Bible Commentaries

The Altar of Burnt-OfferingErected, the Feast of TabernaclesCelebrated, and the Foundationsof the Temple Laid - Ezra 3:1-13

On the approach of the seventh month, the people assembled in Jerusalemto restore the altar of burnt-offering and the sacrificial worship, and tokeep the feast of tabernacles (Ezra 3:1-7); and in the second month of thefollowing year the foundations of the new temple were laid with duesolemnity (Ezra 3:8-13). Comp. 1 Esdr. 5:46-62.

The building of the altar, the restoration of the daily sacrifice,and the celebration of the feast of tabernacles. - Ezra 3:1 When the seventhmonth was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the peoplegathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. The year is notstated, but the year in which they returned from Babylon is intended, asappears from Ezra 3:8, which tells us that the foundations of the temple werelaid in the second month of the second year of their return. The words,”and the children of Israel were in the cities,” are a circumstantial clausereferring to Ezra 2:70, and serving to elucidate what follows. From thecities, in which each had settled in his own (Ezra 2:1), the people came toJerusalem as one man, i.e., not entirely (Bertheau), but unanimously( ὁμοθυμαδόν , 1 Esdr. 5:46); comp. Nehemiah 8:1; Judges 20:1.

(Note: The more precise statement of 1 Esdr. 5:46, εἰς τὸ εὐρύχωρον τοῦ πρώτου πυλῶνος τοῦ πρὸς τῇ ἀνατολῇ , according to which Bertheauinsists upon correcting the text of Ezra, is an arbitrary addition onthe part of the author of this apocryphal book, and derived from Nehemiah 8:1.)

Ezra 3:2

Then the two leaders of the people, Joshua the high priest andZerubbabel the prince (see on Joshua 2:2), with their brethren, i.e., thepriests and the men of Israel (the laity), arose and built the altar, to offerupon it burnt-offerings, as prescribed by the law of Moses, i.e., to restorethe legal sacrifices. According to Ezra 3:6, the offering of burnt-offerings beganon the first day of the seventh month; hence the altar was by this dayalready completed. This agrees with the statement, “When the seventhmonth approached” (Ezra 3:1), therefore before the first day of this month.

Ezra 3:3

They reared the altar על־מכונתו, upon its (former) place;not, upon its bases. The feminine מכונה has here a likesignification with the masculine form מכון, Ezra 2:68, andמכוּנה, Zechariah 5:11. The Keri מכונתיו is an incorrectrevision. “For fear was upon them, because of the people of thosecountries.” The ב prefixed to אימה is the so-called ב essentiae,expressing the being in a condition; properly, a being in fear had come orlay upon them. Comp. on ב essentiae, Ewald, §217, f, and 299, b, thoughin §295, f, he seeks to interpret this passage differently. The “people ofthose countries” are the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of the newcommunity; comp. Ezra 9:1; Ezra 10:2. The notion is: They erected the altarand restored the worship of Jahve, for the purpose of securing the divineprotection, because fear of the surrounding heathen population had fallenupon them. J. H. Mich. had already a correct notion of the verse when hewrote: ut ita periculi metus eos ad Dei opem quaerendam impulerit.

(Note: Bertheau, on the contrary, cannot understand the meaning ofthis sentence, and endeavours, by an alteration of the text after 1Esdras, to make it signify that some of the people of the countriescame with the purpose of obstructing the building of the altar, butthat the Israelites were able to effect the erection because a fear ofGod came upon the neighbouring nations, and rendered themincapable of hostile interference.)

Comp. the similar case in 2 Kings 17:25., when the heathen colonistssettled in the deserted cities of Samaria entreated the king of Assyria tosend them a priest to teach them the manner of worshipping the God ofthe land, that thus they might be protected from the lions which infestedit. The Chethiv ויאל must be taken impersonally: “one (they)offered;” but is perhaps only an error of transcription, and should be readויּעלוּ. On the morning and evening sacrifices, see on Exodus 28:38., Numbers 28:3.

