Bible Commentaries

The Building of the TempleContinued, and Notice ThereofSent to King Darius - Ezra 5

In the second year of Darius Hystaspis (Darajavus Viçtaçpa) the prophetsZechariah and Haggai arose, and exhorted the people by words, both ofreproof and encouragement, to assist in the work of rebuilding the house ofGod. In consequence of these prophetic admonitions, the rulers of thecommunity resumed the work (Ezra 5:1, Ezra 5:2); and the royal governor on thisside the Euphrates allowed them, when in answer to his inquiries theyappealed to the decree of Cyrus, to proceed with their building until thearrival of a decision from King Darius, to whom he addressed a writtenreport of the matter (Ezra 5:3-17).

“The prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son ofIddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of theGod of Israel upon them.” חתנבּי without א, which thisword occasionally loses in Hebrew also, comp. 1 Samuel 10:6, 1 Samuel 10:13; Jeremiah 26:9. The epithet נביּאה added to the name of Haggai serves todistinguish him from others of the same name, and as well as הנּביא, Hagg. Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:3, Haggai 1:12, and elsewhere, is used instead of the name ofhis father; hence, after Zechariah is named, the prophets, as designating theposition of both, can follow. על־יהוּדיא, they prophesied to (notagainst) the Jews; על as in Ezekiel 37:4, = אל, Ezekiel 37:9; Ezekiel 36:1. The Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, in contradistinction to Jews dwellingelsewhere, especially to those who had remained in Babylon. עליהון belongs to אלהּ בּשׁם, in the name of God, whowas upon them, who was come upon them, had manifested Himself tothem. Comp. Jeremiah 15:16.

Ezra 5:2

“Then rose up Zerubbabel … and Joshua … and began to build thehouse of God at Jerusalem, and with them the prophets of God helpingthem.” The beginning to build is (Ezra 3:6, etc.) the commencement of thebuilding properly so called, upon the foundations laid, Ezra 3:10; for what wasdone after this foundation-laying till a stop was put to the work, was sounimportant that no further notice is taken of it. The “prophets of God”are those mentioned Ezra 5:1, viz., Haggai, and Zechariah the son, i.e.,grandson, of Iddo, for his father's name was Berechiah (see Introd. toZechariah). Haggai entered upon his work on the first day of the sixthmonth, in the second year of Darius; and his first address made such animpression, that Zerubbabel and Joshua with the people set about theintermitted work of building as early as the twenty-fourth day of the samemonth (comp. Haggai 1:1 and Haggai 1:14.). Two months later, viz., in the eighthmonth of the same year, Zechariah began to exhort the people to turnsincerely to the Lord their God, and not to relapse into the sins of theirfathers.

When the building was recommenced, the governor on this side Euphrates,and other royal officials, evidently informed of the undertaking by theadversaries of the Jews, made their appearance for the purpose ofinvestigating matters on the spot. עליהון אתּה, cameto them, to the two above-named rulers of the community at Jerusalem. Tatnai (lxx Θανθαναΐ́ ) was פּחה, viceroy, in the provinceswest of Euphrates, i.e., as correctly expanded in 1 Esdras, of Syria andPhoenicia, to which Judaea with its Pecha Zerubbabel was subordinate. With him came Shethar-Boznai, perhaps his secretary, and theircompanions, their subordinates. The royal officials inquired: “Who hascommanded you to build this house, and to finish this wall?” The formלבנא here and Ezra 5:13 is remarkable, the infinitive in Chaldee beingnot בנא, butמבנא; compare Ezra 5:2, Ezra 5:17, and Ezra 6:8. Norzi has both times לבּנא, as through the Dagesh forte werecompensating for an omitted.מ אשּׁרנא which occurs only hereand Ezra 5:9, is variously explained. The Vulgate, the Syriac, and also theRabbins, translate: these walls. This meaning best answers to the context,and is also linguistically the most correct. It can hardly, however, bederived (Gesenius) from אשׁר, but rather from אשׁן, in Chaldeeאשׁוּן, firm, strong-walls as the strength or firmness of the building. The form אשּׁרנא has arisen from אשׁנּא, and is analogous tothe form בּשׁנה.

