Ezra the skillful scribe

Ezra 7:6 says he was a "ready," or "skillful" scribe "in the law of Moses." He made earnest efforts to "revive an interest in the study of the Scriptures" Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 609.

Ezra is the probable author of Ezra-Nehemiah, which was considered to be a single book in the Hebrew scriptures. He also probably wrote Chronicles (1 and 2 Chronicles were a single work in the Hebrew Bible).

God providentially worked through Artaxerxes to issue a decree allowing the Israelites to return. "Ezra had expected that a large number would return to Jerusalem, but the number who responded to the call was disappointingly small. Many who had acquired houses and lands had no desire to sacrifice these possessions. They loved ease and comfort and were well satisfied to remain" PP, p. 612. Less than 50,000, about 2%, of the exiles chose to come back home.

Ezra 9:1 tells us that the secular (not the religious) leaders of the people came to tell him about the problem of the people intermarrying with non-Jews. The religious leaders did not speak up about it because many of them had non Jewish wives. Ezra responds by tearing his robe, fasting, and praying. While he was praying (10:1) Shechaniah comes and proposes a solution--that they make a covenant to divorce these non-Jewish wives, and that is what they do.

It sounds harsh, but "Ezra had learned that Israel's apostasy was largely traceable to their mingling with heathen nations" (PP 620) and he did not want that apostasy repeated. So he leads the people to "put away" their pagan wives. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary calculates the number of men who had pagan wives to be about 0.3% (vol. 3, p. 387). The number of men involved was small, but Ezra still took action in an attempt to keep his people faithful to God's plan.