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Chapter 15: Ezra
Ezra:1:3: Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
Ezra:1:4: And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
Ezra:1:5: Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
This shows, once again, that the God of the Bible was thought to be a regional God, who inhabited the city of Jerusalem (he is the "God that is in Jerusalem") . Otherwise, Cyrus would've built this God a house in his own country.
Ezra:2:65: Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.
As captives in Babylon, how could the Israelites own 7,357 slaves? Normally, captives aren't allowed the privilege of having slaves: they are slaves!
Ezra:10:2: And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.
Ezra:10:3: Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
Ezra:10:4: Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.
Ezra:10:5: Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware.
Some of the Israelite men had married non-Israelite women, and some of these couples had children together. What would be the most immoral thing you could think of to inflict upon a family other than killing them? Wouldn't it be forcibly separating them? Yet we are to believe that the "God of love's" law did just that. It forced husbands to part from their wives and their children, and led them to believe that this was the right thing to do! Once again proving that the laws in the Bible are immoral, and that the Bible should not be used as our "moral guidebook."
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