(Note: The interpretations of the lxx, τὴν χορηγίαν ταύτην ,meaning these building materials, and of 1 Esdr. 6:4, τὴν στέγην ταύτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα this roof and all besides, for which Bertheau decides, withoutconsidering that שׁכלל may mean to complete, and not to preparefor anything, are but conjectures.)

Ezra 5:4

Then told we them after this manner (כּנמא, Ezra 4:8),what were the names of the men who were building this building. Fromאמרנא, we said, it is obvious that the author of this account wasan eye-witness of, and sharer in, the work of building. These is not ashadow of reason for altering אמרנא into אמרוּ, or into theparticiple אמרין (Ew., Berth., and others); the εἴποσαν ofthe lxx being no critical authority for so doing. The answer in Ezra 5:4 seemsnot to correspond with the question in Ezra 5:3. The royal officials asked, Whohad commanded them to build? The Jews told them the names of thosewho had undertaken and were conducting the building. But thisincongruity between the question and answer is merely caused by the factthat the discussion is reported only by a short extract restricted to theprincipal subjects. We learn that this is the case from the contents of theletter sent by the officials to the king. According to these, the royalfunctionary inquired not merely concerning the author of the command tobuild, but asked also the names of those who were undertaking the work(comp. Ezra 5:9 and Ezra 5:10); while the rulers of the Jews gave a circumstantialanswer to both questions (Ezra 5:11-15).

Ezra 5:5

Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai had power to prohibit them fromproceeding; they allowed them, however, to go on with their work till thearrival of an answer from the king, to whom they had furnished a writtenreport of the matter. In these dealings, the historian sees a proof of thedivine protection which was watching over the building. “The eye of theirGod was over the elders of the Jews, that they should not restrain them(from building) till the matter came to Darius; and they should then receivea letter concerning this matter.” Bertheau incorrectly translates יהך לד עד־טעמא: until the command of King Darius should arrive. ל is onlyused as a paraphrase of the genitive in statements of time; otherwise thegenitive, if not expressed by the status construc., is designated by דּ or דּי. יהך, fut. Peal of הלך, formed by the rejection ofל, construed with ל, signifies to go to a place (comp. Ezra 7:13), or to cometo a person. טעמא (טעם) does not here meancommandment, but the matter, causa, which the king is to decide; just asפּתגּן, Ezra 6:11, means thing, res. The clause יתיבוּן ואדין still depends upon עד: and till they (the royalofficials) then receive a letter, i.e., obtain a decision.

In Ezra 5:6-17 follows the letter which the royal officials sent to the king. Ezra 5:6 and Ezra 5:7 form the introduction to this document, and correspond with Ezra 5:8-11 in Ezra 4. Copy of the letter (comp. Ezra 4:11) which Tatnai, etc.,sent. The senders of the letter are, besides Tatnai, Shethar-Boznai and hiscompanions the Apharsachites, the same called Ezra 4:9 the Apharsathchites,who perhaps, as a race specially devoted to the Persian king, took aprominent position among the settlers in Syria, and may have formed theroyal garrison. After this general announcement of the letter, follows themore precise statement: They sent the matter to him; and in it waswritten,To King Darius, much peace. פּתגּן here is not command, butmatter; see above. כלּא, its totality, is unconnected with, yetdependent on שׁלמא: peace in all things, in every respect. Theletter itself begins with a simple representation of the state of affairs (Ezra 5:8): “We went into the province of Judaea, to the house of the great God(for so might Persian officials speak of the God of Israel, after what theyhad learned from the elders of Judah of the edict of Cyrus), and it is beingbuilt with freestone, and timber is laid in the walls; and this work is beingdiligently carried on, and is prospering under their hands.” The placing ofwood in the walls refers to building beams into the wall for flooring; forthe building was not so far advanced as to make it possible that this shouldbe said of covering the walls with wainscotting. The word אספּרנא here, and Ezra 6:8, Ezra 6:12-13; Ezra 7:17, Ezra 7:21, Ezra 7:26, is of Aryan origin, and is explainedby Haug in Ew. Janro. v. p. 154, from the Old-Persian (us-(parna), to mean:carefully or exactly finished-a meaning which suits all these passages.

