Ezra 9:7

9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ¹  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ²  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

Ezra 4:2-3

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ³  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ⁴  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ⁵  from the time ⁶  of King Esarhaddon ⁷  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁸  4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ⁹  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 9:9

9:9 Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ¹⁰  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ¹¹  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ¹² 

Ezra 10:2

10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ¹³  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ¹⁴  foreign women from the local peoples. ¹⁵  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ¹⁶ 

¹ tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.

² tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”

³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

⁴ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

⁵ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

⁶ tn Heb “days.”

⁷ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

⁸ 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.

⁵ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

⁷ tn Heb “has granted us reviving.”

⁸ tn Heb “to cause to stand.”

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tc The translation reads with the Qere, many medieval Hebrew MSS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate עֵילָם (’elam, “Elam”) rather than the reading עוֹלָם (’olam, “eternity”) found in the MT.

¹⁰ tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

¹¹ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

¹² tn Heb “upon this.”