Timeline of the Bible · The Captivity & the Return
Ezra Comes to Jerusalem
Event · 459 BC
What the Bible Says
- “which was in the seventh year of the king” Ezra 7:8
Each year here fits these numbers, as the years between the points they count from.
The Years
- The Year 459 BC
- Daniel’s seventy weeks, counted from Nehemiah 2:1. Ussher: 467 BC
- “Ezra the Priest, a Scribe (or a Lawyer) skill'd in the Law of Moses, obtained a large patent”
In the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7-8), 459 BC, his reign counted from 465 BC as Daniel’s seventy weeks require (see Nehemiah Builds the Wall). Ussher, who counts it from 473 BC, dates Ezra’s coming 467 BC.
Where the year isn’t Ussher’s, the text sets it, and the note says how. Ussher’s years and sentences are from his Annals of the World (1658), quoted as printed.
