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 ¹  to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?” ² 

Ezra 5:5

5:5 But God was watching over ³  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ⁴  until a report could be dispatched ⁵  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

Ezra 5:16

5:16 Then this Sheshbazzar went and laid the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. From that time to the present moment ⁶  it has been in the process of being rebuilt, although it is not yet finished.’

Ezra 7:26

7:26 Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely ⁷  liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.”

[5:3]  ¹ tn Aram “who placed to you a command?” So also v. 9.

[5:3]  ² 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).

[5:5]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Aram “they did not stop them.”

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

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Aram “from then and until now.”

[7:26]  ⁷ tn On the meaning of this word see HALOT 1820-21 s.v. אָסְפַּרְנָא; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 14.