8:1 These are the leaders 1 and those enrolled with them by genealogy who were coming up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:
2:59 These are the ones that came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify 4 their family connection 5 or their ancestry, 6 as to whether they really were from Israel):
7:27 9 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!
1:5 Then the leaders 12 of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready 13 to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. 14
1 tn Heb “the heads of their families.”
2 tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּבְדֵּל לוֹ (vayyavdel lo, “separated for himself”) rather than the Niphal plural וַיִּבָּדְלוּ (vayyibbadÿlu, “were separated”) of the MT.
3 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”
3 tn Heb “relate.”
4 tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”
5 tn Heb “their seed.”
4 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
5 tn Heb “cause it to stand.”
5 sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.
6 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
7 tn Heb “the peoples of the land.”
8 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
9 tn Heb “arose.”
10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
9 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
10 sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586
11 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
10 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.
11 tn Heb “Let us build with you.”
12 tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran
13 tn Heb “days.”
14 sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669
15 sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.
11 tn Heb “not to you and to us.”
12 tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.
13 tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”