Passage
Ezra 7.9
9. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. (ASV)Book: Ezra · NASB95
Immediate context (±2 verses)
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ASV
7. And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 8. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
- For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances. 11. Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah, and of his statutes to Israel: (Ezra 7:7-11, ASV)
WEB
7. Some of the children of Israel, including some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 8. He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.
- For Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh’s law, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. 11. Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of Yahweh’s commandments, and of his statutes to Israel: (Ezra 7:7-11, WEB)
KJV
7. And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 8. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. began: Heb. was the foundation of the going up
- For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. 11. Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel. (Ezra 7:7-11, KJV)
YLT
7. And there go up of the sons of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 8. And he cometh in to Jerusalem in the fifth month, that [is in] the seventh year of the king,
9. for on the first of the month he hath founded the ascent from Babylon, and on the first of the fifth month he hath come in unto Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him,
- for Ezra hath prepared his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do, and to teach in Israel statute and judgment. 11. And this [is] a copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commands of Jehovah, and of His statutes on Israel: (Ezra 7:7-11, YLT)
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Setting
- Speaker: the narrator of Ezra
- Audience: the book's readers in restored Judah
- Location: the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem
- Time period: the first to the fifth month of the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7-9), c. 458 BC if this is Artaxerxes I
Theological reading
Ezra set out "upon the first day of the first month" and arrived "on the first day of the fifth month," a journey of four months, and he arrived "according to the good hand of his God upon him." The phrase is an anthropomorphism, a bodily image for God's active care and power; the codex discusses this kind of language in Anthropomorphism. Ezra later explains why he did not ask the king for a military escort: "The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him, for good" (Ezra 8:22).
The next verse gives the reason the hand of God was on him: "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances" (Ezra 7:10). The order matters: he studies, he obeys, and only then he teaches. The verse connects God's favour with a heart (lebab) set on his law, without making that favour a payment for it.
Key words
Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.
- H2896 - tov, tov, Strong's H2896
- H0259 - echad, echad, Strong's H0259
- H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430
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Why these four translations
ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.
The four:
- ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.
See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.