EZRA 6 COMMENTARY EXPLORING THE DECREE OF CYRUS

EZRA 6 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
King Darius then issued an order, and they
searched in the archives stored in the treasury at
Babylon.
BAR ES, "A “house of the rolls” was discovered at Koyunjik, the ancient Nineveh, in
1850 - a set of chambers, i. e., in the palace devoted exclusively to the storing of public
documents. These were in baked clay, and covered the floor to the depth of more than a
foot. Such a “house” was probably that at Babylon.
CLARKE, "In the house of the rolls - ‫ספריא‬ ‫בית‬ beith siphraiya, the house of the
books, the king’s library. This is the first time we hear of a library.
GILL, "Then Darius the king made a decree,.... To make inquiry after the edict of
Cyrus, to search the public records for it:
and search was made in the house of the rolls; or "books" (r), in a public library
or museum:
where the treasures were laid up in Babylon; where things of worth and value
were reposited; not only gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones, and things rare and
curious, but all sorts of writings relating to the monarchy, and the dominions belonging
to it; but it seems it could not be found here, and therefore the king ordered search to be
made elsewhere.
(r) ‫ספריא‬ ‫,בבית‬ εν ταις βιβλιοθηκαις, Sept. "in bibliotheca", V. L. "in bibliotheca librorum",
Tigurine version; "in domo librorum", Pagninus, Montanus.
HE RY 1-5, "We have here, I. The decree of Cyrus for the building of the temple
repeated. To this the Samaritans referred because the Jews pleaded it, and perhaps
hoped it would not be found, and then their plea would be over-ruled and a stop put to
their work. Search was ordered to be made for it among the records; for, it seems, the
tribes had not taken care to provide themselves with an authentic copy of it, which might
have stood them in good stead, but they must appeal to the original. It was looked for in

Babylon (Ezr_6:1), where Cyrus was when he signed it. But, when it was not found there,
Darius did not make that a pretence to conclude that therefore there was no such decree,
and thereupon to give judgment against the Jews; but it is probable, having himself
heard that such a decree was certainly made, he ordered the rolls in other places to be
searched, and at length it was found at Achmetha, in the province of the Medes, Ezr_6:2.
Perhaps some that durst not destroy it, yet hid it there, out of ill will to the Jews, that
they might lose the benefit of it. But Providence so ordered that it came to light; and it is
here inserted, Ezr_6:3-5. 1. Here is a warrant for the building of the temple: Let the
house of God at Jerusalem, yea, let that house be built (so it may be read), within such
and such dimensions, and with such and such materials. 2. A warrant for the taking of
the expenses of the building out of the king's revenue, Ezr_6:4. We do not find that they
had received what was here ordered them, the face of things at court being soon
changed. 3. A warrant for the restoring of the vessels and utensils of the temple, which
Nebuchadnezzar had taken away (Ezr_6:5), with an order that the priests, the Lord's
ministers, should return them all to their places in the house of God.
JAMISO , "Ezr_6:1-12. Darius’ decree for advancing the building.
Darius the king — This was Darius Hystaspes. Great and interesting light has been
thrown on the history of this monarch and the transaction of his reign, by the
decipherment of the cuneatic inscriptions on the rocks at Behistun.
in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon — An
idea of the form of this Babylonian register house, as well as the manner of preserving
public records within its repositories, can be obtained from the discoveries at Nineveh.
Two small chambers were discovered in the palace of Koyunjik, which, from the
fragments found in them, Mr. Layard considers “as a house of the rolls.” After reminding
his readers that the historical records and public documents of the Assyrians were kept
on tablets and cylinders of baked clay, many specimens of which have been found, he
goes on to say, “The chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository in the
palace of Nineveh for such documents. To the height of a foot or more from the floor
they were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part broken into many
fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building. They were of
different sizes; the largest tablets were flat, and measured about nine inches by six and a
half inches; the smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long,
with but one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were
singularly sharp and well-defined, but so minute in some instances as to be almost
illegible without a magnifying glass. These documents appear to be of various kinds. The
documents that have thus been discovered in the house of rolls’ at Nineveh probably
exceed all that have yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt, and when the
innumerable fragments are put together and transcribed, the publication of these
records will be of the greatest importance to the history of the ancient world” [Nineveh
and Babylon].
K&D, "The decision of Darius. - Ezr_6:1-5. At the command of Darius, search was
made in the archives of the royal treasury; and in the fortress of Achmetha in Media, was
found the roll in which was recorded the edict published by Cyrus, concerning the
building of the temple at Jerusalem.
Ezr_6:1
Search was made in the house of the books where also the treasures were deposited in

