1 And prophesied have the prophets, (Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah son of Iddo) unto the Jews who `are' in Judah and in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel -- unto them.
And he answereth and speaketh unto me, saying: `This `is' a word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by a force, nor by power, But -- by My Spirit, said Jehovah of Hosts. Who `art' thou, O great mountain Before Zerubbabel -- for a plain! And he hath brought forth the top-stone, Cries of Grace, grace -- `are' to it.' And there is a word of Jehovah to me, saying, Hands of Zerubbabel did found this house, And his hands do finish it, And thou hast known that Jehovah of Hosts Hath sent me unto you. For who trampled on the day of small things, They have rejoiced, And seen the tin weight in the hand of Zerubbabel, These seven `are' the eyes of Jehovah, They are going to and fro in all the land.'
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, hath a word of Jehovah been unto Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying: `Jehovah was wroth against your fathers -- wrath! And thou hast said unto them, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, turn back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I turn back unto you, said Jehovah of Hosts. Ye shall not be as your fathers, To whom the former prophets called, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Turn back I pray you, From your evil ways and from your evil doings, And they did not hearken, Nor attend to Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah. Your fathers -- where `are' they? And the prophets -- to the age do they live? Only, My words, and My statutes, That I commanded My servants the prophets, Have they not overtaken your fathers, And they turn back and say: As Jehovah of Hosts designed to do to us, According to our ways, and according to our doings, So He hath done to us?' On the twenty and fourth day of the eleventh month, (it `is' the month of Sebat,) in the second year of Darius, hath a word of Jehovah been unto Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying: I have seen by night, and lo, one riding on a red horse, and he is standing between the myrtles that `are' in the shade, and behind him `are' horses, red, bay, and white. And I say, `What `are' these, my lord?' And the messenger who is speaking with me saith unto me, `I -- I do shew thee what these `are'.' And the one who is standing between the myrtles doth answer and say, `These `are' they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk up and down in the land.' And they answer the messenger of Jehovah who is standing between the myrtles, and say, `We have walked up and down in the land, and lo, all the land is sitting still, and at rest.' And the messenger of Jehovah answereth and saith, `Jehovah of Hosts! till when dost Thou not pity Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, that Thou hast abhorred these seventy years?' And Jehovah answereth the messenger, who is speaking with me, good words, comfortable words. And the messenger who is speaking with me, saith unto me, `Call, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: I have been zealous for Jerusalem, and for Zion `with' great zeal. And `with' great wrath I am wroth against the nations who are at ease, For I was a little wroth, and they assisted -- for evil. Therefore, thus said Jehovah: I have turned to Jerusalem with mercies, My house is built in it, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And a line is stretched over Jerusalem. Again call, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Again do my cities overflow from good, And Jehovah hath again comforted Zion, And He hath fixed again on Jerusalem.' And I lift up mine eyes, and look, and lo, four horns. And I say unto the messenger who is speaking with me, `What `are' these?' And he saith unto me, `These `are' the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.' And Jehovah doth shew me four artizans. And I say, `What `are' these coming in to do?' And He speaketh, saying: `These `are' the horns that have scattered Judah, so that no one hath lifted up his head, and these come in to trouble them, to cast down the horns of the nations who are lifting up a horn against the land of Judah -- to scatter it.'
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Commentary on Ezra 5 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The Building of the Temple Continued, and Notice Thereof Sent to King Darius - Ezra 5
In the second year of Darius Hystaspis (Darajavus Vi
“The prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel upon them.” חתנבּי without א , which this word occasionally loses in Hebrew also, comp. 1 Samuel 10:6, 1 Samuel 10:13; Jeremiah 26:9. The epithet נביּאה added to the name of Haggai serves to distinguish him from others of the same name, and as well as הנּביא , Hagg. Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:3, Haggai 1:12, and elsewhere, is used instead of the name of his father; hence, after Zechariah is named, the prophets, as designating the position of both, can follow. על־יהוּדיא , they prophesied to (not against) the Jews; על as in Ezekiel 37:4, = אל , Ezekiel 37:9; Ezekiel 36:1. The Jews in Judah and Jerusalem , in contradistinction to Jews dwelling elsewhere, especially to those who had remained in Babylon. עליהון belongs to אלהּ בּשׁם , in the name of God, who was upon them, who was come upon them, had manifested Himself to them. Comp. Jeremiah 15:16.
Ezra 5:2
“Then rose up Zerubbabel ... and Joshua ... and began to build the house of God at Jerusalem, and with them the prophets of God helping them.” The beginning to build is (Ezra 3:6, etc.) the commencement of the building properly so called, upon the foundations laid, Ezra 3:10; for what was done after this foundation-laying till a stop was put to the work, was so unimportant that no further notice is taken of it. The “prophets of God” are those mentioned Ezra 5:1, viz., Haggai, and Zechariah the son, i.e., grandson, of Iddo, for his father's name was Berechiah (see Introd. to Zechariah). Haggai entered upon his work on the first day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius; and his first address made such an impression, that Zerubbabel and Joshua with the people set about the intermitted work of building as early as the twenty-fourth day of the same month (comp. Haggai 1:1 and Haggai 1:14.). Two months later, viz., in the eighth month of the same year, Zechariah began to exhort the people to turn sincerely to the Lord their God, and not to relapse into the sins of their fathers.
