is told in the book of Esdras in continual order, without any interruption:  so that the Darius which in the book of Ezra precedes Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, and the Darius which in the same book follows them, is, by the book of Esdras, one and the same Darius; and I take the book of Esdras to be the best interpreter of the book of Ezra:  so the Darius mentioned between Cyrus and Ahasuerus, is Darius Hysaspis; and therefore Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes who succeed him, are Xerxes and Artaxerxes Longimanus; and the Jews who came up from Artaxerxes to Jerusalem, and began to build the city and the wall, Ezra iv. 13. are Ezra with his companions:  which being understood, the history of the Jews in the Reign of these Kings will be as follows.

After the Temple was built, and Darius Hystaspis was dead, the enemies of the Jews in the beginning of the Reign of his successor Ahasuerus or Xerxes, wrote unto him an accusation against them; Ezra iv. 6. but in the seventh year of his successor Artaxerxes, Ezra and his companions went up from Babylon with Offerings and Vessels for the Temple, and power to bestow on it out of the King’s Treasure what should be requisite; Ezra vii. whence the Temple is said to be finished, according to the commandment of Cyrus_, and Darius, and Artaxerxes King of Persia_:  Ezra vi. 14.  Their commission was also to set Magistrates and Judges over the land, and thereby becoming a new Body Politic, they called a great Council or Sanhedrim to separate the people from strange wives; and they were also encouraged to attempt the building of Jerusalem with its wall:  and thence Ezra saith in his prayer, that God had extended mercy unto them in the sight of the Kings of Persia_, and given them a reviving to set up the house of their God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give them a WALL in Judah, even in Jerusalem_. Ezra ix. 9.  But when they had begun to repair the wall, their enemies wrote against them to Artaxerxes:  Be it known, say they, unto the King, that the Jews_ which came up from thee to us, are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations_, &c.  And the King wrote back that the Jews should cease and the city not be built, until another commandment should be given from him:  whereupon their enemies went up to Jerusalem_, and made them cease by force and power_; Ezra iv. but in the twentieth year of the King, Nehemiah hearing that the Jews were in great affliction and distress, and that the wall of Jerusalem, that wall which had been newly repaired by Ezra, was broken