Ezra 3:4

They kept the feast of tabernacles as prescribed in the law, Leviticus 23:34. “The burnt-offering day by day, according to number,” means theburnt-offering day by day, according to number,” means the burnt-offerings commanded for the several days of this festival, viz., on the firstday thirteen oxen, on the second twelve, etc.; comp. Num 29:13-34, wherethe words כּמשׁפּט בּמספּרם, Numbers 29:18, Numbers 29:21, Numbers 29:24, etc.,occur, which are written in our present verse כּם בּמספּר, bynumber, i.e., counted; comp. 1 Chronicles 9:28; 1 Chronicles 23:31, etc.

Ezra 3:5-6

And afterward, i.e., after the feast of tabernacles, they offeredthe continual, i.e., the daily, burnt-offering, and (the offerings) for the newmoon, and all the festivals of the Lord (the annual feasts). עלות must be inserted from the context before לחדשׁים to complete thesense. “And for every one that willingly offered a free-will offering to theLord.” נדבה is a burnt-offering which was offered from freeinclination. Such offerings might be brought on any day, but were chieflypresented at the annual festivals after the sacrifices prescribed by the law;comp. Numbers 29:39. - In Ezra 3:6 follows the supplementary remark, that thesacrificial worship began from the first day of the seventh month, but thatthe foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. This forms atransition to what follows.

(Note: Bertheau, comparing Ezra 3:6 with Ezra 3:5, incorrectly interprets it asmeaning: “From the first day of the seventh month the offering ofthank-offerings began (comp. Ezra 3:2); then, from the fifteenth day ofthe second month, during the feast of tabernacles, the burnt-offeringsprescribed by the law (Ezra 3:4); but the daily burnt-offerings were notrecommenced till after the feast of tabernacles, etc. Hence it was notfrom the first day of the seventh month, but subsequently to the feastof tabernacles, that the worship of God, so far as this consisted inburnt-offerings, was fully restored.” The words of the cursivemanuscript, however, do not stand in the text, but their opposite. InEzra 3:2, not thank-offerings (זבהים or שׁלמים),but burnt-offerings (עלות), are spoken of, and indeed thoseprescribed in the law, among which the daily morning and eveningburnt-offering, expressly named in Ezra 3:3, held the first place. With this, Ezra 3:5, “After the feast of tabernacles they offered thecontinual burnt-offering, and the burnt-offerings for the new moon,”etc., fully harmonizes. The offering of the continual, i.e., of thedaily, burnt-offerings, besides the new moon, the feast-days, and thefree-will offerings, is named again merely for the sake ofcompleteness. The right order is, on the contrary, as follows: Thealtar service, with the daily morning and evening sacrifice, began onthe first day of the seventh month; this daily sacrifice was regularlyoffered, according to the law, from then till the fifteenth day of thesecond month, i.e., till the beginning of the feast of tabernacles; allthe offerings commanded in the law for the separate days of this feastwere then offered according to the numbers prescribed; and after thisfestival the sacrifices ordered at the new moon and the other holydays of the year were offered, as well as the daily burnt-offerings, - none but these, neither the sacrifice on the new moon (the first dayof the seventh month) nor the sin-offering on the tenth day of thesame month, i.e., the day of atonement, having been offered beforethis feast of tabernacles.)

Ezra 3:7

Preparations were also made for the rebuilding of the temple;money was given to hewers of wood and to masons, and meat and drink(i.e., corn and wine) and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians (i.e., thePhoenicians; comp. 1 Chronicles 22:4), to bring cedar trees from Lebanon tothe sea of Joppa (i.e., to the coast of Joppa), as was formerly done bySolomon, 1 Kings 5:6., 2 Chronicles 2:7. כּרשׁיון, according tothe grant of Cyrus to them, i.e., according to the permission given them byCyrus, sc. to rebuild the temple. For nothing is said of any special grantfrom Cyrus with respect to wood for building. רשׁיון is in theO.T. ἁπ. λεγ. ; in Chaldee and rabbinical Hebrew, רשׁא and רשׁי mean facultatem habere; and רשׁוּ power, permission.

