After these things. — Fifty-seven years after: this special phrase is here alone used. During the interval we must place the events of the Book of Esther.
Ezra the son of Seraiah. — His lineage is given, as frequently in Scripture, compendiously, and according to the genealogical law which makes every ancestor a “father” and every descendant a “son.” We know not the reason why certain names supplied in 1 Chronicles 6 are here omitted; but Seraiah is claimed as the father of Ezra because he was the eminent high priest who last ministered in Solomon’s Temple and was slain at Riblah (2 Kings 25:18). The links wanting in the lineage are easily supplied.