of the story of _Cyrus_, and that of _Darius_, 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 down, and the gates thereof burnt wth fire_; he obtained leave of the King to go and build the city, and the Governour's house, _Nehem._ i. 3. & ii. 6, 8, 17. and coming to _Jerusalem_ the same