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Ezra 7 · a question people ask

7:26 names death among the punishments. Whose law was that?

In the text

The words are the king's. They close the letter "that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra" (7:11): "Whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment" (7:26). The letter joins "the law of your God and the law of the king" (7:26) in one sentence, and gives Ezra power to "appoint magistrates and judges" (7:25). Chapter 7 records the letter; it doesn't tell of any judgment carried out under it. What Ezra says when the letter ends is a blessing of the LORD for putting it in the king's heart "to beautify the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem" (7:27). These notes keep to what the verses say.

The verses

“Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of the LORD’s commandments, and of his statutes to Israel: Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the perfect God of heaven. Now”
Ezra 7:11-12 · World English Bible
“You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, who all know the laws of your God; and teach him who doesn’t know them. Whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem;”
Ezra 7:25-27 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ezra 7

Ezra 7: The hand of his God on him

Ezra isn't named until chapter 7, and he comes as priest and scribe: his line runs back to Aaron (7:5), and he "had set his heart to seek the LORD’s law, and to do it, and to teach" (7:10), doing before teaching. The king wrote the letter, but three times the chapter says the hand of his God was on him (7:6, 7:9, 7:28).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions