Ezra 5

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The building resumes

¹ Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and in Jerusalem, in the name of the Elah of Israel, who was over them. ² Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to build the house of Elah which is in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of Elah, helping them.

³ At that time Tattenai the governor beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and their companions came to them and said this to them: "Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?" ⁴ Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were constructing this building. ⁵ But the eye of their Elah was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not make them cease until a report should go to Darius, and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.

Tattenai's letter to Darius

⁶ This is the copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and his companions, the envoys who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king. ⁷ They sent a report to him, in which was written thus: "To Darius the king, all peace. ⁸ Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great Elah. It is being built with great stones, and timber is being laid in the walls; and this work is being done diligently and is prospering in their hands. ⁹ Then we asked those elders and said to them thus: 'Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?' ¹⁰ We also asked them their names, to inform you, that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head. ¹¹ And this is the answer they returned to us: 'We are the servants of the Elah of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. ¹² But because our fathers provoked the Elah of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away to Babylon. ¹³ However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of Elah. ¹⁴ And also the vessels of gold and silver of the house of Elah, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. ¹⁵ And he told him to take these vessels, to go and deposit them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and to let the house of Elah be rebuilt on its site. ¹⁶ Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of Elah which is in Jerusalem; and from that time until now it has been under construction, and it is not yet finished.'

¹⁷ Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king's treasure house there in Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was made by Cyrus the king to build this house of Elah in Jerusalem; and let the king send us his pleasure concerning this."

Notes

• 5:1 Haggai's first word is dated in the sixth month of the second year of Darius, about 520 BC, and Zechariah began two months later (Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1). Haggai rebuked the people for living in their own paneled houses while the house of Yahweh lay in ruins (Haggai 1:4). Zechariah 1:1 calls Zechariah "the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo"; here he is named after his grandfather, Iddo, the head of a priestly family (Nehemiah 12:4, 16), since "son" can mean descendant.
• 5:3 A Babylonian tablet dated in the twentieth year of Darius (502 BC) names Tattannu, governor of "Across the River," probably this same official. He acted as a careful Persian officer: he did not stop the work, but asked for the facts and wrote to the king (verses 5-17). In verse 4 the Aramaic says "we," as if the writer were one of the builders; the ancient Greek translation has "they," and many Bibles follow it.
• 5:5 "The eye of their Elah was upon" them is Yahweh's watchful care: "For the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). Ezra will speak in the same way of "the hand" of his Elohim upon him (7:6, 9, 28; 8:22).
• 5:12 Before a Persian official the elders confess that the house fell because of their fathers' sin, not because their Elah was weak; it is the same reading of history as 2 Chronicles 36:16-17, where Yahweh "brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans."
• 5:16 Ezra 3:8-10 tells of the foundation laid under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and Zechariah says, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house" (Zechariah 4:9). Here the elders name Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah who brought the vessels back (1:8, 11) and whom Cyrus had made governor (verse 14), perhaps because his name stood in the king's own records. Some think Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel are the same man; most think they were two leaders, and the text does not settle it.

Ezra 4 · Ezra 6

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