When the building was recommenced, the governor on this side Euphrates, and other royal officials, evidently informed of the undertaking by the adversaries of the Jews, made their appearance for the purpose of investigating matters on the spot. עליהון אתּה , came to them, to the two above-named rulers of the community at Jerusalem. Tatnai (lxx Θανθαναΐ́ ) was פּחה , viceroy, in the provinces west of Euphrates, i.e., as correctly expanded in 1 Esdras, of Syria and Phoenicia, to which Judaea with its Pecha Zerubbabel was subordinate. With him came Shethar-Boznai, perhaps his secretary, and their companions, their subordinates. The royal officials inquired: “Who has commanded you to build this house, and to finish this wall?” The form לבנא here and Ezra 5:13 is remarkable, the infinitive in Chaldee being not בנא , but מבנא ; compare Ezra 5:2, Ezra 5:17, and Ezra 6:8. Norzi has both times לבּנא , as through the Dagesh forte were compensating for an omitted . מ אשּׁרנא which occurs only here and Ezra 5:9, is variously explained. The Vulgate, the Syriac, and also the Rabbins, translate: these walls. This meaning best answers to the context, and is also linguistically the most correct. It can hardly, however, be derived (Gesenius) from אשׁר , but rather from אשׁן , in Chaldee אשׁוּן , firm, strong-walls as the strength or firmness of the building. The form אשּׁרנא has arisen from אשׁנּא , and is analogous to the form בּשׁנה .
(Note: The interpretations of the lxx, τὴν χορηγίαν ταύτην , meaning these building materials, and of 1 Esdr. 6:4, τὴν στέγην ταύτην καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα , this roof and all besides, for which Bertheau decides, without considering that שׁכלל may mean to complete, and not to prepare for anything, are but conjectures.)
Ezra 5:4
Then told we them after this manner ( כּנמא , Ezra 4:8), what were the names of the men who were building this building. From אמרנא , we said, it is obvious that the author of this account was an eye-witness of, and sharer in, the work of building. These is not a shadow of reason for altering אמרנא into אמרוּ , or into the participle אמרין (Ew., Berth., and others); the εἴποσαν of the lxx being no critical authority for so doing. The answer in Ezra 5:4 seems not to correspond with the question in Ezra 5:3. The royal officials asked, Who had commanded them to build? The Jews told them the names of those who had undertaken and were conducting the building. But this incongruity between the question and answer is merely caused by the fact that the discussion is reported only by a short extract restricted to the principal subjects. We learn that this is the case from the contents of the letter sent by the officials to the king. According to these, the royal functionary inquired not merely concerning the author of the command to build, but asked also the names of those who were undertaking the work (comp. Ezra 5:9 and Ezra 5:10); while the rulers of the Jews gave a circumstantial answer to both questions (Ezra 5:11-15).
Ezra 5:5
Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai had power to prohibit them from proceeding; they allowed them, however, to go on with their work till the arrival of an answer from the king, to whom they had furnished a written report of the matter. In these dealings, the historian sees a proof of the divine protection which was watching over the building. “The eye of their God was over the elders of the Jews, that they should not restrain them (from building) till the matter came to Darius; and they should then receive a letter concerning this matter.” Bertheau incorrectly translates יהך לד עד־טעמא : until the command of King Darius should arrive. ל is only used as a paraphrase of the genitive in statements of time; otherwise the genitive, if not expressed by the status construc. , is designated by דּ or דּי . יהך , fut. Peal of הלך , formed by the rejection of ל , construed with ל , signifies to go to a place (comp. Ezra 7:13), or to come to a person. טעמא ( טעם ) does not here mean commandment, but the matter, causa , which the king is to decide; just as פּתגּן , Ezra 6:11, means thing, res . The clause יתיבוּן ואדין still depends upon עד : and till they (the royal officials) then receive a letter, i.e., obtain a decision.