The foundation of the temple laid. - Ezra 3:8 In the second year of their comingto the house of God at Jerusalem, i.e., after their arrival at Jerusalem ontheir return from Babylon, in the second month, began Zerubbabel andJoshua to appoint the Levites from twenty years old and upwards to theoversight of the work (the building) of the house of the Lord. That is tosay, the work of building was taken in hand. Whether this second year ofthe return coincides with the second year of the rule of Cyrus, so that thefoundations of the temple were laid, as Theophil. Antioch. ad Autolic. lib. 3, according to Berosus, relates, in the second year of Cyrus, cannot bedetermined. For nothing more is said in this book than that Cyrus, in thefirst year of his reign, issued the decree concerning the return of the Jewsfrom Babylon, whereupon those named in the list, Ezra 2, set out andreturned, without any further notice as to whether this also took place inthe first year of Cyrus, or whether the many necessary preparationsdelayed the departure of the first band till the following year. The former view is certainly a possible though not a very probable one,since it is obvious from Ezra 2:1 that they arrived at Jerusalem and betookthemselves to their cities as early as the seventh month of the year. Nowthe period between the beginning of the year and the seventh month, i.e.,at most six months, seems too short for the publication of the edict, thedeparture, and the arrival at Jerusalem, even supposing that the first yearof Cyrus entirely coincided with a year of the Jewish calendar. The secondview, however, would not make the difference between the year of the ruleof Cyrus and the year of the return to Jerusalem a great one, since it wouldscarcely amount to half a year. ויּעמידוּ … החלּוּ, they began and appointed, etc., they began to appoint, i.e., theybegan the work of building the temple by appointing. Those enumeratedare-1. Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two rulers: 2. The remnant of theirbrethren = their other brethren, viz., a, the priests and Levites as brethrenof Joshua; b, all who had come out of captivity, i.e., the men of Israel, asbrethren of Zerubbabel. These together formed the community whoappointed the Levites to preside over, i.e., to conduct the building of thetemple. For the expression, comp. 1 Chron 23:4-24.

Ezra 3:9

The Levites undertook this appointment, and executed thecommission. The singular ויּעמד stands before a pluralsubject, as is frequently the case when the verb precedes its subject. Threeclasses or orders of Levites are named: 1. Jeshua with his sons andbrethren; 2. Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah; 3. The sons ofHenadad, their sons and brethren. Jeshua and Kadmiel are the two heads oforders of Levites already named (Ezra 2:40). From a comparison of thesepassages, we perceive that יהוּדה בּני is a clericalerror for הודויה (or הודיּה) בּני. Thismore precise designation is not “a comprehensive appellation for allhitherto enumerated” (Bertheau), but, as is undoubtedly obvious fromEzra 2:40, only a more precise designation of the sons of Kadmiel. כּאחד, as one, i.e., all, without exception. The third class, the sons of Henadad, are not expressly named in Ezra 2:40 among those who returned from Babylon; but a son of Henadad appears,Nehemiah 3:24 and Nehemiah 10:10, as head of an order of Levites. The naming of thisorder after the predicate, in the form of a supplementary notice, andunconnected by a ו cop., is striking. Bertheau infers therefrom that theconstruction of the sentence is incorrect, and desires to alter it according to1 Esdr. 5:56, where indeed this class is named immediately after the twofirst, but יהוּדה בּני is separated from whatprecedes; and of these בני יהודה is made a fourth class, υἱοὶ Ἰωδά τοῦ Ἡλιαδούδ . All this sufficiently shows that this text cannot be regarded asauthoritative. The striking position or supplementary enumeration of thesons of Henadad may be explained by the fact to which the placing ofכּאחד after בני יהודה points, viz., that the two classes, Jeshuawith his sons and brethren, and Kadmiel with his sons, were more closelyconnected with each other than with the sons of Henadad, who formed athird class. The הלויּם at the end of the enumeration offers noargument for the transposition of the words, though this addition pertainsnot only to the sons of Henadad, but also to the two first classes. hm'עשׂה is plural, and only an unusual reading for עשׁי; seeon 1 Chronicles 23:24.

