This commentary has grown out of the author's long-standing interest in the religious history of the Second Temple period. It follows the usual pattern of the series with introduction, text, critical notes and commentary; the translation of the biblical text is the author's own. Its approach is shaped by the comments of an important writer on Ezra from almost sixty years ago: 'The historical perspective which sees Judaism as fulfilling its mission and then making way for the gospel and the church has an impressive inner consistency and spiritual allure, the only problem with it is the real history of Judaism.'