In Ezra 5:6-17 follows the letter which the royal officials sent to the king. Ezra 5:6 and Ezra 5:7 form the introduction to this document, and correspond with Ezra 5:8-11 in Ezra 4. Copy of the letter (comp. Ezra 4:11) which Tatnai, etc., sent. The senders of the letter are, besides Tatnai, Shethar-Boznai and his companions the Apharsachites, the same called Ezra 4:9 the Apharsathchites, who perhaps, as a race specially devoted to the Persian king, took a prominent position among the settlers in Syria, and may have formed the royal garrison. After this general announcement of the letter, follows the more precise statement: They sent the matter to him; and in it was written, To King Darius, much peace. פּתגּן here is not command, but matter; see above. כלּא , its totality, is unconnected with, yet dependent on שׁלמא : peace in all things, in every respect. The letter itself begins with a simple representation of the state of affairs (Ezra 5:8): “We went into the province of Judaea, to the house of the great God (for so might Persian officials speak of the God of Israel, after what they had learned from the elders of Judah of the edict of Cyrus), and it is being built with freestone, and timber is laid in the walls; and this work is being diligently carried on, and is prospering under their hands.” The placing of wood in the walls refers to building beams into the wall for flooring; for the building was not so far advanced as to make it possible that this should be said of covering the walls with wainscotting. The word אספּרנא here, and Ezra 6:8, Ezra 6:12-13; Ezra 7:17, Ezra 7:21, Ezra 7:26, is of Aryan origin, and is explained by Haug in Ew. Janro . v. p. 154, from the Old-Persian us - parna , to mean: carefully or exactly finished-a meaning which suits all these passages.
Hereupon the royal officials asked the elders of the Jews who had commanded them to build, and inquired concerning their names, that they might write to the king the names of the leading men (see the remark on 3 and 41). בראשׁהם דּי does not mean, who are at the head of them: but, who act in the capacity of heads.
The answer of the elders of the Jews. They returned us answer in the following manner ( לממר = לאמר ): “We are His, the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house which was built many years ago; and a great king of Israel built and completed it.” דּנה מקּדמת , of before this, i.e., before the present; to which is added the more precise definition: many years (accusative of time), i.e., many years before the present time.
For this reason ( להן ), because ( מן־דּי = מאשׁר , e.g., Isaiah 43:4) our fathers provoked the God of heaven, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, and he (Nebuch.) destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon. For כּסדּיא the Keri requires כּסדּאה , the ordinary form of the absolute state of the noun in ai . סתר , Pael, in the sense of destroy, appears only here in biblical Chaldee, but more frequently in the Targums. עמּה , its people, would refer to the town of Jerusalem; but Norzi and J. H. Mich. have עמּהּ , and the Masora expressly says that the word is to be written without Mappik, and is therefore the stat. emphat . for עמּא .
In the first year, however, of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus made a decree, etc.; comp. Ezra 1:3. The infin. לבנא like Ezra 5:3. - On Ezra 5:14 and Ezra 5:15, comp. Ezra 1:7-11. ויחיבוּ , praeter. pass. of Peal; they were given to one Sheshbazzar, (is) his name, i.e., to one of the name of Sheshbazzar, whom he had made pechah. Zerubbabel is also called פּחה , Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:14, and elsewhere.
Take these vessels, go forth, place them in the temple. For אלּה the Keri reads אל , according to 1 Chronicles 20:8. אחת is imperat. Aphel of נחת . The three imperatives succeed each other without any copula in this rapid form of expression. The last sentence, ”and let the house of God be built in its place,” i.e., be rebuilt in its former place, gives the reason for the command to deposit the vessels in the temple at Jerusalem, i.e., in the house of God, which is to be rebuilt in its former place.
In virtue of this command of Cyrus, this Sheshbazzar came (from Babylon to Jerusalem), and laid then the foundations of the house of God, and from that time till now it has been building, and is not (yet) finished. שׁלים , part. pass. of שׁלם , often used in the Targums and in Syriac for the Hebrew תּמם ; hence in Daniel 5:26 the Aphel, in the meaning of to finish, and Ezekiel 7:19, to restore. This statement does not exclude the cessation from building from the last year of Cyrus to the second of Darius, narrated Ezra 4-6:7, as Bertheau and others suppose, but only leaves the unmentioned circumstance which had been the cause of the delay. If the section Ezra 4:6-23 does not refer to the building of the temple, then neither is a “forcible interruption” of the building spoken of in Ezra 4; but it is only said that the adversaries frustrated the purpose of the Jews to rebuild the temple till the time of Darius, and weakened the hands of the people, so that the work of the house of God ceased.
After thus representing the state of affairs, the royal officials request Darius to cause a search to be made among the archives of the kingdom, as to whether a decree made by Cyrus for the erection of the temple at Jerusalem was to be found therein, and then to communicate to them his decision concerning the matter. “And if it seem good to the king, let search be made in the king's treasure-house there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king.” על טב הן , like the Hebrew על טּוב אם , Esther 1:19, for which in older Hebrew לו טּוב , Deuteronomy 23:17, or בּעינים טוב , Genesis 19:8; Judges 10:15, and elsewhere, is used. גּזיּא בּית , house of the treasure, more definitely called, Ezra 6:1, house of the rolls, where also the royal treasures were deposited. Hence it is obvious that important documents and writings were preserved in the royal treasury. תּמּה , there, is explained by ”which at Babylon.” רעוּת , chald. voluntas , comp. Ezra 7:18. Concerning the behaviour of these officials Brentius well remarks: vides differentiam inter calumniatores et bonos ac probos viros. Una eademque causa erat aedificii templi, unus idemque populus Judaeorum; attamen hujus populi causa aliter refertur ab impiis calumniatoribus, aliter a bonis viris .