Dr Paul Allen

English: Ezra Reads the Law to the People (Neh. 8:1-12) Русский: Священник Ездра читает народу Закон (Неем. 8:1-12) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “This Ezra went up from Babylon ; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses , which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.” ( Ezra 7:6 ) Neither Ezra, who was a scribe, nor Nehemiah , who was apparently a butler, had been prepared by either study or experience to supervise a great construction project, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem and the wall of the city, both of which had been destroyed many years before by the armies of Babylon. Yet God called them to these ministries and led them and protected them as they carried them out. They were both careful, then, to give God the credit for what they had accomplished. No less than six times in Ezra and twice in Nehemiah they reminded their readers that God’s hand had been upon them as they supervi...

Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, painting by Rembrandt (1659) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A place of asylum granted by Mosaic law (the Book of the Covenant) to those Israelites who had unintentionally killed fellow Israelites, allowing them to escape the law of blood revenge (the so-called lex talionis) (Exod. 21:13–14).  These were cities that had an altar. The Old Testament records only two incidents in which Israelites made use of this right: Adonijah, David’s son, who proclaimed himself king and whose life was spared by Solomon, David’s actual successor (1 Kgs. 1:50–53); and Joab, David’s general (who was not, in fact, granted asylum by King Solomon on account of the innocent lives he had taken [2:28–34]). Because not every Israelite who needed to was able to flee to the central sanctuary (the tabernacle or temple), the Lord commanded Moses to urge the Israelites to select from the levitical cities six cities of refuge—three on either side of the Jord...