sections. At the opening, in place of a royal command we find the proclamation of the law of God. As Childs has stressed, “Ezra does not read the law in order to reform Israel into becoming the people of God. Rather, the reverse move obtains. It is the reformed people to whom the law is read” (Introduction, 636). In such a situation there can be no opposition, but rather confession (Neh 9) and recommitment, not least to the service of the temple. “We will not neglect the house of our God” is the
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