- The request also covered their cattle.
8:51
- Esdras was ashamed to ask the king for footmen.
- Esdras was ashamed to ask the king for horsemen.
- Esdras was ashamed to ask the king for an escort for protection against their adversaries.
8:52
- They had told the king that the power of the Lord their God would be with those who seek him.
- They had told the king that God supports such people in all ways.
8:53
- They again besought our Lord concerning these things.
- They found him favourable to them.
8:54
- Esdras separated twelve of the chief of the priests.
- Among them were Esebrias and Assanias.
- Ten men of their brethren were with them.
8:55
- Esdras weighed out to them the gold.
- Esdras weighed out to them the silver.
- Esdras weighed out to them the holy vessels of the house of our Lord.
- The king had given these.
- The king's council had given these.
- The princes had given these.
- All Israel had given these.
8:56
- After weighing it, Esdras delivered to them six hundred and fifty talents of silver.
- He delivered silver vessels weighing a hundred talents.
- He delivered a hundred talents of gold.
8:57
- He delivered twenty golden vessels.
- He delivered twelve vessels of brass.
- The brass was fine brass.
- The brass glittered like gold.
8:58
- Esdras told them they were holy to the Lord.
- Esdras told them the vessels were holy.
- Esdras told them the gold and silver were a vow to the Lord.
- The Lord is the Lord of their fathers.
8:59
- Esdras told them to watch and keep the items.
- They were to keep them until they delivered them to the chief of the priests and Levites.
- They were to deliver them also to the principal men of the families of Israel.
- The delivery was to be in Jerusalem.
- The delivery was to be into the chambers of the house of our God.
8:60
- The priests and Levites received the silver, the gold and the vessels.
- They brought them to Jerusalem.
- They brought them into the temple of the Lord.
8:61
- They departed from the river Theras on the twelfth day of the first month.
- They came to Jerusalem.
- The mighty hand of our Lord was with them.
- From the beginning of the journey the Lord delivered them from every enemy.
- So they came to Jerusalem.
8:62
- They had been there three days.
- On the fourth day the weighed gold and silver was delivered in the house of our Lord.
- It was delivered to Marmoth the priest.
- Marmoth was the son of Iri.
8:63
- Eleazar the son of Phinees was with Marmoth.
- Josabad the son of Jesu was with them.
- Moeth the son of Sabban was with them.
- Josabad and Moeth were Levites.
- Everything was delivered to them by number and by weight.
8:64
- The whole weight of them was written down at the same hour.
8:65
- Those who had come out of the captivity offered sacrifice to the Lord God of Israel.
- They offered twelve bullocks for all Israel.
- They offered ninety-six rams.
8:66
- They offered seventy-two lambs.
- They offered twelve goats for a peace offering.
- All of these were a sacrifice to the Lord.
8:67
- They delivered the king's commandments to the king's stewards.
- They delivered them to the governors of Celosyria and Phenice.
- Those officials honoured the people.
- Those officials honoured the temple of God.
8:68
- When these things were done, the rulers came to Esdras.
- The rulers spoke to him.
8:69
- The rulers said the nation of Israel had not put away the strange people of the land.
- They said the princes had not put them away.
- They said the priests and Levites had not put them away.
- They said the pollutions of the Gentiles had not been put away.
- The peoples named were the Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, Moabites, Egyptians and Edomites.
8:70
- They said both the men and their sons had married the daughters of those peoples.
- They said the holy seed is mixed with the strange people of the land.
- They said the rulers and the great men had shared in this iniquity from the beginning of the matter.
8:71
- As soon as Esdras heard these things, he rent his clothes.
- He rent the holy garment.
- He pulled hair from his head and beard.
- He sat down sad and very heavy.
8:72
- All who were moved at the word of the Lord God of Israel assembled to Esdras.
- Esdras mourned for the iniquity.
- Esdras sat still full of heaviness until the evening sacrifice.
8:73
- Esdras rose up from the fast.
