Ezra 3:7

Preparations for Rebuilding the Temple

3:7 So they provided money ¹  for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon ²  and Tyre, ³  so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport ⁴  at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia.

Ezra 4:7

4:7 And during the reign ⁵  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ⁶  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ⁷  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁸  of Persia. This letter ⁹  was first written in Aramaic but then translated.

[Aramaic:] ¹⁰ 

Ezra 5:2

5:2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak began ¹¹  to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

Ezra 6:12

6:12 May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ¹²  who reaches out ¹³  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

Ezra 6:22

6:22 They observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had given them joy and had changed the opinion ¹⁴  of the king of Assyria ¹⁵  toward them, so that he assisted ¹⁶  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 7:6

7:6 This Ezra is the one who came up from Babylon. He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king supplied him with everything he requested, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

Ezra 7:26

7:26 Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely ¹⁷  liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.”

Ezra 7:28

7:28 He has also conferred his favor on me before the king, his advisers, and all the influential leaders of the king. I gained strength as the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

Ezra 8:35

8:35 The exiles who were returning from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel – twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs, along with twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

Ezra 9:15

9:15 O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt ¹⁸  no one can really stand before you.”

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.

Ezra 10:14

10:14 Let our leaders take steps ¹⁹  on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”

¹ tn Heb “silver.”

² map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

³ map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

⁴ tn Heb “to the sea”

⁵ tn Heb “And in the days.”

⁶ tn The LXX understands this word as a prepositional phrase (“in peace”) rather than as a proper name (“Bishlam”). Taken this way it would suggest that Mithredath was “in agreement with” the contents of Tabeel’s letter. Some scholars regard the word in the MT to be a corruption of either “in Jerusalem” (i.e., “in the matter of Jerusalem”) or “in the name of Jerusalem.” The translation adopted above follows the traditional understanding of the word as a name.

⁷ tc The translation reads the plural with the Qere rather than the singular found in the MT Kethib.

⁸ sn Artaxerxes I ruled in Persia from ca. 465–425 b.c.

⁹ tc It is preferable to delete the MT’s וּכְתָב (ukhÿtav) here.

¹⁰ sn The double reference in v. 7 to the Aramaic language is difficult. It would not make sense to say that the letter was written in Aramaic and then translated into Aramaic. Some interpreters understand the verse to mean that the letter was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language, but this does not seem to give sufficient attention to the participle “translated” at the end of the verse. The second reference to Aramaic in the verse is more probably a gloss that calls attention to the fact that the following verses retain the Aramaic language of the letter in its original linguistic form. A similar reference to Aramaic occurs in Dan 2:4b, where the language of that book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12-26 are written in Aramaic, whereas the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

⁹ tn Aram “arose and began.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

¹³ tn Aram “people.”

¹⁴ tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “heart.”

¹⁸ sn The expression “king of Assyria” is anachronistic, since Assyria fell in 612 b.c., long before the events of this chapter. Perhaps the expression is intended subtly to contrast earlier kings of Assyria who were hostile toward Israel with this Persian king who showed them favor.

¹⁹ tn Heb “to strengthen their hands.”

²¹ tn On the meaning of this word see HALOT 1820-21 s.v. אָסְפַּרְנָא; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 14.

²⁵ tn Heb “this”; the referent (the guilt mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁹ tn Heb “stand.”