Psalm 106:1-48; Ezra 7:1-8:14

Rebuilding the Jewish community in Jerusalem had begun under Cyrus the Great, who had permitted Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of Solomon. Consequently, a number of Jews returned to Jerusalem in 538 B.C., and the foundation of this "Second Temple" was laid in 520 B.C.

Artaxerxes sends Ezra, a Jewish priest and scribe to take charge of the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the Jewish nation. A copy of this decree is recorded in Ezra 7:13-28.

Ezra leaves Babylon in the first month of the seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign (458 B.C.), leading a band of Jews that includes priests and Levites. They arrive in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month that year (Hebrew Calendar).