2 Chronicles 36:10

36:10 At the beginning of the year King Nebuchadnezzar ordered him to be brought ¹  to Babylon, along with the valuable items in the Lord’s temple. In his place he made his relative ²  Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 36:18

36:18 He carried away to Babylon all the items in God’s temple, whether large or small, as well as what was in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king and his officials.

2 Chronicles 36:1

Jehoahaz’s Reign

36:1 The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. ³ 

2 Chronicles 7:1-2

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7:1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven ⁴  and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the Lord’s splendor filled the temple. 7:2 The priests were unable to enter the Lord’s temple because the Lord’s splendor filled the Lord’s temple.

2 Chronicles 24:13

24:13 They worked hard and made the repairs. ⁵  They followed the measurements specified for God’s temple and restored it. ⁶ 

2 Chronicles 25:13-15

25:13 Now the troops Amaziah had dismissed and had not allowed to fight in the battle ⁷  raided ⁸  the cities of Judah from Samaria ⁹  to Beth Horon. They killed ¹⁰  3,000 people and carried off a large amount of plunder.

25:14 When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people ¹¹  of Seir and made them his personal gods. ¹²  He bowed down before them and offered them sacrifices. 25:15 The Lord was angry at Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why are you following ¹³  these gods ¹⁴  that could not deliver their own people from your power?” ¹⁵ 

Ezra 1:7-11

1:7 Then King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the Lord’s temple which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and had displayed ¹⁶  in the temple of his gods. 1:8 King Cyrus of Persia entrusted ¹⁷  them to ¹⁸  Mithredath ¹⁹  the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar ²⁰  the leader of the Judahite exiles. ²¹ 

1:9 The inventory ²²  of these items was as follows:

30 gold basins, ²³ 

1,000 silver basins,

29 silver utensils, ²⁴ 

1:10 30 gold bowls,

410 other ²⁵  silver bowls,

and 1,000 other vessels.

1:11 All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. ²⁶  Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 28:3

28:3 Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon.

Jeremiah 52:18-19

52:18 They also took the pots, shovels, ²⁷  trimming shears, ²⁸  basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. ²⁹  52:19 The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, ³⁰  basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. ³¹ 

Daniel 5:2-3

5:2 While under the influence ³²  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ³³  had confiscated ³⁴  from the temple in Jerusalem ³⁵  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ³⁶  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ³⁷  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ³⁸  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

Daniel 5:23

5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ³⁹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ⁴⁰  your very breath and all your ways!

[36:10]  ¹ tn Heb “sent and brought him.”

[36:10]  ² tn Heb “and he made Zedekiah his brother king.” According to the parallel text in 2 Kgs 24:17, Zedekiah was Jehoiachin’s uncle, not his brother. Therefore many interpreters understand אח here in its less specific sense of “relative” (NEB “made his father’s brother Zedekiah king”; NASB “made his kinsman Zedekiah king”; NIV “made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king”; NRSV “made his brother Zedekiah king”).

[36:1]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:1]  ⁴ tn Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[24:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the doers of the work worked, and the repairs went up for the work by their hand.”

[24:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they caused the house of God to stand according to its measurements and they strengthened it.”

[25:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “had sent back from going with him to the battle.”

[25:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “stripped.”

[25:13]  ⁹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[25:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “struck down.”

[25:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons.”

[25:14]  ¹² tn Heb “caused them to stand for him as gods.”

[25:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “seeking,” perhaps in the sense of “consulting [an oracle from].”

[25:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the gods of the people.”

[25:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

[1:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he gave them.”

[1:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “brought them forth.”

[1:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “upon the hand of.”

[1:8]  ¹⁹ sn A Persian name meaning “gift of Mithras.” See HALOT 656 s.v. מִתְרְדָת.

[1:8]  ²⁰ sn A Babylonian name with the probable meaning “Shamash protect the father.” See HALOT 1664-65 s.v. שֵׁשְׁבַּצַּר.

[1:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “Sheshbazzar the prince to Judah”; TEV, CEV “the governor of Judah.”

[1:9]  ²² tn Heb “these are their number.”

