Artaxerxes. Persian king, starting to reign about 465 B.C., who permitted Ezra to return to Jerusalem from Babylon, taking a group of exiles. He later sent Nehemiah, his cupbearer, to Jerusalem to direct the rebuilding. Ezra 7:7:1-28; Neh. 2:1-8.

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Artaxerxes, the name of four known Achaemenid (Persian) kings: Artaxerxes I (Longimanus), 465-424 b.c.; Artaxerxes II (Arsakes), 405/4-359/58; Artaxerxes III (Ochos), 359/58-338/37; Artaxerxes IV (Arses), 338/37-36. Identifications of these kings in the ot text depend on historical probability. The name appears in Ezra 4:7, 8, 11, and 23, in a composite passage that is out of chronological context (4:6-23); 4:8-23 refers to appeals to Artaxerxes against Jewish activity in Jerusalem. The usual assumption is that all these refer to Artaxerxes I. Ezra 6:14 adds Artaxerxes after Cyrus and Darius in a list of Persian rulers. Ezra 7:1-8:1 has several references, all to the period of Ezra’s activity. Scholarly opinion is divided between Artaxerxes I and II. Neh. 2:1; 5:14; and 13:6, connected with Nehemiah’s two periods as governor, are most often held to refer to Artaxerxes I, through Artaxerxes II cannot be ruled out. Persian desire to control Egypt may have provided the political context for the appointment of both Ezra and Nehemiah regardless of which Persian ruler was responsible

Artaxerxes. In Ezra 4:7 etc. the reference is probably to Artaxerxes I, king of Persia 465-424 BCE, whose Nehemiah as governor in Jerusalem was probably to assist his ambitions against Egypt.

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