For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.
Read Chapter 7
Bede
AD 735
By his name too, which means “helper,” Ezra openly stands for the Lord. For it is he by whom alone the people of the faithful are constantly liberated from tribulations and, as though from captivity in Babylon to freedom in Jerusalem, are brought from the “confusion” of the vices to the “peace” and serenity of the virtues as they advance by the steps of meritorious deeds. In the second psalm of the same anabathmoi [i.e., of the Ascents], the psalmist proclaims to all those who strive for the highest under whose leadership they ought to strive to attain it when he suggests, “My help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” In his actions, too, Ezra was a figure of the Lord, since Ezra led back no small portion of the people from the captivity to Jerusalem and at the same time conveyed money and vessels consecrated to God for the glory of his temple; and through his pontifical authority he purged these people of their foreign wives. What all this suggests with regard to what is done ...
And a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem, and so on until it says: Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. Since it is the descendants of Judah and Benjamin who are said to have assembled, it is very clear that those who were defiled by marrying foreign wives were from the first group of returnees, who came from those tribes and were recalled home by Jeshua and Zerubbabel, as we have said above.
Heart. Thinking continually (Menochius) how he might keep the law himself, and direct others. (Haydock)
It would be well if all would thus teach by example, like Jesus Christ, who began to do and then to teach. (Haydock)
Judgment. Both these terms express the same thing. (Menochius)