[1:9]  ²³ tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew noun אֲגַרְטָל (’agartal, which occurs twice in this verse) is somewhat uncertain. The lexicons suggest that it is related to a common Semitic root (the Hebrew derivative has a prosthetic prefixed א [aleph] and interchange between ג [gimel] and ק [kof]): Judean Aramaic and Syriac qartalla, Arabic qirtallat, Ethiopic qartalo, all meaning “basket” (BDB 173-74 s.v.; HALOT 11 s.v.). There is debate whether this is a loanword from Greek κάρταλλος (kartallo", “basket”), Persian hirtal (“leather bag”) or Hittite kurtal (“container”). The term is traditionally understood as a kind of vessel, such as “basket, basin” (BDB 173-74 s.v.; HALOT 11 s.v.); but some suggest “leather bag” or a basket-shaped container of some sort (P. Humbert, “En marge du dictionnaire hébraïque,” ZAW 62 [1950]: 199-207; DCH 1:118 s.v.). The LXX translated it as ψυκτήρ (yukthr, “metal bowl”). The precise meaning depends on whether the nouns כֶּסֶף (kesef, “silver”) and זָהָב (zahav, “gold”), which follow each use of this plural construct noun, are genitives of content (“containers full of silver” and “containers full of gold”) or genitives of material (“silver containers” and “gold containers” = containers made from silver and gold). If they are genitives of content, the term probably means “baskets” or “leather bags” (filled with silver and gold); however, if they are genitives of material, the term would mean “basins” (made of silver and gold). Elsewhere in Ezra 1, the nouns כֶּסֶף (“silver”) and זָהָב (“gold”) are used as genitives or material, not genitives of contents; therefore, the translation “gold basins” and “silver basins” is preferred.

[1:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “knives.” The Hebrew noun מַחֲלָפִים (makhalafim, “knives”) is found only here in the OT. While the basic meaning of the term is fairly clear, what it refers to here is unclear. The verb II חָלַף (khalaf) means “to pass through” (BDB 322 s.v. חָלַף) or “to cut through” (HALOT 321 s.v. II חלף; see also Judg 5:26; Job 20:24); thus, the lexicons suggest מַחֲלָפִים means “knives” (BDB 322 s.v. מַחֲלָף; HALOT 569 s.v. *מַחֲלָף). The related noun חֲלָפוֹת (khalafot, “knife”) is used in Mishnaic Hebrew (HALOT 321 s.v. II חלף), and חֲלִיפוֹת (khalifot, “knives”) appears in the Talmud. The noun appears in the cognate languages: Ugaritic khlpnm (“knives”; UT 19) and Syriac khalofta (“shearing knife”; HALOT 321 s.v. II חלף). The Vulgate translated it as “knives,” while the LXX understood it as referring to replacement pieces for the offering basins. The English translations render it variously; some following the Vulgate and others adopting the approach of the LXX: “knives” (KJV, NKJV, NRSV), “censers” (RSV), “duplicates” (NASV), “silver pans” (NIV), “bowls” (TEV), “other dishes” (CEV). Verse 11 lists these twenty-nine objects among the “gold and silver vessels” brought back to Jerusalem for temple worship. The translation above offers the intentionally ambiguous “silver utensils” (the term מַחֲלָפִים [“knives”] would hardly refer to “gold” items, but could refer to “silver items”).

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מִשְׁנִים (mishnim) is uncertain. The noun מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh) means “double, second” (BDB 1041 s.v.), “what is doubled, two-fold” (HALOT 650 s.v. מִשְׁנֶה 3). The translations reflect a diversity of approaches: “410 silver bowls of a second kind” (KJV, NASV, RSV margin), “410 other silver bowls” (NRSV) and “410 matching silver bowls” (NIV). BDB 1041 s.v. משׁנה 3.a suggests it was originally a numeral that was garbled in the transmission process, as reflected in the LXX: “two thousand” (so RSV: “two thousand four hundred and ten bowls of silver”). The BHS editor suggests revocalizing the term to מְשֻׁנִים (mÿshunim, “changed”).

[1:11]  ²⁶ sn The total number as given in the MT does not match the numbers given for the various items in v. 9. It is not clear whether the difference is due to error in textual transmission or whether the constituent items mentioned are only a selection from a longer list, in which case the total from that longer list may have been retained. The numbers provided in 1 Esdras come much closer to agreeing with the number in Ezra 1:9-11, but this does not necessarily mean that 1 Esdras has been better preserved here than Ezra. 1 Esdras 2:13-15 (RSV) says, “The number of these was: a thousand gold cups, a thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censures, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred and ten silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, and they were carried back by Shesbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.”

[52:18]  ²⁷ sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.

[52:18]  ²⁸ sn These trimming shears were used to trim the wicks of the lamps.

[52:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “with which they served (or “fulfilled their duty”).”

[52:19]  ³⁰ sn The censers held the embers used for the incense offerings.

[52:19]  ³¹ sn These vessels were used for drink offerings.

[5:2]  ³² tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ³³ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ³⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ³⁶ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[5:3]  ³⁷ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

[5:3]  ³⁸ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”

[5:23]  ³⁹ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”