Ezra Chapter 5
1 Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son
of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of
the God of Israel, who was over them.
It doesn’t tell us what they prophesied but the action that
followed was they started to rebuild the temple.
2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of
Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God that is in Jerusalem. And
the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
“The house” is talking about the temple.
So they finally begin to rebuild the temple. The prophets were
with them so God had his representatives there making sure the work was being
done correctly.
3 At that same time Tattenai, the governor beyond the River,
and Shetharbozenai and their companions, came to them and said this to them:
“Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”
Tattenia was asking who said you could do this? He was a part
of the opposition to them rebuilding.
So we seem to have a dissenting group to the Judeans
rebuilding the Temple. Again this is people playing politics with God’s
commandments same as what is going on today in the USA. These people didn’t
care about the temple they cared about themselves not being in charge and
running the show and the money. They choose an issue like school prayer one
side is for it the other side opposes it but it is all a distraction to keep
you from looking at other things they are doing.
4 They also asked them, “What are the names these men were who
were building this building?”
“What are the names.” This is the reading of a
Hebrew manuscript, the Septuagint and the Syriac, and it fits the context,
especially Ezra 5:10, better than the reading of most Hebrew manuscripts.
5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and
they did not make them cease until the matter could come to Darius, and then an
answer could be returned by letter about it.
Try as they might they didn’t stop the rebuilding from happening.
God was keeping an eye on what was going on.
He does the same for us
when we carry out what he wants done.
The Letter to Darius
6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor
beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai and his companions the governors, who were
beyond the River, sent to Darius the king;
7 they sent a letter to him in which was written as follows:
“To Darius the king, all peace.
8 “Be it known to the king that we went into the province of
Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with great stones, and
beams are being laid in the walls; and this work is going on with diligence and
is prospering in their hands.
So they were getting things done and they were being done
well.
9 Then we asked those elders and said to them thus, ‘Who gave
you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’
10 We asked them their names also, to inform you and so that
we could write the names of the men who were their leaders.
11 And this was their reply to us.
‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and are
building the house that was built man years ago, which a great king of Israel
built and finished.
Seems like the elders are being bold. When you are obeying God
you should also be bold. Again the house means temple.
12 But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to
wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the
Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away to Babylon.
He punished, as he always does, national apostasy
with national destruction. Making an idolatrous people,
but a less guilty one, his sword, he cut off Judah,
as he had previously cut off Israel, causing the
national life to cease, and even removing the bulk
of the people into a distant country. Not by his own
power or might did Nebuchadnezzar prevail. God could
have delivered the Jews from him as easily as he
had delivered them in former days from Jabin (
4:2-24), and from Zerah (2 Chronicles 14:11-15), and
from Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:20-36). But he was
otherwise minded; he "gave them into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar". He divided their counsels,
paralysed their resistance, caused Pharaoh Hophra to
desert their cause (2 Kings 24:7), and left them
helpless and unprotected. Nebuchadnczzar was his
instrument to chastise his guilty people, and in
pursuing his own ends merely worked out the purposes of
the Almighty.
13 But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the
king made a decree to rebuild this house of God.
14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which
Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into
the temple of Babylon, Cyrus the king took those out of the temple of Babylon,
and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made
governor;
15 and he said to him, “Take these vessels, go, put them in
the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its
site.”
16 So this same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of
the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time even until now it has
been under construction, and it is not yet finished.
17 Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search
be made in the house of the treasures of the king that is there at Babylon to
see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king to build this house of God at
Jerusalem. And then let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this
matter.’”
Ezra Chapter 6
Darius the king made a decree. Rather, "gave an
order" (Vulg; praecepit). A "decree" would not be
necessary. And search was made in the house of the rolls. Literally, "in the
house of the books," i.e. in the
royal library, or record chamber. Where
the treasures were laid up. The same repository was, apparently, used for
documents of value and for the precious metals. An underground apartment is
perhaps indicated by the word translated "laid up," which means
"made to descend."
Darius’s Search
1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in
the house of the archives where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.
Here again it says “the house” as I mentioned before “the house”
always refers to the temple in Jerusalem not some random house.
2 There was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the
province of Media, a scroll, and in it was thus written for a record:
3 “In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a
decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, ‘Let the house be built, the place
where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid: its
height sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits,
4 with three courses of great stones and a course of new
timber, and let the expenses be given out of the king’s house.
5 Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which
Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple that is at Jerusalem and brought to
Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple that is at Jerusalem,
everyone to its place; and you are to put them in God’s house.’
Darius’s Decree
6 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River,
Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites who are beyond the River,
you must stay far from there.
Now he
searched. He found this in the record, so he writes back to Tatnai and he said,
[You and] your companions: Let the work of this house of God
alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house
of God in his place. Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to the elders of
these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods,
even of the taxes that you'll collect on that side of the river, and the
expenses be given to these men, that they may not be hindered (Ezr 6:6-8).
7 Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor
of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place.
8 “Moreover I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for
these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God:
“That from the king’s goods, even from the tribute beyond the
River, expenses be given with all diligence to these men, so that they are not
hindered.
“the River.” That is, the Euphrates.
“Beyond the River” is written from the geographical perspective of Persia and
refers to south of the Euphrates.
9 Whatever they have need of, both young bulls, and rams, and
lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, also wheat, salt, wine, and oil
according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them
day by day without fail,
10 so that they can offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the
God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and of his sons.
11 “Also I have made a decree that whoever alters this edict,
a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled
on it, and let his house be made a dunghill for this;
12 and may the God who has caused his name to dwell there
overthrow all kings and peoples who will put forth their hand to alter this, or
to destroy this house of God that is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree;
let it be done with all diligence.”
13 Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River,
Shetharbozenai, and their companions, because Darius the king had sent a
decree, did accordingly with all diligence.
14 The elders of the Jews built and prospered through the
prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and
finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to
the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
15 This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar,
which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
Temple Dedication and the Passover
16 The children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the
rest of the children of the captivity kept the dedication of this house of God
with joy.
17 At the dedication of this house of God they offered 100
bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and for a sin offering for all Israel, 12 male
goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
18 They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in
their courses for the service of God that is at Jerusalem, as it is written in
the book of Moses.
19 The exiles who had returned kept the Passover on the 14th
day of the first month,
20 for the priests and the Levites had purified themselves
together; all of them were ceremonially clean. And they killed the Passover for
all the exiles, and for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.
21 And the children of Israel who had returned from exile, and
all those who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the Gentiles in
the land in order to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate the Passover
22 and kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy,
for Yahweh had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria
to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God’s house, the God of
Israel
“the king of Assyria.” The king of Persia was the “king of Assyria” at the time
of Ezra by virtue of the huge size of the Persian empire, but that is not
likely why the king of Persia is called “the king of Assyria” in this verse,
which, on the surface seems anachronistic since Assyria fell to the Babylonians
in 612 BC. The expression is likely to contrast the kings of Assyria, who were
hostile to Israel and Judah, with this king of Persia who was now ruler over
the territory of Assyria and yet supportive of Israel. We must also remember
that the people of the nation of Israel, the ten northern tribes who had been
carried away to Assyria, were forcibly taken to Assyria, and perhaps some of
them took advantage of this opportunity to return to Israel and Judah, and the
text is subtlely making that point.
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