Ezra 4:8-9

4:8 Rehum the commander ¹  and Shimshai the scribe ²  wrote a letter concerning ³  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows: 4:9 From ⁴  Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues – the judges, the rulers, the officials, the secretaries, the Erechites, the Babylonians, the people of Susa (that is, ⁵  the Elamites),

Ezra 4:19

4:19 So I gave orders, ⁶  and it was determined ⁷  that this city from long ago has been engaging in insurrection against kings. It has continually engaged in ⁸  rebellion and revolt.

Ezra 4:21

4:21 Now give orders that these men cease their work and that this city not be rebuilt until such time as I so instruct. ⁹ 

Ezra 5:9

5:9 We inquired of those elders, asking them, ‘Who gave you the authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?’

Ezra 5:13

5:13 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, ¹⁰  King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God.

Ezra 6:1

Darius Issues a Decree

6:1 So Darius the king issued orders, and they searched in the archives ¹¹  of the treasury which were deposited there in Babylon.

Ezra 7:13

7:13 I have now issued a decree ¹²  that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel – even the priests and Levites – who wishes to do so may go up with you to Jerusalem. ¹³ 

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! ¹⁴ 

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 ¹⁵  to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?” ¹⁶ 

Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ¹⁷  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ¹⁸  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ¹⁹  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ²⁰  feet, ²¹ 

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. ²² 

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 ²³  on it, and his house is to be reduced ²⁴  to a rubbish heap ²⁵  for this indiscretion. ²⁶  6:12 May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ²⁷  who reaches out ²⁸  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 ²⁹  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 ³⁰  Trans-Euphrates, that you precisely execute all that Ezra the priestly scribe of the law of the God of heaven may request of you –

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 ³¹  against the empire of the king and his sons?

Ezra 5:17

5:17 “Now if the king is so inclined, ³²  let a search be conducted in the royal archives ³³  there in Babylon in order to determine whether King Cyrus did in fact issue orders for this temple of God to be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us a decision concerning this matter.”

[4:8]  ¹ tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

[4:8]  ² sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.

[4:8]  ³ tn Or perhaps “against.”

[4:9]  ⁴ tn Aram “then.” What follows in v. 9 seems to be the preface of the letter, serving to identify the senders of the letter. The word “from” is not in the Aramaic text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[4:9]  ⁵ tn For the qere of the MT (דֶּהָיֵא, dehaye’, a proper name) it seems better to retain the Kethib דִּהוּא (dihu’, “that is”). See F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 25, §35; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 36.

[4:19]  ⁷ tn Aram “from me was placed a decree.”

[4:19]  ⁸ tn Aram “and they searched and found.”

[4:19]  ⁹ tn Aram “are being done.”

[4:21]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “until a command is issued from me.”

[5:13]  ¹³ sn Cyrus was actually a Persian king, but when he conquered Babylon in 539 b.c. he apparently appropriated to himself the additional title “king of Babylon.” The Syriac Peshitta substitutes “Persia” for “Babylon” here, but this is probably a hyper-correction.

[6:1]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “the house of the archives.”

[7:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from me is placed a decree.” So also in v. 21.

[7:13]  ²⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:17]  ²² tn Aram “peace.”

[5:3]  ²⁵ tn Aram “who placed to you a command?” So also v. 9.

[5:3]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁸ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

[6:3]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:3]  ³⁰ tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

[6:3]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³¹ tn The words “of the work” are not in the Aramaic, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:11]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ³⁶ tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ³⁷ tn Aram “for this.”

[6:12]  ³⁷ tn Aram “people.”

[6:12]  ³⁸ tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”

[6:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Aram “in” or “by,” in the sense of accompaniment.

[7:21]  ⁴³ tn Aram “who are in.”

[7:23]  ⁴⁶ 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.

[5:17]  ⁴⁹ tn Aram “if upon the king it is good.”

[5:17]  ⁵⁰ tn Aram “the house of the treasures of the king.”