Ezra 3:10-11

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of theLord, they (Zerubbabel and Joshua, the heads of the community) set thepriests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaphwith cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David. The perf. ויסּדוּ, followed by an imperf. connected by a Vav consecutive,must be construed: When they laid the foundations, then. מלבּשׁים, clothed, sc. in their robes of office; comp. 2 Chronicles 5:12; 2 Chronicles 20:21. ידי על as 1 Chronicles 25:2. On Ezra 3:11, comp. remarks on 1 Chronicles 16:34, 1 Chronicles 16:41; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:3, and elsewhere. Older expositors(Clericus, J. H. Mich.), referring to Exodus 15:21, understand בהלּל ויּענוּ of the alternative singing of two choirs, one of whichsang, “Praise the Lord, for He is good;” and the other responded, “And Hismercy endureth for ever.” In the present passage, however, there is nodecided allusion to responsive singing; hence (with Bertheau) we takeיענוּ in the sense of, “They sang to the Lord with hymns ofthanksgiving.” Probably they sang such songs as Ps 106-107, or Ps 118,which commence with an invitation to praise the Lord because He is good,etc. All the people, moreover, raised a loud shout of joy. גּדולה תּרוּעה is repeated in Ezra 3:13 by השּׂמחה תּרוּעת. הוּסד על, on account of the founding, of thefoundation-laying, of the house of the Lord. הוּסד as in 2 Chronicles 3:3.

Ezra 3:12

But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the people, theold men who had seen (also) the former temple, at the foundation of thishouse before their eyes (i.e., when they saw the foundation of this houselaid), wept with a loud voice. Solomon's temple was destroyed b.c. 588,and the foundation of the subsequent temple laid b.c. 535 or 534: hencethe older men among those present at the latter event might possibly haveseen the former house; indeed, some (according to Hagg. Ezra 2:2) werestill living in the second year of Darius Hystaspis who had beheld theglory of the earlier building. Upon these aged men, the miserablecircumstances under which the foundations of the new temple were laidproduced so overwhelming an impression, that they broke into loudweeping. בּיסדו is connected by its accents with the wordspreceding: the former temple in its foundation, i.e., in its stability. But thiscan scarcely be correct. For not only does no noun יסד, foundation,occur further on; but even the following words, “of this house before theireyes,” if severed from בּיסדו, have no meaning. Hence (withAben Ezra, Cler., Berth., and others) we connect בּיסדו withthe parenthetical sentence following, “when the foundation of this housewas laid before their eyes;” and then the suffix of the infinitive יסדו expressly refers to the object following, as is sometimes the case inHebrew, e.g., 2 Chronicles 26:14; Ezra 9:1, and mostly in Chaldee; comp. Ew. §209, c, “But many were in rejoicing and joy to raise their voice,” i.e.,many so joyed and rejoiced that they shouted aloud.

Ezra 3:13

And the people could not discern (distinguish) the loud cry ofjoy in the midst of (beside) the loud weeping of the people; for the peoplerejoiced with loud rejoicings, and the sound was heard afar off. Themeaning is not, that the people could not hear the loud weeping of theolder priests, Levites, and heads of the people, because it wasoverpowered by the loud rejoicings of the multitude. The verse, on thecontrary, contains a statement that among the people also (the assemblyexclusive of priests, Levites, and chiefs) a shout of joy and a voice ofweeping arose; but that the shouting for joy of the multitude was so loud,that the sounds of rejoicing and weeping could not be distinguished fromeach other. הכּיר, with the acc. and ל, to perceive something in thepresence of (along with) another, i.e., to distinguish one thing fromanother. “The people could not discern” means: Among the multitude thecry of joy could not be distinguished from the noise of weeping. למרחוק עד as 2 Chronicles 26:15.