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 7:26

7:26 Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely ⁴  liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.”

Ezra 9:1

A Prayer of Ezra

9:1 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents ⁵  who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

Ezra 10:17

10:17 and on the first day of the first month they finished considering all the men who had married foreign wives.

Ezra 6:2

6:2 A scroll was found in the citadel ⁶  of Ecbatana which is in the province of Media, and it was inscribed as follows:

“Memorandum:

Ezra 4:3

4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ⁷  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 5:17

5:17 “Now if the king is so inclined, ⁸  let a search be conducted in the royal archives ⁹  there in Babylon in order to determine whether King Cyrus did in fact issue orders for this temple of God to be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us a decision concerning this matter.”

Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ¹⁰  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ¹¹  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ¹²  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ¹³  feet, ¹⁴ 

Ezra 4:8

4:8 Rehum the commander ¹⁵  and Shimshai the scribe ¹⁶  wrote a letter concerning ¹⁷  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

Ezra 4:14

4:14 In light of the fact that we are loyal to the king, ¹⁸  and since it does not seem appropriate to us that the king should sustain damage, ¹⁹  we are sending the king this information ²⁰ 

Ezra 7:14

7:14 You are authorized ²¹  by the king and his seven advisers to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your possession, ²² 

Ezra 7:23-24

7:23 Everything that the God of heaven has required should be precisely done for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath ²³  against the empire of the king and his sons? 7:24 Furthermore, be aware of the fact ²⁴  that you have no authority to impose tax, tribute, or toll on any of the priests, the Levites, the musicians, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or the attendants at the temple of this God.

Ezra 2:61

2:61 And from among ²⁵  the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, and the descendants of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that ²⁶  name).

Ezra 4:15

4:15 so that he may initiate a search of the records ²⁷  of his predecessors ²⁸  and discover in those records ²⁹  that this city is rebellious ³⁰  and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts ³¹  from long ago. ³²  It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed.

Ezra 6:8

6:8 “I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work. ³³ 

Ezra 8:2

8:2 from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom;

from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel;

from the descendants of David, Hattush

[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.

[7:26]  ⁴ tn On the meaning of this word see HALOT 1820-21 s.v. אָסְפַּרְנָא; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 14.

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.” So also in v. 2.

[6:2]  ⁶ tc The translation reads בִירְתָא (birta’, citadel”) rather than the reading בְּבִירְתָא (bÿvireta’, “in the citadel”) found in the MT. The MT probably experienced dittography here.

[4:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

[5:17]  ⁸ tn Aram “if upon the king it is good.”

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Aram “the house of the treasures of the king.”

[6:3]  ¹⁰ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

[6:3]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:3]  ¹² tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

[6:3]  ¹³ tc The Syriac Peshitta reads “twenty cubits” here, a measurement probably derived from dimensions given elsewhere for Solomon’s temple. According to 1 Kgs 6:2 the dimensions of the Solomonic temple were as follows: length, 60 cubits; width, 20 cubits; height, 30 cubits. Since one would expect the dimensions cited in Ezra 6:3 to correspond to those of Solomon’s temple, it is odd that no dimension for length is provided. The Syriac has apparently harmonized the width dimension provided here (“twenty cubits”) to that given in 1 Kgs 6:2.

[6:3]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “Its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[4:8]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

[4:8]  ¹⁶ 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.

[4:8]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps “against.”

[4:14]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “we eat the salt of the palace.”

[4:14]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “the dishonor of the king is not fitting for us to see.”

[4:14]  ²⁰ tn Aram “and we have made known.”

[7:14]  ²¹ tn Aram “sent.”

[7:14]  ²² tn Aram “in your hand.”

[7:23]  ²³ tn The Aramaic word used here for “wrath” (קְצַף, qÿtsaf; cf. Heb קָצַף, qatsaf) is usually used in the Hebrew Bible for God’s anger as opposed to human anger (but contra Eccl 5:17 [MT 5:16]; Esth 1:18; 2 Kgs 3:27). The fact that this word is used in v. 23 may have theological significance, pointing to the possibility of divine judgment if the responsible parties should fail to make available these provisions for the temple.

[7:24]  ²⁴ tn Aram “we are making known to you.”

[2:61]  ²⁵ tc The translation reads וּמִן (umin, “and from”) rather than the reading וּמִבּנֵי (umibbÿney, “and from the sons of”) found in the MT.

[2:61]  ²⁶ tn Heb “their.”

[4:15]  ²⁷ tn Aram “the book of the minutes.”

[4:15]  ²⁸ tn Aram “of your fathers.”

[4:15]  ²⁹ tn Aram “discover…and learn.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.

[4:15]  ³⁰ tn Aram “is a rebellious city.”

[4:15]  ³¹ tn Aram “revolts they are making in its midst.”

[4:15]  ³² tn Aram “from olden days.” So also in v. 19.

[6:8]  ³³ tn The words “of the work” are not in the Aramaic, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.