Ezra 5:13-15

5:13 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, ¹  King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God. 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 ²  of Babylon – even those things King Cyrus brought from the palace of Babylon and presented ³  to a man by the name of Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed as governor. 5:15 He said to him, “Take these vessels and go deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt in its proper location.” ⁴ 

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 ⁵  of the king of Assyria ⁶  toward them, so that he assisted ⁷  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 7:27

7:27 ⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

Psalms 106:46

106:46 He caused all their conquerors ⁹ 

to have pity on them.

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ¹⁰  is in the hand ¹¹  of the Lord like channels of water; ¹² 

he turns it wherever he wants.

Daniel 2:1

Nebuchadnezzar Has a Disturbing Dream

2:1 In the second year of his ¹³  reign Nebuchadnezzar had many dreams. ¹⁴  His mind ¹⁵  was disturbed and he suffered from insomnia. ¹⁶ 

¹ 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.

² tn Or “temple.”

³ tn Aram “they were given.”

⁴ tn Aram “upon its place.”

⁵ tn Heb “heart.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Heb “to strengthen their hands.”

⁸ sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.

⁹ tn Or “captors.”

¹⁰ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

¹¹ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

¹² tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

¹³ tn Heb “Nebuchadnezzar’s.” The possessive pronoun is substituted in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ tn Heb “dreamed dreams.” The plural is used here and in v. 2, but the singular in v. 3. The plural “dreams” has been variously explained. Some interpreters take the plural as denoting an indefinite singular (so GKC 400 §124.o). But it may be that it is describing a stream of related dreams, or a dream state. In the latter case, one might translate: “Nebuchadnezzar was in a trance.” See further, J. A. Montgomery, Daniel (ICC), 142.

¹⁵ tn Heb “his spirit.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “his sleep left (?) him.” The use of the verb הָיָה (hayah, “to be”) here is unusual. The context suggests a meaning such as “to be finished” or “gone.” Cf. Dan 8:27. Some scholars emend the verb to read נָדְדָה (nadÿdah, “fled”); cf. Dan 6:19. See further, DCH 2:540 s.v. היה I Ni.3; HALOT 244 s.v. היה nif; BDB 227-28 s.v. הָיָה Niph.2.