Babylon. ‫ין‬ ִ‫ת‬ ֲ‫ח‬ ַ‫ה‬ ְ‫,מ‬ partic. Aphel of ‫ת‬ ָ‫ח‬ְ‫;נ‬ see Ezr_5:15.
BE SO , "Ezra 6:1. Then Darius the king made a decree — To search the rolls in
Babylon, where search was fairly made; but not finding the edict there, they
searched in Achmetha, or Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medes and Persians, and
found it there. As Darius, the better to fortify his title to the crown, had married two
of the daughters of Cyrus, he thought himself concerned to do every thing which
might tend to the honour of that great prince, and therefore more readily confirmed
the decree which he had granted to the Jews.
COFFMA , "THE SECO D TEMPLE WAS COMPLETED A D DEDICATED
"Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the
archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at
Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, a roll, and therein was thus
written for a record: in the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a
decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be builded, the
place where they offer sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid;
the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; with
three courses of great stones, a course of new timber: and let the expenses be given
out of the king's house. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God,
which ebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and
brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at
Jerusalem, every one to its place; and thou shalt put them in the house of God."
"In the house of the archives where the treasures were stored up" (Ezra 6:1). This
verse is another example of scholarly tampering with the sacred text in order to
make it say what the scholars suppose it SHOULD have said. The RSV renders this
line, "in the house of the archives where the documents were stored"; but Bowman
rejects this as "unnecessary,"[1] because archaeological discoveries have proved
that such decrees were kept in the same vaults where the treasures were also kept.
It is to Darius' great credit that when Cyrus' decree was not found in Babylon, he
did not abandon the search, which he might well have done unless he had been
motivated by a favorable inclination toward the Jews. Also, he might well have
heard about that decree and thus had personal knowledge that it certainly existed.
"And there (it) was found at Achmetha (Echbatana)" (Ezra 6:2). "This was in
Media, the summer residence of Persian kings."[2] "Echbatana is the Persian name
for this place, as it came to light in the discovery of the Behistun Inscription."[3]
"The Behistun Inscription was discovered in 1835 by Sir Henry Rawlinson, a
British army officer. On Behistun mountain, 200 miles northeast of Babylon, there
was a great isolated rock rising 1700 feet out of the plain; and on the face of that
rock, on a perpendicular cliff, 400 feet above the road, Rawlinson noticed a large
smoothed surface upon which there were carvings and inscriptions. These had been

inscribed there by Darius I (Hystaspes) in the yearr 516 B.C., the very year that the
Second Temple was finished in Jerusalem. These inscriptions were written in the
Persian, Elamitc, and Babylonian languages; and Rawlinson, standing on a narrow
1-foot ledge at the base of these writings, made squeezes of them. The inscriptions
were an account, the same account, of the conquests of Darius, written in three
languages; and Sir Henry Rawlinson had found the key to the ancient Babylonian
language, which unlocked for the world the vast treasures of the ancient Babylonian
literature."[4]
Regarding this edict of Cyrus, "The old (critical) objections against the authenticity
of this edict, on the supposition that Cyrus would not have concerned himself with
the details and size of the temple, can no longer be sustained."[5]
"The variations between this decree of Cyrus and that report of it in Ezra 1 is due to
the fact that this one was an official document relating to the expenditure of public
money, and that one was an oral, public proclamation."[6]
There is no disharmony whatever between them!
The dimensions for the temple listed by Cyrus area problem. There are different
accounts of the size of Solomon's temple, in 2 Chronicles 3 and in 1 Kings 6; and, "It
it is difficult to reconcile the dimensions given here with the statements made in
Zechariah 4:10 and Haggai 2:3, implying that the second temple was smaller than
the first. Perhaps the dimensions here are those which Cyrus required the Jews not
to exceed."[7] Keil solved the problem with the suggestion that Cyrus' dimensions
included the external structures,[8] and others have suggested that the smaller size
of the second temple was due to the fact that it was the largest the returnees could
afford, due to their impoverished condition.
COKE, "Ver. 1. Darius the king— As Darius, the better to fortify his title to the
crown, had married two of the daughters of Cyrus, he thought himself bound to do
every thing which might tend to the honour of that great prince; and therefore more
readily confirmed the decree which he had granted to the Jews. Instead of were laid
up in Babylon, Houbigant reads, had been laid up in Babylon.
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the
house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.
Ver. 1. Then Darius the king] DARIUS HYSTASPES, who succeeded Cambyses,
being chosen by the princes of the Persians, as saith Herodotus. Plato commendeth
him for a restorer of the Persian monarchy, much defaced under Cambyses.
Howbeit he discommends him for this, that he bred not his son Xerxes so well as he
might have done, and further testifieth, that to him it might be said: O Darius, how
little care hast thou taken to shun Cyrus’s slackness! for thou hast bred Xerxes
every whit as ill as he did Cambyses, W Dαρειε ως του Kυρου κακον ουκ εµα- Yες..
In the house of the rolls] So called, because rolled up together, volumes rolled up,
like the web upon the pin.