- His clothes and the holy garment were rent.
- He bowed his knees.
- He stretched forth his hands to the Lord.
8:74
- Esdras said he was confounded and ashamed before the Lord's face.
8:75
- Esdras said their sins are multiplied above their heads.
- Esdras said their ignorances have reached up to heaven.
8:76
- Esdras said they had been in great sin ever since the time of their fathers.
- Esdras said they are in great sin to this day.
8:77
- Esdras said that for their own sins and their fathers' sins they were given up to the kings of the earth.
- He said they were given up with their brethren, their kings and their priests.
- He said they were given up to the sword.
- He said they were given up to captivity.
- He said they were given up for a prey with shame.
- He said this has lasted to this day.
8:78
- Esdras said that now mercy had in some measure been shown to them from the Lord.
- He said the result was that a root and a name were left to them.
- He said this was in the place of God's sanctuary.
8:79
- He said God uncovered a light for them in the house of the Lord their God.
- He said God gave them food in the time of their servitude.
8:80
- He said that when they were in bondage they were not forsaken by our Lord.
- He said God made them favoured before the kings of Persia.
- He said the result was that the kings gave them food.
8:81
- He said they honoured the temple of our Lord.
- He said they raised up the desolate Sion.
- He said they gave them a sure dwelling in Jewry and Jerusalem.
8:82
- Esdras asked what they should say now, having these things.
- He said they had transgressed God's commandments.
- He said God gave those commandments by the hand of his servants the prophets.
- He said the commandments said what follows.
8:83
- The land they were entering to possess as an inheritance is a land polluted with the pollutions of the strangers of the land.
- Those strangers have filled it with their uncleanness.
8:84
- They were not to join their daughters to the sons of those peoples.
- They were not to take the daughters of those peoples for their sons.
8:85
- They were never to seek peace with those peoples.
- The purpose was that they might be strong.
- The purpose was that they might eat the good things of the land.
- The purpose was that they might leave the inheritance of the land to their children for ever.
8:86
- Esdras said all that had befallen them was done to them for their wicked works and great sins.
- Esdras said the Lord made their sins light.
8:87
- Esdras said God gave them such a root.
- Esdras said they had turned back again to transgress God's law.
- Esdras said they had turned back to mingle themselves with the uncleanness of the nations of the land.
8:88
- Esdras asked whether God might not be angry with them so as to destroy them.
- The destruction would leave them neither root, nor seed, nor name.
- The statement can be read either as a question or as an assertion that God did not so destroy them.
8:89
- Esdras said the Lord of Israel is true.
- Esdras said a root is left to them this day.
8:90
- Esdras said they now stand before God in their iniquities.
- Esdras said they cannot stand any longer before God because of these things.
8:91
- Esdras prayed and made his confession.
- Esdras wept.
- Esdras lay flat upon the ground before the temple.
- A very great multitude of men, women and children gathered to him from Jerusalem.
- There was great weeping among the multitude.
8:92
- Jechonias the son of Jeelus called out.
- Jechonias was one of the sons of Israel.
- Jechonias said they had sinned against the Lord God.
- Jechonias said they had married strange women of the nations of the land.
- Jechonias said that now all Israel is aloft, a statement whose sense is uncertain.
8:93
- Jechonias proposed that they make an oath to the Lord.
- The oath was that they would put away all the wives they had taken of the heathen.
- The children of those wives were to be put away with them.
8:94
- This was to be done as Esdras had decreed.
- This was to be done by as many as obey the law of the Lord.
8:95
- Jechonias told Esdras to arise.
- Jechonias told Esdras to carry the matter out.
- Jechonias said the matter belonged to Esdras.
- Jechonias said they would be with him.
- Jechonias told him to act valiantly.
8:96
- Esdras arose.
- Esdras took an oath of the chief of the priests and Levites of all Israel to act according to these things.
