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! ¹ 

Ezra 5:3

5:3 At that time Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues came to them and asked, “Who gave you authority ²  to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?” ³ 

Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ⁴  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ⁵  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ⁶  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ⁷  feet, ⁸ 

Ezra 6:8

6:8 “I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work. ⁹ 

Ezra 6:11-12

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 ¹⁰  on it, and his house is to be reduced ¹¹  to a rubbish heap ¹²  for this indiscretion. ¹³  6:12 May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ¹⁴  who reaches out ¹⁵  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

Ezra 6:14

6:14 The elders of the Jews continued building and prospering, while at the same time ¹⁶  Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo continued prophesying. They built and brought it to completion by the command of the God of Israel and by the command of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Ezra 7:21

7:21 “I, King Artaxerxes, hereby issue orders to all the treasurers of ¹⁷  Trans-Euphrates, that you precisely execute all that Ezra the priestly scribe of the law of the God of heaven may request of you –

[4:17]  ¹ tn Aram “peace.”

[5:3]  ² tn Aram “who placed to you a command?” So also v. 9.

[5:3]  ³ tn The exact meaning of the Aramaic word אֻשַּׁרְנָא (’ussarna’) here and in v. 9 is uncertain (BDB 1083 s.v.). The LXX and Vulgate understand it to mean “wall.” Here it is used in collocation with בַּיְתָא (bayta’, “house” as the temple of God), while in 5:3, 9 it is used in parallelism with this term. It might be related to the Assyrian noun ashurru (“wall”) or ashru (“sanctuary”; so BDB). F. Rosenthal, who translates the word “furnishings,” thinks that it probably enters Aramaic from Persian (Grammar, 62-63, §189).

[6:3]  ³ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

[6:3]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

[6:3]  ⁶ tc The Syriac Peshitta reads “twenty cubits” here, a measurement probably derived from dimensions given elsewhere for Solomon’s temple. According to 1 Kgs 6:2 the dimensions of the Solomonic temple were as follows: length, 60 cubits; width, 20 cubits; height, 30 cubits. Since one would expect the dimensions cited in Ezra 6:3 to correspond to those of Solomon’s temple, it is odd that no dimension for length is provided. The Syriac has apparently harmonized the width dimension provided here (“twenty cubits”) to that given in 1 Kgs 6:2.

[6:3]  ⁷ tn Aram “Its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[6:8]  ⁴ tn The words “of the work” are not in the Aramaic, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:11]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ⁷ tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ⁸ tn Aram “for this.”

[6:12]  ⁶ tn Aram “people.”

[6:12]  ⁷ tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”

[6:14]  ⁷ tn Aram “in” or “by,” in the sense of accompaniment.

[7:21]  ⁸ tn Aram “who are in.”