Ezr 4:7-23 | TNotes | STEP | 4:7 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.

4:7 ^a 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 ^b 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 ^c Ashurbanipal had deported people from other conquered lands into the lands of Israel and Aram (see 2 Kgs 17:24-41 ^d).

• 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 ^e Ezra includes a copy in Aramaic of the letter sent to Artaxerxes and his reply.
4:13 ^f 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 ^g; cp. 1 Kgs 10:14-15 ^h).
4:14 ⁱ 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 ^j The Persians had access to Babylonian records, which described Jerusalem’s revolts against Nebuchadnezzar (see 2 Kgs 24:1-7 ^k).

• 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 ^l The letter was translated from Aramaic to Persian, the king’s native language.
Summary for Ezra 4:19-20: 4:19-20 ^m 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 ⁿ).
4:21 ^o 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 ^p).
4:23 ^q 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 ^r).

• This verse ends the parenthetical section that began in Ezra 4:6 ^s.