5:11 They responded to us in the following way: ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the temple which was previously built many years ago. A great king 1 of Israel built it and completed it.
5:12 But after our ancestors 2 angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands 3 of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon. 4
1 sn This great king of Israel would, of course, be Solomon.
2 tnAram “fathers.”
3 tnAram “hand” (singular).
4 sn A reference to the catastrophic events of 586 b.c.