Today is the fifth day of August.

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.

I'm Brian.

It's always fantastic to be here today in this safe place that we create for each other every day.

The global campfire.

It is awesome that we can have this time to take the next step forward in the scriptures. And that leads us into a bit of

transition. We concluded second chronicles yesterday. And so we're moving forward

and that brings us to the book of Ezra.

So let's talk about that for a second before we begin.

Ezra will pick up for us, at least historically,

where Second Chronicles leaves off, the children of Israel are in exile in Babylon, and they were carried

off as we read for their rebelliousness to God.

So now, as we move into Ezra,

we'll cover a period of about 80 years,

and that will encompass three different kings of Persia, because the Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian

empire and the Persians were favorable to the Hebrews.

And so we will cover Cyrus the Great, Darius, and then Artexerxes, all who are favorable

and give cover and shelter for the Israelites who are returning to their homeland.

So it's Cyrus the Great who starts this process

actually literally wanting to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem for the worship of God for that very purpose.

And so about 42,000 Israelites that were in exile in Babylon,

the ones that have been crying and weeping for the day that God would restore

...