7 And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
And they ascended from the children of Israel, etc. Because on the first day of the first month he began to ascend from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, he says they came to Jerusalem by anticipation. Moreover, in the following he describes more fully in order how they came, and where they assembled their army. It should be noted that at the beginning of this volume it is written that they ascended from Babylon according to the promise of Cyrus, with leaders Zerubbabel and Joshua, of the sons of Judah and Benjamin with the priests and Levites, all whose spirits God had stirred. It is also added of them that they were of the captivity which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried to Babylon. However, here under the leadership of Ezra there is no mention of Judah and Benjamin, nor of those carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, but only of the children of Israel, and of the priests and Levites who went up with him. Whence it seems likely that those who were called back to Jerusalem at that time were from Judah and Benjamin, who had been carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. But those who are now read to have been led back by Ezra were from the ten tribes, who were specially called Israel after the division; whom the kings of Assyria had long before the times of Nebuchadnezzar taken captive and made to dwell beyond the mountains of the Medes. Thus, for the most part, two tribes returned home and laboriously restored the temple. But the ten tribes, who had less care for the temple and religion, neglected to return to their homeland though commanded by the king, because with the empire of the Chaldeans destroyed, they lived freely under the kings of Persia, who favored their people. Yet, when they learned that the temple had been rebuilt and that the envy of the Samaritans was curbed, some of them finally consented to return home; although many remained there, whose descendants are said to still be detained in those parts today, serving the Persian nation. Just as often mentioned, Zerubbabel and Joshua designate the Lord and Savior, who by his grace releases the captivity of the human race and builds his own house in us by sanctifying and possessing us; so also Ezra, both priest and swift scribe, plainly announces the same Lord, who did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matthew V). He could rightly be called a scribe of the law of God, or a swift scribe in the law of Moses, because he gave the law to Moses through an angel, he taught the holy prophets all truth by the grace of his Spirit, and as soon as he touched the minds of all the elect with his love, he kindled them to understand and do the will of God the Father. Hence, promising the grace of the New Testament, the prophet said: "And this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts" (Jeremiah XXXI, Hebrews XV). The psalmist beautifully remembers this scribe, saying: "My tongue is the pen of a swift-writing scribe" (Psalm XLIV). For the tongue of the prophet was the pen of a swift scribe; because what the Lord inwardly taught him by illuminating him without any delay, he himself declared outwardly to men in time by his tongue’s service. Ezra, whose name means helper, openly demonstrates this. He is indeed the one through whom alone the faithful people are usually introduced to be liberated from tribulations, and as if from Babylonian captivity to the freedom of Jerusalem, from the confusion of vices to the peace and serenity of virtues, advancing by the steps of merits. In the second psalm of Ascents (Anabathmon), he shouts to all who aim for the highest, showing by whom they should aim and reach: "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Psalm CXX). Ezra also held this figure in his actions, when he led a considerable part of the people back from captivity to Jerusalem, and brought money and sacred vessels to the glory of his temple, purging the people from foreign wives with pontifical authority. All these things also indicate what has been or will be done by the Lord in the holy Church, which is clear to an educated reader; but we too will strive to make it apparent even to simpler people. For just as Ezra ascended from Babylon, and with him the children of Israel, and the sons of priests and Levites; this signifies the pious dispensation of our Redeemer, who appearing in the flesh entered the confusion of this world, himself free from the confusion of vices, to lead us back with him, freed from all confusion, to the tranquility of heavenly peace; whose pledge of eternal peace we have received in the present Church, as the Lord says: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you” (John XIV); that is, I leave temporary peace to those traveling on earth, I give eternal peace to those reaching the heavenly homeland. It is also blessed that he began to ascend from Babylon in the first month, and came to Jerusalem in the fifth month with the sons of the captivity whom he led. For the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is completed in four months; because through the four books of the holy Gospel, we learn the faith and sacraments of truth, by which we ought to ascend from the captivity of the ancient enemy, led by the Lord, to the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. In the same four books are contained the commandments of works, by whose as it were daily steps we can reach the promised heights. Nor was it without the figure of mystery that on the first day of the month he began to ascend from Babylon, and again on the first day of the month he came to Jerusalem; for the beginning of the month, in which the moon is believed to borrow new light from the sun, designates the new beginning of heavenly grace. And fittingly Ezra ascended from Babylon on the first day of the first month with those he saved from captivity; because the beginning of a holy way of life, in which we renounce Satan and his kingdom, is brought about in us by the illumination of divine grace. Also, he came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for this too is not done by the freedom of our will, but by the inspiration of heavenly light, that, having heard the oracles of the Gospel, we are incorporated into the members of the holy Church. A noble and healthy custom in the Church, grown from the teaching of the fathers, is that those who are catechized should have the sacrament of the four Gospels explained to them, and their beginnings be recited. Again on the first day of the fifth month, he came with those who had been freed from their enemies, to Jerusalem; because when we enter the heavenly kingdom, having completed the precepts of the four holy Gospels, we celebrate as it were the new beginning of the month, because we already see the joys of the new light in the Sun of righteousness, and after the four months of luminous action, as a pilgrim in the way of life, we celebrate the fifth month of perpetual reward in the light of the heavenly homeland.
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 7:7