Hereupon the royal officials asked the elders of the Jews who hadcommanded them to build, and inquired concerning their names, that theymight write to the king the names of the leading men (see the remark on 3and 41). בראשׁהם דּי does not mean, who are at thehead of them: but, who act in the capacity of heads.

The answer of the elders of the Jews. They returned us answer in thefollowing manner (לממר = לאמר): “We are His, theservants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house which wasbuilt many years ago; and a great king of Israel built and completed it.”דּנה מקּדמת, of before this, i.e., before the present; towhich is added the more precise definition: many years (accusative oftime), i.e., many years before the present time.

For this reason (להן), because (מן־דּי = מאשׁר, e.g., Isaiah 43:4) our fathers provoked the God of heaven, He gave them into the handof Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, and he (Nebuch.)destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon. Forכּסדּיא the Keri requires כּסדּאה, the ordinary formof the absolute state of the noun in ai. סתר, Pael, in the sense ofdestroy, appears only here in biblical Chaldee, but more frequently in theTargums. עמּה, its people, would refer to the town of Jerusalem;but Norzi and J. H. Mich. have עמּהּ, and the Masora expresslysays that the word is to be written without Mappik, and is therefore thestat. emphat. for עמּא.

In the first year, however, of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus made adecree, etc.; comp. Ezra 1:3. The infin. לבנא like Ezra 5:3. - On Ezra 5:14 and Ezra 5:15, comp. Ezra 1:7-11. ויחיבוּ, praeter. pass. of Peal; they weregiven to one Sheshbazzar, (is) his name, i.e., to one of the name ofSheshbazzar, whom he had made pechah. Zerubbabel is also calledפּחה, Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:14, and elsewhere.

Take these vessels, go forth, place them in the temple. For אלּה the Keri reads אל, according to 1 Chronicles 20:8. אחת isimperat. Aphel of נחת. The three imperatives succeed each otherwithout any copula in this rapid form of expression. The last sentence,”and let the house of God be built in its place,” i.e., be rebuilt in its formerplace, gives the reason for the command to deposit the vessels in thetemple at Jerusalem, i.e., in the house of God, which is to be rebuilt in itsformer place.

In virtue of this command of Cyrus, this Sheshbazzar came (from Babylonto Jerusalem), and laid then the foundations of the house of God, and fromthat time till now it has been building, and is not (yet) finished. שׁלים, part. pass. of שׁלם, often used in the Targums and inSyriac for the Hebrew תּמם; hence in Daniel 5:26 the Aphel, in themeaning of to finish, and Ezekiel 7:19, to restore. This statement does notexclude the cessation from building from the last year of Cyrus to thesecond of Darius, narrated Ezra 4-6:7, as Bertheau and others suppose, butonly leaves the unmentioned circumstance which had been the cause of thedelay. If the section Ezra 4:6-23 does not refer to the building of thetemple, then neither is a “forcible interruption” of the building spoken ofin Ezra 4; but it is only said that the adversaries frustrated the purpose ofthe Jews to rebuild the temple till the time of Darius, and weakened thehands of the people, so that the work of the house of God ceased.

After thus representing the state of affairs, the royal officials requestDarius to cause a search to be made among the archives of the kingdom, asto whether a decree made by Cyrus for the erection of the temple atJerusalem was to be found therein, and then to communicate to them hisdecision concerning the matter. “And if it seem good to the king, let searchbe made in the king's treasure-house there at Babylon, whether it be so,that a decree was made of Cyrus the king.” על טב הן, like the Hebrew על טּוב אם, Esther 1:19, forwhich in older Hebrew לו טּוב, Deuteronomy 23:17, orבּעינים טוב, Genesis 19:8; Judges 10:15, and elsewhere, is used. גּזיּא בּית, house of the treasure, more definitelycalled, Ezra 6:1, house of the rolls, where also the royal treasures weredeposited. Hence it is obvious that important documents and writingswere preserved in the royal treasury. תּמּה, there, is explained by”which at Babylon.” רעוּת, chald. voluntas, comp. Ezra 7:18. Concerning the behaviour of these officials Brentius well remarks: vides differentiam inter calumniatores et bonos ac probos viros. Una eademque causa erat aedificii templi, unus idemque populus Judaeorum; attamen hujus populi causa aliter refertur ab impiis calumniatoribus, aliter a bonis viris.