Ezra 1:8

1:8 King Cyrus of Persia entrusted ¹  them to ²  Mithredath ³  the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar ⁴  the leader of the Judahite exiles. ⁵ 

Ezra 1:7

1:7 Then King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the Lord’s temple which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and had displayed ⁶  in the temple of his gods.

Ezra 4:5

4:5 They were hiring advisers to oppose them, so as to frustrate their plans, throughout the time ⁷  of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius ⁸  of Persia. ⁹ 

Ezra 5:13

5:13 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, ¹⁰  King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God.

Ezra 3:7

Preparations for Rebuilding the Temple

3:7 So they provided money ¹¹  for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon ¹²  and Tyre, ¹³  so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport ¹⁴  at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia.

Ezra 4:3

4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ¹⁵  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ¹⁶  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ¹⁷  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ¹⁸  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ¹⁹  feet, ²⁰ 

Ezra 6:14

6:14 The elders of the Jews continued building and prospering, while at the same time ²¹  Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo continued prophesying. They built and brought it to completion by the command of the God of Israel and by the command of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Ezra 5:14

5:14 Even the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and had brought to the palace ²²  of Babylon – even those things King Cyrus brought from the palace of Babylon and presented ²³  to a man by the name of Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed as governor.

Ezra 5:17

5:17 “Now if the king is so inclined, ²⁴  let a search be conducted in the royal archives ²⁵  there in Babylon in order to determine whether King Cyrus did in fact issue orders for this temple of God to be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us a decision concerning this matter.”

¹ tn Heb “brought them forth.”

² tn Heb “upon the hand of.”

³ sn A Persian name meaning “gift of Mithras.” See HALOT 656 s.v. מִתְרְדָת.

⁴ sn A Babylonian name with the probable meaning “Shamash protect the father.” See HALOT 1664-65 s.v. שֵׁשְׁבַּצַּר.

⁵ tn Heb “Sheshbazzar the prince to Judah”; TEV, CEV “the governor of Judah.”

⁶ tn Heb “and he gave them.”

¹¹ tn Heb “all the days of.”

¹² sn Darius ruled Persia ca. 522-486 B.C.

¹³ sn The purpose of the opening verses of this chapter is to summarize why the Jews returning from the exile were unable to complete the rebuilding of the temple more quickly than they did. The delay was due not to disinterest on their part but to the repeated obstacles that had been placed in their path by determined foes.

¹⁶ sn Cyrus was actually a Persian king, but when he conquered Babylon in 539 b.c. he apparently appropriated to himself the additional title “king of Babylon.” The Syriac Peshitta substitutes “Persia” for “Babylon” here, but this is probably a hyper-correction.

²¹ tn Heb “silver.”

²² map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

²³ map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

²⁴ tn Heb “to the sea”

²⁶ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

³¹ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

³² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³³ tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

³⁴ tc The Syriac Peshitta reads “twenty cubits” here, a measurement probably derived from dimensions given elsewhere for Solomon’s temple. According to 1 Kgs 6:2 the dimensions of the Solomonic temple were as follows: length, 60 cubits; width, 20 cubits; height, 30 cubits. Since one would expect the dimensions cited in Ezra 6:3 to correspond to those of Solomon’s temple, it is odd that no dimension for length is provided. The Syriac has apparently harmonized the width dimension provided here (“twenty cubits”) to that given in 1 Kgs 6:2.

³⁵ tn Aram “Its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

³⁶ tn Aram “in” or “by,” in the sense of accompaniment.

⁴¹ tn Or “temple.”

⁴² tn Aram “they were given.”

⁴⁶ tn Aram “if upon the king it is good.”

⁴⁷ tn Aram “the house of the treasures of the king.”