WHEDO , "1. House of the rolls… in Babylon — Chaldee: House of books; the
royal library, or chamber of manuscripts and archives attached to the palace in
Babylon. Layard discovered at ineveh a series of chambers, the floors of which
were covered a foot or more deep with documents written in bricks of baked clay.
But it seems the desired document could not be found in Babylon. The archives of
the empire had been transferred to Ecbatana. See next verse.
CO STABLE, "Verse 1-2
Darius" search6:1-2
Darius looked for Cyrus" edict in Babylon first. That was where Cyrus stayed for a
while following his overthrow of that city in539 B.C. He found nothing there.
However, someone did discover a memorandum in one of Cyrus" files when they
searched his summer capital, Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). According to the Greek
historian Xenophon, Cyrus lived in Babylon during the winter, in Susa during the
spring, and in Ecbatana in the summer. [ ote: Xenophon, 8:6:22.] This
memorandum was not the same as the edict (cf. Ezra 1:2-4). onetheless, it
confirmed the edict and provided instructions for the royal treasurer, making a way
for him to implement the edict.
PARKER, ""Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the
house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon" ( Ezra 6:1).
When we read that Darius "made a decree," we are simply to understand that he
gave an order. Truth has everything to hope from wise and rigorous search. Darius
was anxious to make himself acquainted with the facts of the case, and therefore he
insisted that all the papers should be produced, that he might peruse them for
himself or have them perused by a reliable authority. The result of the search was
the discovery of a record—
"In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree
concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where
they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height
thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; with three rows
of great stones, and a row of new timber, and let the expences be given out of the
king"s house: and also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which
ebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought
unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at
Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place them in the house of God" ( Ezra 6:3-5).
Darius having discovered the record his policy lay plainly revealed before him,—
"Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders
of the Jews build this house of God in his place. Moreover, I make a decree what ye
shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the
king"s goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expences be given unto

these men, that they be not hindered" ( Ezra 6:7-8).
And so the king wrote clearly and distinctly, and opened a way for the further
progress and final consummation of the idea which the Jews had set themselves to
realise—"I, Darius, have made a decree; let it be done with speed." This came of
searching into the records of the case. Christians also must conduct a process of
searching; they, too, have papers which they must duly and critically peruse.
Christianity, however, does not make its appeal wholly to papers. Christ says,
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they
which testify of me." Christ himself began at Moses, and continuing his search
throughout the whole of the scriptures, found himself everywhere as the object of
prophecy and the hope of the world. Jesus Christ always insisted that if men
believed the writings of Moses they would also credit his own words, on the ground
that Moses wrote of him. Searching amongst papers, therefore, is the duty of all
Christian students; but there is a deeper search still which must be exacted. We
have to search into human instincts to find out from the mysterious action of human
nature what it is that man most wants. We have indeed to interpret instincts to
reason, to give them their fit expression, and to show all they mean by their dumb
yearnings and prophesyings. We have also to search into the whole scheme of moral
mysteries,—the mysteries of providence, the mysteries of thought, the mysteries of
hope, and the mysteries of suffering: we must pray that our eyes may be anointed
with eye-salve that we may see the real meaning of these mysteries, and be able to
read them in all their definiteness to those who inquire concerning the building of
the universe and the purpose of its institution. We may also read the bolder and
clearer history of the triumphs which Christianity has achieved in the world. Our
missionary records must be brought to the front: they will tell what countries were
before the introduction of Christianity, and they will prove to us what the countries
have been after Christianity has been received, understood, and put into practice.
Such practical arguments are always available to the Christian. There can be no
dispute about such facts as these: the countries are accessible, the missionaries are
living witnesses, the facts are strewn upon every hand, and it will be for those who
oppose Christianity to account for its moral successes. If Christianity were a mere
argument—that is to say, were it only an intellectual appeal—then all that it has
reported itself as having done might be quite disputable; but when it appeals to life,
to actual and provable circumstances, it is but decent, not to say just, that the effect
should be traced to the proper cause, and that Christ should have credit given to
him for making all things new. What we say to every man who opposes the
Christian cause Isaiah , Peruse the papers: consider the instincts of human nature;
deeply ponder the mysteries which characterise human experience, and look
without prejudice at the facts which Christian missions have established, and then
come to your own conclusion as to the Divine origin of the Christian religion.
LA GE, "I. Darius’ Answer. Ezra 6:1-12
1Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls,
where the treasures were laid up in Babylon 2 And there was found at Achmetha, in
the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus

