Josephus tells us that Ezra died soon after this celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, and was buried at Jerusalem with great magnificence. According to some Jewish chroniclers he died in the year in which Alexander came to Jerusalem, on the tenth day of the month Tebeth (that is, the lunation in December), in the same year in which took place the death of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and in which prophecy became extinct. According to other traditions Ezra returned to Babylon and died there at the age of 12o years. The Talmudic statement is that he died at Zamzumu, a town on the Tigris, while on his road from Jerusalem to Susa, whither he was going to converse with Artaxerxes about the affairs of the Jews. A tomb said to be his is shewn on the Tigris, about twenty miles above its junction with the Euphrates. An interesting description of this tomb is subjoined to the notes on the book of Ezra in the Pictorial Bible.' Some traditions assert that Ezra was, about A.M.
3113, the president of the r6ian np.in, gaga AtIogna, and the father of all Mishnic doctors. In piety and meekness he was like unto Moses (Iuchasin, p. 13. See Zemach David). When he went from Babylon to Jerusalem, he took with him all persons whose descent was either illegi timate or unknown ; so that the Jews left in Babylon should be n9.02 +p), pure like _flour (Kirldushin, c. 4, 1, Gem.) Ezra is said to have introduced the present square Hebrew character, and, in conjunction with some other elders, to have made the masora, the punctuation, and ac centuation of the whole Bible (Abarbanel, Profat. ad A'achalath Avoth; Elias, Prat. 3 Maser.) Ezra is also said to have vigorously resisted the sect of the Sadducees, which sprang up in his days; and therefore to have put the words n5wn -ry, z4 soculo in saculum, at the head of all prayers, as a symbol by which the orthodox could be distinguished (Bab. Berackoth, fol. 54).
Since the people, during the Babylonian cap tivity or exile, had become accustomed to the Aramaic language, and scarcely understood He brew, Ezra established the office of turgoman, innin, dragoman, or interpreter, who stood near the public reader in the synagogue, and translated every verse after it was read (Afegillah, fol. 74).
Ezra ordained that the year of jubilee .should be reckoned from the seventh year after the re building of the temple (Maimon. Ilal. 7obel. cap. to).
Ezra is considered to he the author of the canon, and worthy to have been the lawgiver, if Moses had not preceded him (Bab. Sanhed. c. ii. f. 21 ; compare the article CANON). He is even said to have re-written the whole of the O. T. from memory, the copies of which had perished by neglect. But we must abstain from recounting all the traditional amplifications of the doings of Ezra, since, if all were to be received, it would he difficult to say what he did not do, so strong has been the inclination to connect impor tant facts with the person of Ezra (comp. 2 Esdras xiv.; Irenmus, Adv. Hares. iii. 25 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 142 ; Augustin. De Afirabll. Script. ii. 23 ; Hieron. ad Halrid. p. 212 ; Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 88, sqq. ; Bertholdt, Einleit. i. 69, sqq.; De Wette, Einleit. p. 17, sq.; Sauer, Diss. canonern Vet. Test. etc. Altorf, 1792, 4to ; Sanhe drin, fol. xxi. r ; Rau, De Synag. Magna, pp. 31, S9 ; Hartmann, Verbindling des Alten rind Areuen Testamentes, pp. 114, sqq. Arabian fables about Ezra are mentioned in Hottinger's Thes. Philo/. p. 113, and in Herhelot, Bibl. Orientale, p. 697, etc.)—C. H. F. B.