The Jewish sacred writings were burnt or dispersed at the time of the captivity, and afterwards collected together again, as is generally agreed, by Ezra. In the second book of Maccabees we read that “Nehemiah founded a library, and gathered together the acts of the kings, and the prophets, and of David, and the epistles of the kings, (about 445 B. C.,) concerning the holy gifts,” 2 Macc. ii. 13. This collection was doubtless that made by Ezra the priest, who was more qualified for such a task than the viceroy himself, and it appears to have been the first regular compilation of the Prophets and Psalms. But since Nehemiah or Ezra had to deal with a miscellaneous collection, written at different times within the six centuries before their time, it is probable that there were some pieces of which they could not ascertain the exact date or authorship, and which consequently they might have placed under a wrong name. Between the time of Ezra and that of the Septuagint translation, (B.C. 277,) it is allowed that the Jews were careless about the custody and transcription of their sacred books. Josephus, in his account of the Septuagint, makes Ptolemy's librarian say to the king, “And I let you know that we want the books of the Hebrew legislation, with some others; for they are written in the Hebrew characters, and are to us unknown. It hath also happened to them that they have been transcribed more carelessly than they should have been, because they have not had hitherto royal care taken about them.”