- They swore.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1: 1 Esdras is a Greek retelling of material found in Ezra, Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles, so its personal names come through Greek spelling and often differ from the more familiar Hebrew forms. Esdras is Ezra; Artexerxes is Artaxerxes, king of Persia in the fifth century BC. The Persian empire had taken over Babylon, where many Judeans had been deported a century earlier.
8:2: The list runs backward from Esdras to Aaron, the brother of Moses and the first priest of Israel. Its point is not family sentiment: priesthood was hereditary, and a documented descent from Aaron was what entitled a man to serve. Naming the line is a credential.
8:3: "Scribe" here does not mean a copyist. By this period it was the title of a trained scholar and official, an expert in the written law who could rule on its application. Note also "went up": Jerusalem stands high in the hill country, so travel toward it is always spoken of as going up, whatever direction it actually lies.
8:4: "Found grace in his sight" is an idiom for winning someone's goodwill, not a religious statement about grace. The king granted what Esdras asked.
8:5: Four groups of temple staff, ranked below the priests. Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who assisted at the sanctuary without offering sacrifice themselves; the holy singers provided the music of worship; the gatekeepers ("porters" in older English) guarded the entrances and controlled who could go where; the temple servants were a hereditary workforce who did the heavy and menial work of the sanctuary.
8:6: Dates run by the Hebrew calendar. The first month, Nisan, falls in March or April; the fifth month, Ab, in July or August. So the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, roughly nine hundred miles by the usable route, took about four months.
8:7: Ordinances were the rules for worship. Judgments were the decisions used to settle arguments, like rulings in a court.
8:8: "Commission" here means an official written authorization from the crown, of the kind a royal official would carry and produce as proof of his powers. "Reader of the law" renders a Greek title for an authorized public expositor of the Jewish law.
8:10: Many Jewish families had lived in Babylon for generations since being taken captive, and Babylon was now part of Persia. The king is letting any who wish go home.
8:11: Persian kings were advised by a body of seven noble counselors, a well known feature of the court. Calling them the king's "friends" is a formal court title, not a description of personal affection.
8:12: Judea was at this time a small province of the Persian empire, administered under the larger regional government based in Syria.
8:13: A vow here is a formal promise to give something to a god, binding on the one who makes it. The Persian crown routinely funded the cults of subject peoples, treating their prayers as useful to the empire.
8:14: Sacrificial animals had to be bought, so a cash grant is effectively a standing account for the daily offerings.
8:15: An altar was a large stone table where animals and other gifts were burned as offerings to God.
8:17: The temple vessels are the gold and silver bowls, basins and utensils used in worship. Nebuchadnezzar had carried them off when Jerusalem fell; their return is a repeated concern in this literature because without them the service could not be carried out.
8:19: Syria and Phenice are the imperial province that included Judea, called "Beyond the River" in Persian administration. Phenice is Phoenicia, the coastal strip of what is now Lebanon. The "keepers of the treasures" are the provincial treasury officials, ordered here to honor Esdras's requisitions on royal account.
8:20: A talent was a weight, roughly seventy-five pounds, so a hundred talents of silver is between three and four tons. A cor was a dry measure of about six and a half bushels, so a hundred cors is a substantial grain shipment. The "pieces" of wine translate a Greek liquid measure of roughly nine or ten gallons each. Salt mattered because the law required it with every grain offering, so it was a standing temple supply and not a seasoning.
8:21: The reasoning is Persian, not Jewish: the empire supported local worship on the understanding that a neglected god might turn his anger on the ruling house. Similar clauses appear in genuine Persian documents.
8:22: Exempting temple personnel from taxes and forced labor was an actual Persian practice, attested elsewhere for priesthoods across the empire.
8:23: "Judges and justices" are civil magistrates appointed with royal backing. The arrangement lets Jewish law function as the law for Jews throughout the province, enforced by the empire.
8:24: Once the king backed God's law, breaking it counted as breaking the king's law too, so royal punishments applied.
8:25: "Blessed be" is a standard opening of Jewish prayer, praising God rather than asking anything of him. "His house" is the temple.
