Ezra 4:8-24
4:9 a 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 b Ashurbanipal had deported people from other conquered lands into the lands of Israel and Aram (see 2 Kgs 17:24-41 c).
• 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 d Ezra includes a copy in Aramaic of the letter sent to Artaxerxes and his reply.
4:13 e 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 f; cp. 1 Kgs 10:14-15 g).
4:14 h 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 i The Persians had access to Babylonian records, which described Jerusalem’s revolts against Nebuchadnezzar (see 2 Kgs 24:1-7 j).
• 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 k The letter was translated from Aramaic to Persian, the king’s native language.
Summary for Ezra 4:19-20: 4:19-20 l 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 m).
4:21 n 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 o).
4:23 p 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 q).
• This verse ends the parenthetical section that began in Ezra 4:6 r.
Summary for Ezra 4:24-5:5: 4:24–5:5 s Ezra now returns to telling about the building of the Temple in 520–515 BC. 4:24 t The events of the following verses occurred approximately sixteen years after the events up through 4:5 u.
Ezra 5
5:1 v Haggai first prophesied on August 29, 520 BC (Hag 1:1 w). Zechariah began prophesying about two months later (Zech 1:1 x). The books of Haggai and Zechariah record their messages (see also Ezra 6:14 y).5:2 z The Jewish leaders had not led by faith (see Hag 1:1 aa, 12 ab). Now God’s Spirit stirred them up (Hag 1:14 ac), and they obeyed by getting to work.
• Zerubbabel and Jeshua figure prominently in the books of Haggai and Zechariah.
5:3 ad Who gave you permission? Unlike the hostile opposition recorded in ch 4 ae, this seems to have been a routine inquiry to make sure that everything was done according to official requirements.
5:5 af God was watching over them: All credit goes to God’s sovereign control of events, not to any human leader or prophet. God had promised that the ruins would be rebuilt (Isa 44:26 ag).
Summary for Ezra 5:6-17: 5:6-17 ah Ezra includes a copy in Aramaic of Tattenai’s letter to King Darius. Unlike the letter of 4:11-16 ai, this letter was a straightforward inquiry into the validity of the Jews’ activity. 5:6 aj other officials: A Persian term for inspectors or investigators.
5:8 ak the great God: This title was a Persian way of referring to an important high deity; it does not indicate that the provincial authorities believed in Israel’s God.
• Following the pattern of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kgs 6:36 al), after every three rows of prepared stones, a layer of timber was laid in its walls (see Ezra 6:4 am) to reduce potential damage from earthquakes.
5:11 an the God of heaven: This title would be understood by the Persians: He was the universal high God, not an insignificant local deity.
• a great king of Israel: Solomon (see 1 Kgs 5–8 ao).
5:12 ap destroyed this Temple and exiled the people: See 2 Kgs 25:9-17 aq.
5:13 ar a decree: See 1:1-4 as.
Summary for Ezra 5:14-15: 5:14-15 at The Jews provided detailed information that the Persians could check for accuracy (see 1:7-11 au).
5:16 av Most likely, Sheshbazzar began the work and Zerubbabel finished it (see study note on 1:8).
Ezra 6:1-18
6:2 aw The fortress at Ecbatana, the king’s summer home, was located about 300 miles northeast of Babylon. This suggests that Cyrus wrote the scroll in the summer of 538 BC.• Media was a mountainous area north of Persia and east of Assyria. This area is now inhabited by the Kurds (descendants of the Medes).
• Texts introduced by the term Memorandum tended to be summaries that listed the main facts of an event for the royal archives (cp. 1:9-10 ax).
6:3 ay This decree is recorded in Ezra 1:2-4 az.
• The Temple’s height will be ninety feet, and its width will be ninety feet: The emendations given in the NLT textual note would make these measurements match those of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kgs 6:2 ba, 17 bb, 20 bc). But the larger measurements given here might represent the maximum size that the Persians would fund.
6:4 bd All expenses will be paid by the royal treasury. Although it seems surprising that the Persians would do this, it was consistent with Persian practice elsewhere (e.g., at Sais and Elephantine in Egypt, and at Ur in Mesopotamia). Such generosity was designed to ensure loyalty to Persia.
6:8 be You must pay the full construction costs: This command fulfilled God’s promise through Haggai (Hag 2:7 bf).
6:10 bg pray for the welfare of the king and his sons: In the Cyrus Cylinder (a Persian account of Cyrus’s defeat of Babylon), King Cyrus requests, “May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask [the Babylonian gods] Bel and Nebo daily for a long life for me” (see 1:1-4 bh).
Summary for Ezra 6:11-12: 6:11-12 bi Those who violate this decree: Inscriptions and official decrees often included curses on those who opposed the will of the king (cp. Dan 2:5 bj).
6:15 bk Israel’s second Temple was finished approximately seventy years after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. Herod the Great remodeled and expanded this Temple at the time of Christ. The Temple stood for approximately 585 years until the Roman army of Titus destroyed it in AD 70.
6:17 bl 12 male goats ... a sin offering: This blood sacrifice brought God’s forgiveness for unintentional sins, ceremonial uncleanness, or thoughtless wrong acts (Lev 4–5 bm). Similar sacrifices were offered when Moses dedicated the Tabernacle (Num 7 bn) and when Solomon dedicated the first Temple (2 Chr 7:1 bo, 4 bp).
• for the twelve tribes of Israel: Although most returnees were from Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 1:5 bq; 4:1 br), people from the priestly tribe of Levi are also mentioned (1:5 bs; 2:40 bt, 70 bu). It is also likely that there were returnees from some of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Even if all tribes were not physically represented, the twelve sacrifices emphasized the desire for God to maintain his covenant relationship with all Israel.
6:18 bv prescribed in the Book of Moses: See Exod 29 bw; Lev 8 bx; Num 3 by. The Temple personnel operated according to the organization instituted by David (1 Chr 23–27 bz).
• This verse concludes the Aramaic section that began in Ezra 4:8 ca.
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