Ezra is one of the books of the section in the Hebrew Bible called Writings, and originally included the book of Nehemiah as well. The two books describe the Jewish return to Israel in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, following seven decades of Babylonian exile. The book of Ezra recounts the challenges faced by those building the Second Temple and the celebration upon the Temple’s completion. It also tells of Ezra the scribe, under whose leadership a group of intermarried Jewish men agree to send away their foreign wives.