Ezra 4:16

4:16 We therefore are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will not retain control ¹  of this portion of Trans-Euphrates.”

Ezra 8:15

The Exiles Travel to Jerusalem

8:15 I had them assemble ²  at the canal ³  that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there for three days. I observed that the people and the priests were present, but I found no Levites there.

Ezra 8:21

8:21 I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey ⁴  for us, our children, and all our property.

Ezra 8:31

8:31 On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ⁵  along the way.

Ezra 9:14

9:14 Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?

Ezra 10:2

10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ⁶  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ⁷  foreign women from the local peoples. ⁸  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ⁹ 

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¹ tn Aram “will not be to you.”

² tn Or “I gathered them.”

³ tn Heb “river.” So also in vv. 21, 31.

⁴ tn Heb “a straight way.”

⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of the enemy and the one who lies in wait.” Some modern English versions render the latter phrase as “ambushes” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

⁶ tc The translation reads with the Qere, many medieval Hebrew MSS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate עֵילָם (’elam, “Elam”) rather than the reading עוֹלָם (’olam, “eternity”) found in the MT.

⁷ tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

⁸ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

⁹ tn Heb “upon this.”