If we compare the last verses of 2 Chronicles (chap. 36:22-23) with the first few verses of the book of Ezra (Ezra 1:1-3) we find a nearly word-by-word conformity.

The book of Ezra (the name Ezra meaning “help”) therefore is the sequence to the Chronicles in regard to history and in regard to contents. And yet in between these two books lies the Babylonian Captivity, which lasted 70 years (compare Jeremiah 25).

The captivity started with the first deportation of a part of the Jews under Jehoiakim around 606/605 BC and ended with King Cyrus of Persia’s edict in the year 537/536 BC. This very edict wanted the Jews to return to Palestine to rebuild the destroyed temple in Jerusalem.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah form a certain unity in the Hebrew Bibles and in the Septuagint. But they were separated, respectively differentiated in the Septuagint and later also in the Vulgate. In the Septuagint and the Vulgate we may nowadays find two further not inspired books (not belonging to the Canon of the Holy Scriptures) that bear the name Ezra.