Ezra 5:4

5:4 They ¹  also asked them, “What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?”

Ezra 4:8

4:8 Rehum the commander ²  and Shimshai the scribe ³  wrote a letter concerning ⁴  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

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 6:13

The Temple Is Finally Dedicated

6:13 Then Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues acted accordingly – with precision, just as Darius the king had given instructions. ⁵ 

Ezra 5:11

5:11 They responded to us in the following way: ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the temple which was previously built many years ago. A great king ⁶  of Israel built it and completed it.

¹ tc The translation reads with one medieval Hebrew MS, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitta אֲמַרוּ (’amaru, “they said”) rather than the reading אֲמַרְנָא (’amarna’, “we said”) of the MT.

² tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

³ sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “against.”

³ tn Aram “sent.”

⁴ sn This great king of Israel would, of course, be Solomon.