8:28: "Several dignities" in older English means separate ranks or divisions, not "many honors." What follows is a muster roll: the head of each extended family, with the number of adult men traveling under him.
8:29: "Sons of" in these lists means descendants of, that is, members of a clan named for a founding ancestor. "The sons of David" are the surviving royal line, a politically significant group to bring home.
8:31: Pahath Moab means "governor of Moab." It had become a family name; the group is Judean, not Moabite.
8:34: In the King James, "score" means twenty, so "threescore" is sixty. "Threescore and ten" is seventy.
8:39: "The last" probably means the last party of that clan to return, later arrivals than an earlier group of the same family; some read it as the younger branch. The text does not settle it.
8:41: The river Theras is called Ahava in the parallel account in Ezra. It is a canal or watercourse in Babylonia and cannot now be located. "I surveyed them" means he inspected and counted the assembled company.
8:42: Only priests and Levites were allowed to do the temple work. A group without them could not carry on worship in Jerusalem.
8:45: In the parallel in Ezra, "the place of the treasury" is the place name Casiphia, a Jewish settlement in Babylonia. The Greek has read it as a description instead.
8:46: Saddeus in the previous verse and Daddeus here are the same man; the manuscripts vary on the letter. The request is for Levites, since a company with priests but no Levites lacked the staff the temple service required.
8:47: Moli was a grandson of Levi, so these men came from exactly the right family to work as Levites.
8:49: The temple servants, the Nethinim, were a hereditary class assigned to support the Levites in the temple's manual work. Tradition traced their organization to David. A written list of names was how such a group proved its status.
8:50: A fast means going without food for a set time as an act of prayer. "Vowed a fast unto the young men" means he proclaimed one for the company. The prayer covers the livestock because they were the caravan's transport and food supply, and losing them on the road would be ruinous.
8:51: The point is not modesty. Esdras had told the king that his God protected those who trusted him, so asking for a military escort would have contradicted him in public.
8:54: Twelve, the number of the tribes of Israel, is the standard figure for a body representing the whole nation. The treasure had to be carried by consecrated men because it was dedicated property.
8:55: Weighing the metal in front of witnesses made a record of exactly how much there was. It could be weighed again at the end to prove nothing was missing.
8:56: At roughly seventy-five pounds to the talent, six hundred and fifty talents of silver is on the order of twenty-four tons, and the gold alone some three and a half tons. The figures are conventional and very large; an armed escort is exactly what such a caravan would normally have had.
8:57: "Brass" in older English usually means bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. A polished bronze of high quality could pass at a glance for gold, which is the point being made.
8:58: "Holy" here means set apart for God's exclusive use and therefore not available for any ordinary purpose. Saying the men themselves are holy makes them, like the vessels, dedicated property in transit.
8:59: The "chambers" are the storerooms built around the temple courts, where dedicated goods, tithes and vessels were kept under guard.
8:61: They left the river about eleven days after starting out from Babylon. The whole journey to Jerusalem took around four months.
8:62: Weighing and counting in front of named witnesses, then recording the totals, is standard accounting practice for a treasury transfer. The three days' pause is recovery from the journey before the handover.
8:64: Writing the weight down that same hour made a record on the spot, so no one could later be accused of taking any.
8:65: Burnt offerings marking a safe arrival. The numbers are built on twelve, the number of the tribes: twelve bulls, ninety-six rams (twelve eights), seventy-two lambs (twelve sixes), so the sacrifice is offered on behalf of the whole nation and not just the returning party.
8:66: A peace offering was a sacrifice partly burnt and partly eaten by the worshipers, a shared meal rather than a penalty. The parallel account in Ezra calls these twelve goats a sin offering, made to remove guilt; the Greek here has peace offering, and the two traditions differ.
