Ezra 5:1-7

Tattenai Appeals to Darius

5:1 Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son ¹  of Iddo ²  prophesied concerning the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem ³  in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. 5:2 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak began ⁴  to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

5:3 At that time Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues came to them and asked, “Who gave you authority ⁵  to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?” ⁶  5:4 They ⁷  also asked them, “What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?” 5:5 But God was watching over ⁸  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ⁹  until a report could be dispatched ¹⁰  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

5:6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and his colleagues who were the officials of Trans-Euphrates sent to King Darius. 5:7 The report they sent to him was written as follows: ¹¹ 

“To King Darius: All greetings! ¹² 

[5:1]  ¹ tn Aram “son.” According to Zech 1:1 he was actually the grandson of Iddo.

[5:1]  ² tn Aram “and Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo the prophet.”

[5:1]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ⁴ tn Aram “arose and began.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

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

[5:3]  ⁶ 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).

[5:4]  ⁷ tc The translation reads with one medieval Hebrew MS, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta אֲמַרוּ (’amaru, “they said”) rather than the reading אֲמַרְנָא (’amarna’, “we said”) of the MT.

[5:5]  ⁸ tn Aram “the eye of their God was on.” The idiom describes the attentive care that one exercises in behalf of the object of his concern.

[5:5]  ⁹ tn Aram “they did not stop them.”

[5:5]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “[could] go.” On this form see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 58, §169.

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn Aram “and it was written in its midst.”

[5:7]  ¹² tn Aram “all peace.”