This history focuses on the time when Ezra, the scribe and prophet, got permission from Persian king Cyrus (who had conquered Babylon) to lead a group of Jews back to Palestine from their exile. We come to the book of Ezra after reading the Chronicles of the kings of Judah, and ending with the people made captives and leaving the promised land as exiles - first Israel, then years later Judah. Our reading here is not chronological, because we have not yet read the instructive warnings and promises of the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel to the residents of Judah. Ezra tells of a relatively few number of Jews returning from Babylon, wanting to rebuild the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem. Their first attempt at building is thwarted by enemies living in the Palestine area.