Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ¹  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ²  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ³  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ⁴  feet, ⁵ 

Ezra 6:5

6:5 Furthermore let the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar brought from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, be returned and brought to their proper place in the temple in Jerusalem. Let them be deposited in the temple of God.’

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 ⁶  on it, and his house is to be reduced ⁷  to a rubbish heap ⁸  for this indiscretion. ⁹ 

Ezra 4:24

4:24 So the work on the temple of God in Jerusalem came to a halt. It remained halted until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia. ¹⁰ 

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, ¹¹  King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God.

Ezra 5:15-16

5:15 He said to him, “Take these vessels and go deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt in its proper location.” ¹²  5:16 Then this Sheshbazzar went and laid the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. From that time to the present moment ¹³  it has been in the process of being rebuilt, although it is not yet finished.’

Ezra 6:1

Darius Issues a Decree

6:1 So Darius the king issued orders, and they searched in the archives ¹⁴  of the treasury which were deposited there in Babylon.

Ezra 6:4

6:4 with three layers of large stones ¹⁵  and one ¹⁶  layer of timber. The expense is to be subsidized ¹⁷  by the royal treasury. ¹⁸ 

Ezra 6:15-16

6:15 They finished this temple on the third day of the month Adar, which is the sixth ¹⁹  year of the reign of King Darius.

6:16 The people ²⁰  of Israel – the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles ²¹  – observed the dedication of this temple of God with joy.

Ezra 7:16

7:16 along with all the silver and gold that you may collect ²²  throughout all the province of Babylon and the contributions of the people and the priests for the temple of their God which is in Jerusalem.

[6:3]  ¹ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

[6:3]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

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

[6:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[6:11]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ⁸ tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ⁹ tn Aram “for this.”

[4:24]  ¹¹ sn Darius I Hystaspes ruled Persia ca. 522–486 b.c.

[5:13]  ¹⁶ 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.

[5:15]  ²¹ tn Aram “upon its place.”

[5:16]  ²⁶ tn Aram “from then and until now.”

[6:1]  ³¹ tn Aram “the house of the archives.”

[6:4]  ³⁶ tn Aram “stones of rolling.”

[6:4]  ³⁷ tc The translation follows the LXX reading חַד (khad, “one”) rather than the MT חֲדַת (khadat, “new”). If the MT reading “new” is understood to mean freshly cut timber that has not yet been seasoned it would seem to be an odd choice for construction material.

[6:4]  ³⁸ tn Aram “let be given.”

[6:4]  ³⁹ tn Aram “house.”

[6:15]  ⁴¹ sn The sixth year of the reign of Darius would be ca. 516 B.C.

[6:16]  ⁴⁶ tn Aram “sons of.”

[6:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Aram “sons of the exile.”

[7:16]  ⁵¹ tn Aram “find.”