EZRA, BOOK OF (Emu, ante), records portions of Jewish history after the cap tivity. It is divided into two parts, the first of which, comprising six chapters, contains: 1. The decree of Cyrus giving permission to the Jews to return to their own land and rebuild their temple. 2. The record of his restoration of the sacred vessels of silver and gold (numbering in all 5,400) which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple and brought to Babylon. 3. The return of a portion of the people and their commence ment of the work. 4. The obstacles placed in their way by men who had taken posses sion of the land, and, consequently, did not wish the Jews to be re-established in it. 5. When this opposition had continued more than 20 years, Darius Hystaspis, having found the decree of Cyrus, confirmed it and gave the Jews additional privileges and help by which they were enabled to complete their temple and re-establish divine worship. After an interval of nearly 00 years, the second part, comprising four chap ters, contains: 1. The decree of Artaxerxes giving Ezra authority to proceed to Jerusa lem, with all Jews who wished to accompany him, and re-establiSh the Jewish state. On this occasion, the king, with his counselors, added large sums of silver and gold to the free-will offerings of the people, and also directed his treasurers in the provinces intervening between Babylon and Jerusalem to furnish the expedition liberally with needed supplies. 2. The arrival of Ezra accompanied by about 1500 chief men and 200 priests and Levites. 3. The reconstruction of the religious and social state of the Jews in accordance with the law of Moses. This reformation included the very diffi cult work of annulling the marriages which many had made with heathen families of the land. The Jews have always maintained the canonical authority of this book, giving it an equal place with the Pentatauch, and comparing Ezra with Moses. Ezra is justly regarded as the author of the whole book, although in the first part, rblating to the actions of others, he drew his materials from various sources; in the second part only lie describes events in which he was an eye-witness, a prominent actor, and the chief director.
sixth letter in the Latin and English alphabets, corresponding to the tau of , the Hebrew, and the digamma (q.v.) of the old Greek alphabet. See ALPHABET.
v are called from the organs employed in producing them; they belong to the class of consonants called aspirates (q.v.), and bear the same relation to each other that exists between the unaspirated labials p and b. In Latin, f had a peculiar sound, different from that of Greek cp, as we learn from Cicero and other Latin writers. What the sound was, we do not exactly know, but it approached to the nature
of a strongly breathed h, as is indicated by the fact, that in the Sabine dialect it some times takes the place of h, as Sub. fireus = Lat. ?circus (a he-goat); and the Latins made use both offaba and baba for "a bean." This affinity is also shown in modern Spanish, where is takes the place of the Latin f; as Lat. /mina, Sp. hembra; ft becomes, in Span ish, ll, as Lat. = Sp. llama. F, in English and other Teutonic tongues, corre sponds to p in Greek and Latin; as Lat. and Gr. pater = Eng. father; Gr. Lat. ped = Eng. foot,,., Lit. = Eng. fish; Gr. pur = Eng. fire; Lat. = Eng. wolf. In some words, a takes the place in German in English; as Ger. rater =Eng. father; Ger. tier = Eng. fear. In time Aberdeenshire dialect./ takes the place of wh, as fat for what; fup for whip. This seems to be a relic of the Teutonic pronunciation of to (= v), still to be observed in the Cockney pronunciation of rill for will, ven for when; but why the sharp ening of the labial into f should be confined to one circumscribed district of Scotland, and the case Wi;,- • IlAirwrienft F in Lat. and Greek becomes b in Eng,. ; as Gr. and Lat. fer- = Eng. bear; Lat. frater = Eng. brother. See Letter B.
More remarkable are the interchanges between f and the series d, lit, t. Lat. foris = Gr. aura, Eng. door; Lat. fern = Gr. then, Eng. deer; Eng. red, Sans. ruthira, Gr. eruthros, Lat. rutilus, ruins, Tuber. In Russian, Feodor, Afanasja = Theodor, Athanasia.
In words originally common to both Greek and Latin, the Greek g) is represented in Lat. by f; as Gr. plifiri = Lat. fama. But in spelling Greek words with Latin letters, the Romans, after the time of Cicero, were careful to represent q, not by f, which bad a. somewhat different power, but by ph. This mode of spelling words derived from Greek is still adhered to in English, German, and French, although the distinction in sound_ has long been lost sight of. The distinction began to disappear in the Latin itself in the time of the later Roman emperors, when inscriptions show such spelling as Afrodite for Aphrodite; and this simplification is followed in modern Italian, Spanish, and Portu guese. Ph is sometimes erroneously used in words having no connection with Greek; as Adolphus, for the Teutonic Adolf or Adalolf—i.e., "noble wolf." F, in music, is the fourth note of the natural diatonic scale of C, and stands in pro portion to C as 4 to 3, and is a perfect fourth above C as fundamental note. F major, as a key, has one flat at its signature—viz„ B fiat. F minor has four flits the same as A flat major, of which it is the relative minor.