Ezra 5:5

5:5 But God was watching over ¹  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ²  until a report could be dispatched ³  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

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 ⁴  on it, and his house is to be reduced ⁵  to a rubbish heap ⁶  for this indiscretion. ⁷ 

[5:5]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Aram “they did not stop them.”

[5:5]  ³ tn Aram “[could] go.” On this form see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 58, §169.

[6:11]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ⁶ tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ⁷ tn Aram “for this.”