Ezra 4:1

Opposition to the Building Efforts

4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin learned that the former exiles ¹  were building a temple for the Lord God of Israel,

Ezra 4:10

4:10 and the rest of nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal ²  deported and settled in the cities ³  of Samaria and other places in Trans-Euphrates. ⁴ 

Ezra 5:1

Tattenai Appeals to Darius

5:1 Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son ⁵  of Iddo ⁶  prophesied concerning the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem ⁷  in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.

Ezra 5:15

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.” ⁸ 

Ezra 7:16

7:16 along with all the silver and gold that you may collect ⁹  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.

Ezra 8:18

8:18 Due to the fact that the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a skilled man, from the descendants of Mahli the son of Levi son of Israel. This man was Sherebiah, ¹⁰  who was accompanied by his sons and brothers, ¹¹  18 men,

Ezra 8:26

8:26 I weighed out to them ¹²  650 talents of silver, silver vessels worth 100 talents, ¹³  100 talents of gold,

Ezra 8:28

8:28 Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of the exile.”

[4:10]  ² tn Aram “Osnappar” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), another name for Ashurbanipal.

[4:10]  sn Ashurbanipal succeeded his father Esarhaddon as king of Assyria in 669 B.C. Around 645 B.C. he sacked the city of Susa, capital of Elam, and apparently some of these people were exiled to Samaria and other places.

[4:10]  ³ tc The translation reads with the ancient versions the plural בְּקֻרְיַהּ (bÿquryah, “in the cities”) rather than the singular (“in the city”) of the MT.

[4:10]  ⁴ tn Aram “beyond the river.” In Ezra this term is a technical designation for the region west of the Euphrates river.

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

[5:1]  ⁶ tn Aram “and Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo the prophet.”

[5:1]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:15]  ⁸ tn Aram “upon its place.”

[7:16]  ⁹ tn Aram “find.”

[8:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Sherebiah.” The words “this man was” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[8:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “relatives” (so CEV; NRSV “kin”); also in v. 19.

[8:26]  ¹² tn Heb “upon their hand.”

[8:26]  ¹³ tn Possibly “100 silver vessels worth [?] talents” or “silver vessels weighing 100 talents.”