Ezra 3:9-10

3:9 So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, ¹  Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Yehudah ² ), to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their relatives ³  the Levites. 3:10 When the builders established the Lord’s temple, the priests, ceremonially attired and with their clarions, ⁴  and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with their cymbals, stood to praise the Lord according to the instructions left by ⁵  King David of Israel. ⁶ 

Ezra 4:7

4:7 And during the reign ⁷  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ⁸  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ⁹  wrote to King Artaxerxes ¹⁰  of Persia. This letter ¹¹  was first written in Aramaic but then translated.

[Aramaic:] ¹² 

Ezra 4:15

4:15 so that he may initiate a search of the records ¹³  of his predecessors ¹⁴  and discover in those records ¹⁵  that this city is rebellious ¹⁶  and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts ¹⁷  from long ago. ¹⁸  It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed.

Ezra 4:17

4:17 The king sent the following response:

“To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! ¹⁹ 

Ezra 4:23

4:23 Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they proceeded promptly to the Jews in Jerusalem ²⁰  and stopped them with threat of armed force. ²¹ 

Ezra 6:11

6:11 “I hereby give orders that if anyone changes this directive a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled ²²  on it, and his house is to be reduced ²³  to a rubbish heap ²⁴  for this indiscretion. ²⁵ 

Ezra 6:17

6:17 For the dedication of this temple of God they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve male goats for the sin of all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

Ezra 7:17

7:17 With this money you should be sure to purchase bulls, rams, and lambs, along with the appropriate ²⁶  meal offerings and libations. You should bring them to the altar of the temple of your God which is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 7:23

7:23 Everything that the God of heaven has required should be precisely done for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath ²⁷  against the empire of the king and his sons?

Ezra 8:17

8:17 I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them ²⁸  what to say to Iddo and his relatives, ²⁹  who were the temple servants in ³⁰  Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God.

Ezra 8:31

8:31 On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ³¹  along the way.

Ezra 8:33

8:33 On the fourth day we weighed out the silver, the gold, and the vessels in the house of our God into the care ³²  of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest, and Eleazar son of Phinehas, who were accompanied by Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, who were Levites.

Ezra 8:35

8:35 The exiles who were returning from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel – twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs, along with twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

Ezra 9:15

9:15 O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt ³³  no one can really stand before you.”

Ezra 10:2

10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ³⁴  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ³⁵  foreign women from the local peoples. ³⁶  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ³⁷ 

Ezra 10:6

10:6 Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ³⁸  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

Ezra 10:9

10:9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin were gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. (It was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of that month.) All the people sat in the square at the temple of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.

[3:9]  ¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[3:9]  ² sn The name יְהוּדָה (Yehudah; cf. KJV, ASV, NASB “Judah”) is probably a variant of Hodaviah (see Ezra 2:40; cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “brothers.”

[3:10]  ⁴ sn This was a long, straight, metallic instrument used for signal calls, rather than the traditional ram’s horn (both instruments are typically translated “trumpet” by English versions).

[3:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to the hands of.”

[3:10]  ⁶ sn See Ps 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136:1. Cf. 2 Chr 5:13; 7:3; 20:21.

[4:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “And in the days.”

[4:7]  ⁸ tn The LXX understands this word as a prepositional phrase (“in peace”) rather than as a proper name (“Bishlam”). Taken this way it would suggest that Mithredath was “in agreement with” the contents of Tabeel’s letter. Some scholars regard the word in the MT to be a corruption of either “in Jerusalem” (i.e., “in the matter of Jerusalem”) or “in the name of Jerusalem.” The translation adopted above follows the traditional understanding of the word as a name.

[4:7]  ⁹ tc The translation reads the plural with the Qere rather than the singular found in the MT Kethib.

[4:7]  ¹⁰ sn Artaxerxes I ruled in Persia from ca. 465–425 b.c.

[4:7]  ¹¹ tc It is preferable to delete the MT’s וּכְתָב (ukhÿtav) here.

[4:7]  ¹² sn The double reference in v. 7 to the Aramaic language is difficult. It would not make sense to say that the letter was written in Aramaic and then translated into Aramaic. Some interpreters understand the verse to mean that the letter was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language, but this does not seem to give sufficient attention to the participle “translated” at the end of the verse. The second reference to Aramaic in the verse is more probably a gloss that calls attention to the fact that the following verses retain the Aramaic language of the letter in its original linguistic form. A similar reference to Aramaic occurs in Dan 2:4b, where the language of that book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12-26 are written in Aramaic, whereas the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

[4:15]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “the book of the minutes.”

[4:15]  ¹¹ tn Aram “of your fathers.”

[4:15]  ¹² tn Aram “discover…and learn.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

[4:15]  ¹³ tn Aram “is a rebellious city.”

[4:15]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “revolts they are making in its midst.”

[4:15]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “from olden days.” So also in v. 19.

[4:17]  ¹³ tn Aram “peace.”

[4:23]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “to Jerusalem against the Jews.”

[4:23]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “by force and power,” a hendiadys.

[6:11]  ¹⁹ sn The practice referred to in v. 11 has been understood in various ways: hanging (cf. 1 Esd 6:32 and KJV); flogging (cf. NEB, NLT); impalement (BDB 1091 s.v. זְקַף; HALOT 1914 s.v. מחא hitpe; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The latter seems the most likely.

[6:11]  ²⁰ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ²¹ tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ²² tn Aram “for this.”

[7:17]  ²² tn Aram “their meal offerings and their libations.”

[7:23]  ²⁵ tn The Aramaic word used here for “wrath” (קְצַף, qÿtsaf; cf. Heb קָצַף, qatsaf) is usually used in the Hebrew Bible for God’s anger as opposed to human anger (but contra Eccl 5:17 [MT 5:16]; Esth 1:18; 2 Kgs 3:27). The fact that this word is used in v. 23 may have theological significance, pointing to the possibility of divine judgment if the responsible parties should fail to make available these provisions for the temple.

[8:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I placed in their mouth words.”

[8:17]  ²⁹ tc The translation reads with the LXX and Vulgate וְאֶחָיו (vÿ’ekhayv, “and his brethren” = “relatives”; so NCV, NLT) rather than the reading אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”) of the MT.

[8:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the place called.” This phrase has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:31]  ³¹ tn Heb “from the hand of the enemy and the one who lies in wait.” Some modern English versions render the latter phrase as “ambushes” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[8:33]  ³⁴ tn Heb “upon the hand of.”

[9:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “this”; the referent (the guilt mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:2]  ⁴⁰ 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.

[10:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

[10:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[10:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “upon this.”

[10:6]  ⁴³ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.