Deborah Ann Appler is professor emerita of Hebrew Bible at Moravian University School of Theology in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, an ordained elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, and an Earth Keeper for the UMC Board of Global Ministries. Her research, publications, and teaching seek to encourage conversations around community justice, especially as these issues appear in biblical texts and intersect with gender, sexuality, elder issues, and food justice. She participated in several archaeological excavations, including Jezreel, Megiddo, and Ramat Rachel to better understand the history and culture behind biblical texts.Terry Ann Smith is the associate dean of institutional assessment and associate professor of biblical studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her research interests and publications focus on inspections of the Hebrew Bible that expose normalized inequitable distributions of power and privilege as these intersect categories of ethnicity, class, and gender. As an ordained Baptist minister, she is particularly interested in contextualized socio-political readings of biblical texts that foster conversations which address the theological, practical, and ethical applications of the Bible by the church.

"Deborah Ann Appler and Terry Ann Smith have taken the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, notorious for their historical, literary, and interpretive challenges and given us a reliable and insightful guide for readers of these books. Along with a cadre of supplementary commenters and their helpful insets they have provided both scholars and church readers alike with deeper understandings of the challenges faced by the returned community of Judean exiles and new appreciation for the courage and resourcefulness of leaders in this difficult period. But they have done so while also helping us understand difficult decisions made by these leaders that led to unfortunate consequences, and they help us to understand these choices but enable us to better avoid making similar mistaken judgments of our own."Bruce C. Birch, dean and professor emeritus of biblical theology, Wesley Theological Seminary

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   viiList of Contributors   xiForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”   xvAthalya Brenner-IdanEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)   xixBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthors’ Introduction   xxxixEzra 1 There’s No Place Like Home   1Ezra 2 Lists, Lists, and More Lists   13Ezra 3 Feasts and Festivals   25Ezra 4–6 Power, Politics, and Policies   39Ezra 7–10 Introducing Ezra: Priest and Scribe   75Nehemiah Building Walls of Identity and Gates of Possibility   115Nehemiah 1–3 Nehemiah: The Man and His Mission   117Nehemiah 4:1–7:73a Triumph Amidst Challenge  s 147Nehemiah 7:73b–10:39 Building a Community Ethic   191Nehemiah 11:1–13:31 Making, Unmaking, and Remaking   227Works Cited   269Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings   302 Index of Subjects   309

Deborah Ann Appler is professor emerita of Hebrew Bible at Moravian University School of Theology in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, an ordained elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, and an Earth Keeper for the UMC Board of Global Ministries. Her research, publications, and teaching seek to encourage conversations around community justice, especially as these issues appear in biblical texts and intersect with gender, sexuality, elder issues, and food justice. She participated in several archaeological excavations, including Jezreel, Megiddo, and Ramat Rachel to better understand the history and culture behind biblical texts.Terry Ann Smith is the associate dean of institutional assessment and associate professor of biblical studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her research interests and publications focus on inspections of the Hebrew Bible that expose normalized inequitable distributions of power and privilege as these intersect categories of ethnicity, class, and gender. As an ordained Baptist minister, she is particularly interested in contextualized socio-political readings of biblical texts that foster conversations which address the theological, practical, and ethical applications of the Bible by the church.

"Deborah Ann Appler and Terry Ann Smith have taken the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, notorious for their historical, literary, and interpretive challenges and given us a reliable and insightful guide for readers of these books. Along with a cadre of supplementary commenters and their helpful insets they have provided both scholars and church readers alike with deeper understandings of the challenges faced by the returned community of Judean exiles and new appreciation for the courage and resourcefulness of leaders in this difficult period. But they have done so while also helping us understand difficult decisions made by these leaders that led to unfortunate consequences, and they help us to understand these choices but enable us to better avoid making similar mistaken judgments of our own."Bruce C. Birch, dean and professor emeritus of biblical theology, Wesley Theological Seminary

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   viiList of Contributors   xiForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”   xvAthalya Brenner-IdanEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)   xixBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthors’ Introduction   xxxixEzra 1 There’s No Place Like Home   1Ezra 2 Lists, Lists, and More Lists   13Ezra 3 Feasts and Festivals   25Ezra 4–6 Power, Politics, and Policies   39Ezra 7–10 Introducing Ezra: Priest and Scribe   75Nehemiah Building Walls of Identity and Gates of Possibility   115Nehemiah 1–3 Nehemiah: The Man and His Mission   117Nehemiah 4:1–7:73a Triumph Amidst Challenge  s 147Nehemiah 7:73b–10:39 Building a Community Ethic   191Nehemiah 11:1–13:31 Making, Unmaking, and Remaking   227Works Cited   269Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings   302 Index of Subjects   309

Deborah Ann Appler is professor emerita of Hebrew Bible at Moravian University School of Theology in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, an ordained elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, and an Earth Keeper for the UMC Board of Global Ministries. Her research, publications, and teaching seek to encourage conversations around community justice, especially as these issues appear in biblical texts and intersect with gender, sexuality, elder issues, and food justice. She participated in several archaeological excavations, including Jezreel, Megiddo, and Ramat Rachel to better understand the history and culture behind biblical texts.Terry Ann Smith is the associate dean of institutional assessment and associate professor of biblical studies at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her research interests and publications focus on inspections of the Hebrew Bible that expose normalized inequitable distributions of power and privilege as these intersect categories of ethnicity, class, and gender. As an ordained Baptist minister, she is particularly interested in contextualized socio-political readings of biblical texts that foster conversations which address the theological, practical, and ethical applications of the Bible by the church.

"Deborah Ann Appler and Terry Ann Smith have taken the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, notorious for their historical, literary, and interpretive challenges and given us a reliable and insightful guide for readers of these books. Along with a cadre of supplementary commenters and their helpful insets they have provided both scholars and church readers alike with deeper understandings of the challenges faced by the returned community of Judean exiles and new appreciation for the courage and resourcefulness of leaders in this difficult period. But they have done so while also helping us understand difficult decisions made by these leaders that led to unfortunate consequences, and they help us to understand these choices but enable us to better avoid making similar mistaken judgments of our own."Bruce C. Birch, dean and professor emeritus of biblical theology, Wesley Theological Seminary

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   viiList of Contributors   xiForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”   xvAthalya Brenner-IdanEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)   xixBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthors’ Introduction   xxxixEzra 1 There’s No Place Like Home   1Ezra 2 Lists, Lists, and More Lists   13Ezra 3 Feasts and Festivals   25Ezra 4–6 Power, Politics, and Policies   39Ezra 7–10 Introducing Ezra: Priest and Scribe   75Nehemiah Building Walls of Identity and Gates of Possibility   115Nehemiah 1–3 Nehemiah: The Man and His Mission   117Nehemiah 4:1–7:73a Triumph Amidst Challenge  s 147Nehemiah 7:73b–10:39 Building a Community Ethic   191Nehemiah 11:1–13:31 Making, Unmaking, and Remaking   227Works Cited   269Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings   302 Index of Subjects   309