Ezra 3:3

3:3 They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, ¹  and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

Ezra 4:4

4:4 Then the local people ²  began to discourage ³  the people of Judah and to dishearten them from building.

Ezra 10:3

10:3 Therefore let us enact ⁴  a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, ⁵  and that of those who respect ⁶  the commandments of our God. And let it be done according to the law.

Ezra 9:4

9:4 Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe ⁷  gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. ⁸  Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.

Ezra 10:9

10:9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin were gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. (It was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of that month.) All the people sat in the square at the temple of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.

¹ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

² tn Heb “the people of the land.” Elsewhere this expression sometimes has a negative connotation, referring to a lay population that was less zealous for Judaism than it should have been. Here, however, it seems to refer to the resident population of the area without any negative connotation.

³ tn Heb “were making slack the hands of.”

³ tn Heb “cut.”

⁴ tn The MT vocalizes this word as a plural, which could be understood as a reference to God. But the context seems to suggest that a human lord is intended. The apparatus of BHS suggests repointing the word as a singular (“my lord”), but this is unnecessary. The plural (“my lords”) can be understood in an honorific sense even when a human being is in view. Most English versions regard this as a reference to Ezra, so the present translation supplies “your” before “counsel” to make this clear.

⁵ tn Heb “who tremble at”; NAB, NIV “who fear.”

⁴ tn Heb “who trembled at the words of the God of Israel.”

⁵ tn Heb “the exile”; the words “the people” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.