Ezr 4 | TNotes | STEP | 4:1 Judah and Benjamin: Most of the exiles who had returned were from these two tribes of Israel (1:5 ).

4:1 ^a Judah and Benjamin: Most of the exiles who had returned were from these two tribes of Israel (1:5 ^b).
4:2 ^c King Esarhaddon of Assyria (680–669 BC) had deported the people of Israel to foreign lands and had relocated other conquered peoples to the land of Israel during the reign of King Manasseh in Judah. These foreigners had learned about the Lord when they entered the land of Israel but had also continued to worship their old gods (2 Kgs 17:27-34 ^d, 40-41 ^e).
4:3 ^f The key political, religious, and tribal leaders spoke with a unified voice against the foreigners’ proposal, which would have opened the door for their idolatrous beliefs. The Jews did not want to make the same mistake as their ancestors, who were sent into exile as a result of worshiping the false gods of the Canaanites.

• as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us: See 1:2-4 ^g.
4:4 ^h Realizing that they would have no way to influence an established Jewish community (4:1-3 ⁱ), the foreigners took hostile measures to neutralize the growing political power of the Israelites.
4:5 ^j The people paid a heavy price for their uncompromising commitment to holiness.

• King Cyrus reigned until 530 BC. Darius (Darius I) took the throne of Persia in 521 BC. Work on the Temple resumed in 520 BC and was finished in 515 BC (see 6:15 ^k).
Summary for Ezra 4:6-23: 4:6-23 ^l These verses are a parenthetical discussion of later opposition to Jewish rebuilding efforts. The account actually belongs with much later events in the reign of Xerxes (486–465 BC) and Artaxerxes I (465–424 BC), but it is included here because it fits with the theme of opposition. Chronologically, 4:6 ^m fits between chs 6 ⁿ and 7 ^o, while 4:7-23 ^p fits before Neh 1 ^q.
4:7 ^r The exact date of these events is unknown, but they might have occurred around the same time as an Egyptian revolt in 448 BC (a few years before Artaxerxes I sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem in 445 BC). If so, the enemies of Judah and Artaxerxes probably thought that the Jews would revolt as the Egyptians had.

• Aramaic was the international diplomatic language of the Persian Empire.
4:9 ^s Adding greetings from an assortment of key political figures and local ethnic leaders would give credibility to the letter’s accusations and ensure that the message would have maximum political weight.

• Judges were trusted court officials who knew the Persian laws.

• Having the support of people from the Mesopotamian cities of Babylon and Erech and the Persian city of Susa would make the case against the Jews more persuasive.
4:10 ^t Ashurbanipal had deported people from other conquered lands into the lands of Israel and Aram (see 2 Kgs 17:24-41 ^u).

• The city of Samaria was the former capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

• The province west of the Euphrates River included Syria, Israel, and Judah.
Summary for Ezra 4:11-22: 4:11-22 ^v Ezra includes a copy in Aramaic of the letter sent to Artaxerxes and his reply.
4:13 ^w A tribute was an annual fixed tax, customs were probably sales taxes, and tolls were probably charges for using roads. Previous rulers had collected considerable revenue from the region (4:20 ^x; cp. 1 Kgs 10:14-15 ^y).
4:14 ^z Since we are your loyal subjects: The Aramaic phrase we eat the salt of the palace was a metaphor for taking an oath of loyalty to the king.

• The letter’s authors claimed that their only interest was to preserve the honor of the king, but they were actually grasping for power and political advantage over the Jews.
Summary for Ezra 4:15-16: 4:15-16 ^aa The Persians had access to Babylonian records, which described Jerusalem’s revolts against Nebuchadnezzar (see 2 Kgs 24:1-7 ^ab).

• The claim that the Persians would lose the whole province west of the Euphrates was an exaggeration: The Jews actually comprised a small minority in that province.
4:18 ^ac The letter was translated from Aramaic to Persian, the king’s native language.
Summary for Ezra 4:19-20: 4:19-20 ^ad King Jehoiakim (609–598 BC) had rebelled against Babylon in about 601 BC, and King Zedekiah (597–586 BC) had rebelled in about 588 BC (see 2 Kgs 25:2 ^ae).
4:21 ^af except at my express command: Work on the walls remained stopped until 445 BC, when Nehemiah, Artaxerxes’ cup-bearer, gained his permission to resume reconstruction (see Neh 2:1-6 ^ag).
4:23 ^ah A military unit probably forced the Jews to stop building and enforced the king’s wishes. Part of the rebuilt wall might have been torn down at this time (cp. Neh 1:3 ^ai).

• This verse ends the parenthetical section that began in Ezra 4:6 ^aj.
Summary for Ezra 4:24-5:5: 4:24–5:5 ^ak Ezra now returns to telling about the building of the Temple in 520–515 BC. 4:24 ^al The events of the following verses occurred approximately sixteen years after the events up through 4:5 ^am.