Ezra 5:4-5

5:4 They ¹  also asked them, “What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?” 5:5 But God was watching over ²  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ³  until a report could be dispatched ⁴  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

¹ tc The translation reads with one medieval Hebrew MS, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta אֲמַרוּ (’amaru, “they said”) rather than the reading אֲמַרְנָא (’amarna’, “we said”) of the MT.

² tn Aram “the eye of their God was on.” The idiom describes the attentive care that one exercises in behalf of the object of his concern.

³ tn Aram “they did not stop them.”

⁴ tn Aram “[could] go.” On this form see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 58, §169.