Ezra 1:6

1:6 All their neighbors assisted ¹  them with silver utensils, ²  gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention ³  all the voluntary offerings.

Ezra 1:11

1:11 All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. ⁴  Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 6:20

6:20 The priests and the Levites had purified themselves, every last one, ⁵  and they all were ceremonially pure. They sacrificed the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their colleagues ⁶  the priests, and for themselves.

Ezra 10:8

10:8 Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

[1:6]  ¹ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

[1:6]  ² tc The MT reads בִּכְלֵי־כֶסֶף (bikhley khesef, “with silver vessels”). However, part of the LXX manuscript tradition reads ἐν πᾶσιν ἀργυρίῳ (en pasin arguriw), which reflects an alternate Hebrew reading of בַּכֹּל־בַּכֶּסֶף (bakkol-bakkesef, “everywhere, with silver”). The textual variant involves (1) simple omission of yod (י) between two words, a common scribal mistake; (2) haplography of the preposition bet (בּ); and (3) an alternate vocalization tradition of the first term.

[1:6]  ³ tn Heb “besides” or “in addition to.”

[1:11]  ⁴ 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.”

[6:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “as one.” The expression is best understood as referring to the unity shown by the religious leaders in preparing themselves for the observance of Passover. On the meaning of the Hebrew phrase see DCH 1:182 s.v. אֶחָד 3b. See also HALOT 30 s.v. אֶחָד 5.

[6:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “brothers.”