Ezra the Scribe (Ezra HaSofer), son of Seraiah, was a kohen of the line of Aaron, from the priestly family of the descendants of Zadok. He was one of the leaders of the Jewish people during the Return to Zion, at the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the fifth century BCE. His title "the Scribe" reflects his mastery of the Torah, which he taught and copied. According to the Midrash, he remained in Babylonia to study under Baruch ben Neriah, the disciple of the prophet Jeremiah.

In the seventh year of the Persian king Artaxerxes, he went up from Babylonia to Jerusalem at the head of a group of exiles, bearing a royal decree and gifts of gold and silver for the Temple. Finding that intermarriage with the neighbouring peoples had spread, he gathered the people, who pledged to separate from foreign wives.

Ezra placed the study and observance of the Torah at the centre of the nation's life. On Rosh Hashanah, standing on a wooden platform, he read the Torah before the whole assembly, with Levites at his side explaining its meaning. The Sages attribute ten enactments to him, among them the Torah reading on Mondays and Thursdays and at Shabbat Minchah. He is also credited with adopting the square Assyrian script for the Torah, and tradition regards him as the founder of the Great Assembly. The Tanna Rabbi Yosei said: "Ezra would have been worthy for the Torah to be given through him, had Moses not preceded him."

The Talmud credits him with writing the book that bears his name and most of Chronicles. Several sources (the Behag, the Kol Bo, Ashkenazi selichot) give his date of passing as 9 Tevet; others give 10 Tevet. According to Josephus he was buried in Jerusalem, while a popular tradition places his tomb near Basra in Iraq, long a pilgrimage site for Iraqi Jews.