Ezra maintained the supreme authority under his Commission from the Persian Court, during thirteen years, occupying himself with the faithful discharge of every part of his sacred duty, with unfeigned and pious zeal and assiduity. And still it seems that Ezra had not power or influence enough fully to accomplish by himself, his noble and praiseworthy enterprise. About this time it was that Nehemiah, of whom we shall speak in the following Chapter, succeeded Ezra as Governor or Viceroy, and he brought with him a new Commission, with fresh power and authority from the Persian Court. Ezra, now with a graceful and pious condescension, assumed a subordinate station. He acted as President to the Sanhedrin, the Grand Council of the Elders, and employed the whole of his time in reforming the Temple service, which had been sadly abused during the long captivity, and succeeded in restoring all its former rites and discipline. He carefully examined all the sacred Books, revised and corrected them. He then divided and fixed the number of Books to twenty-four, such as are now in use among the Hebrew Nation, called the Old Testament. Ezra was learned and well versed in them all; his high station and authority enabled him to collect the best copies from which to take the standard. In addition to all this, Ezra being himself inspired, and zealous in the sacred cause, and favored as he was with the valuable assistance of the three later Prophets, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi, no doubt exists in the hearts of the Jewish Nation that the Bible now in their possession, is the same which existed in the days of the great Patriot for his God and his Religion, the inspired Ezra. One of the strongest proofs that the Jews are correct in this respect is, that recent travelers have stated in all their journals, that wherever they met with Jews and their Synagogues they found a uniformity in the Scroll of the Law as read in the Jewish Church; besides, if we take into our consideration that Moses either wrote himself, or had written, thirteen copies of the Pentateuch, one of which he gave to each of the twelve Tribes, and the other he deposited in the Ark to remain there, in obedience to God's command in Deuteronomy, Chap, xxxi: 26, it is not at all surprising that the Jews have the original law in their possession, as handed down from Moses, the Divine Legislator.