Today is the 8th day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today.

Welcome to the global campfire.

I hope your week is going well.

I'm glad we can come here to re-enter ourselves no matter what's going on.

So let's do that.

Let's allow the scriptures to just kind of wash into our mind, into our hearts, and shift our lives.

We're in the book of Ezra at this point and today we will read

Ezra chapter 7 verse 1 to 8, 8, 20.

Many years later, when Artexerxes was Emperor of Persia, there was a man named Ezra.

He traced his ancestors back to Aaron, the high priest, as follows.

Ezra was the son of Suriah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkia, son of Shalum, son of Zadok, son of Ahaitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Azieta, son of Zarahea, son of Uzi, son of Buki, son of Abishua, son of Phineas, son of Eliezer, son of Arran.

Ezra was a scholar with a thorough knowledge of the law which the Lord, the God of

Israel had given to Moses.

Because Ezra had the blessing of the Lord his God, the Emperor gave him everything he asked

for. In the seventh year of the reign of Art Exurxes, Ezra set out from Babylonia for Jerusalem with a group of Israelites

which included priests, Levites, temple musicians, temple guards, and workers.

They left Babylonia on the first day of the first month,

and with God's help they arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month.

Ezra had devoted his life to studying the law of the Lord,

to practicing it and to teaching all its laws and regulations to the people of Israel.

Emperor Art Exerksi... regulations to the people of Israel.

Emperor Art Exerkesis gave the following document to Ezra, the priest and scholar, who had a thorough knowledge of the laws and commands which the Lord had given to Israel.

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