Lisbeth Fried's commentary on Ezra is the first instalment of a projected two-volume commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah. It is the first fulllength scholarly commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah to be written since 1988 and takes advantage of recent results in archaeology, of recent historical studies on the Persian Empire, and of recent studies of the influence of Hellenistic textual and legal traditions on Judean thought. It also draws extensively on the author's own research into the mechanisms by which the Persian Empire dominated and controlled its subject populations. The present volume includes a new...