8:67: Celosyria is Coele-Syria, "Hollow Syria," the inland region between the Lebanon ranges. With Phoenicia it made up the provincial administration Judea fell under. "The king's stewards" are the imperial financial officers; producing the royal order obliged them to cooperate.
8:69: "Put away from them" means separated themselves from. The list of nations (Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, Moabites, Egyptians, Edomites) is a stock formula drawn from the law of Moses for the earlier inhabitants of the land, not a census of who was actually living there in Esdras's time. "Pollutions" and "uncleanness" are ritual terms: they describe practices that disqualify a person or thing from worship, and carry no comment on hygiene.
8:70: "The holy seed" means the family line of Israel considered as set apart, the same term the law uses for dedicated things. The complaint is that intermarriage has blurred the boundary of the community, and that the leaders themselves were the first to do it.
8:71: Tearing one's clothes and tearing out hair from the head and beard were public, recognized gestures of grief and horror in this culture, the equivalent of a visible breakdown rather than a private mood. The "holy garment" is the priestly robe, so tearing it is a deliberate and shocking act. "Heavy" in older English means weighed down with grief.
8:72: The evening sacrifice was the second of the two daily offerings, made in mid afternoon. It functions here as a clock: he sat motionless for several hours, until roughly three in the afternoon.
8:73: Kneeling with hands stretched out and open was the ordinary way to pray. It showed you were asking, not demanding.
8:75: "Ignorances" in the King James translates a word for sins committed unintentionally or in error, which the law treated as a separate category from deliberate wrongdoing.
8:77: The reference is to the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the deportations that followed, beginning in 597 BC and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586. "For a prey" means as plunder, property to be seized.
8:78: "A root and a name" is an idiom for a surviving remnant with a future: a root can send up new growth, and a name means descendants to carry it. "In the place of thy sanctuary" means back at the temple site.
8:79: A light or lamp in the house is a standing image for a family or nation still alive and not extinguished, the household fire still burning.
8:80: Persia had conquered Babylon and let the captives go home. "Bondage" means living as slaves or subjects under a foreign king.
8:81: Sion is Zion, the hill on which Jerusalem stood, used as a name for the city itself. "Jewry" is older English for Judea, the province. "A sure abiding" means a secure place to live, with recognized legal standing.
8:82: A prophet was someone who told people what God said.
8:83: What follows is presented as words of the prophets, but it is drawn from the law of Moses, chiefly Deuteronomy chapter 7 and the neighboring laws. Ancient writers often quoted from memory and blended passages.
8:85: This clause comes from a law about Ammon and Moab in Deuteronomy 23, where "seek their peace" means to negotiate treaties and alliances with them. The prohibition is political and religious, not a rule about personal quarrels.
8:86: "Didst make our sins light" means God treated the offenses more leniently than they deserved, punishing less than was due, not that he made them seem trivial.
8:88: The King James turns this into a rhetorical question; the underlying Greek can equally be read as a statement, "you were not angry with us to the point of destroying us." The ambiguity is in the text itself. "Neither root, seed, nor name" means wiping out a family line so completely that nothing remains to grow back and nobody survives to bear the name.
8:91: Lying face down on the ground was the posture of total submission and public grief, used before God or before a king. Doing it in the open forecourt of the temple made the confession a public event, which is why a crowd gathered.
8:92: "Now is all Israel aloft" is obscure to a modern reader. The Greek means something like "there is still hope for Israel," the situation is not beyond remedy. Some manuscripts and translators have read it instead as "all Israel is in an uproar."
8:93: "Put away" is the standard idiom for divorce, sending a wife back to her father's household. Sending the children as well follows from the custom that children of a dissolved foreign marriage went with the mother's family. "Heathen" translates a word simply meaning the other nations, with no comment on their beliefs implied by the English word's later tone.
8:95: "Put in execution" means carry it out. "This matter appertains to thee" means the responsibility and the authority are yours. "Do valiantly" is a standard formula of encouragement, close to "be strong and act."
8:96: "Sware" is the old past tense of "swear." We would say "swore."

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