Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ¹  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ²  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ³  from the time ⁴  of King Esarhaddon ⁵  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁶ 

Ezra 8:22

8:22 I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy ⁷  along the way, because we had said to the king, “The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger ⁸  is against everyone who forsakes him.”

Ezra 9:6

9:6 I prayed, ⁹ 

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens.

Ezra 10:6

10:6 Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ¹⁰  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

Ezra 10:13

10:13 However, the people are numerous and it is the rainy season. ¹¹  We are unable to stand here outside. Furthermore, this business cannot be resolved in a day or two, for we have sinned greatly in this matter.

[4:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

[4:2]  ² tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

[4:2]  ³ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “days.”

[4:2]  ⁵ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

[4:2]  ⁶ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

[8:22]  ⁷ tn A number of modern translations regard this as a collective singular and translate “from enemies” (also in v. 31).

[8:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “his strength and his anger.” The expression is a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms).

[9:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “I said.”

[10:6]  ¹⁰ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the time [is] rain showers.”