Ezra 8:31–32

The arrival in Jerusalem

On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. 32So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.

The Lord brought Ezra and his group safely to Jerusalem. Including the 12 days of preparation by the Ahava Canal, the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem lasted four months, from the beginning of spring until midsummer (7:9). It was only five hundred miles from Babylon to Jerusalem as the crow flies, but it was about nine hundred miles by the caravan route that passed around the desert to the north (see the map above, “The return from exile"). If we assume that Ezra’s group did not travel on the Sabbath, they had to walk an average of 12 miles a day. One of Ezra’s favorite phrases, “the hand of our God was on us,” explains how the people were kept safe during this long, tiring journey.