written: 3In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king made a decree
concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where
they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height
thereof three-score cubits, and the breadth thereof three-score 4 cubits; With three
rows of great stones, and a row of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of
the king’s house: 5And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God,
which ebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and
brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at
Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place them in the house 6 of God. ow
therefore, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shethar-boznai, and your companions
the Apharsachites, which are beyond the river, be ye far from thence: 7Let the work
of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews
build this house of God in his place 8 Moreover I make a decree what ye shall do to
the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s
goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, forthwith expenses be given unto these
men, that they be not hindered 9 And that which they have need of, both young
bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt-offerings of the God of heaven, wheat,
salt, wine and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at
Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail: 10That they may offer
sacrifices of sweet savors unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king,
and of his sons 11 Also I have made a decree that whosoever shall alter this word, let
timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon;
and let his house be made a dunghill for this 12 And the God that hath caused his
name to dwell there destroy all kings and people, that shall put to their hand to alter
and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a
decree; let it be done with speed.
LA GE, "Ezra 6:1-12. The answer of Darius. otwithstanding the great
importance of the decision that Darius gave in reply to the letter of his officers and
the greatness of its results, in that after so long a waiting it finally introduced a new
and significant turn of affairs, its introduction is quite brief.—Then Darius the king
made a decree.—These words seem to refer only to the command to make an
investigation; but in reality they serve as an introduction to the decree which was
promulgated to Tatnai, etc.; comp. V:6. It is as if the subsequent narrative: and
search was made, were taken up merely as an explanation of the decree following in
Ezra 6:6 sq. Without doubt it was contained in the decree of Darius to Tatnai, as its
basis or introduction.—The house of writings.—Comp. Ezra 5:17.[F 1] Here the
treasures likewise were laid up. ‫ין‬ִ‫ֲת‬‫ח‬ַ‫ה‬ְ‫מ‬ is participle Aphel of ‫.נחת‬ Comp. Ezra 5:15.
LA GE, "HOMILETICAL A D PRACTICAL
Ezra 6:1-12. That which threatens to become a hindrance must serve for our
advantage1) When,—if in our undertakings, looking at the final aim, it is to be done
for the cause and glory of God2) Why,—because the advancement of the cause of
God, long in advance and to the minutest detail has been once for all provided for
and ordained3) How,—the example of predecessors, who have previously taken part

in this work, comes into mind and gives their successors a favorable disposition
towards the work.—Starke: It is easy to conceive, moreover, how it must have
grieved the Samaritans that they were not only obliged to let the temple be entirely
brought to completion, but that also their tribute should be applied to the promotion
of the building, and the observation of the divine service with sacrifices.—How
important and thankworthy the favorable conduct of even heathen princes has been
toward the people of God1) That of Cyrus—a, He gave to the congregation again
their liberty to worship the Lord, and ordered the restoration of the temple; b, he
thereby gave an example, which determined the conduct of his successors.—Starke:
Great lords should be diligent in the practice of virtue, in order that their successors
after their death may have a good example, and that they thereby may gain an
everlasting name. Ecclesiastes 7:1; Proverbs 22:1. The richest persons should be the
first to open their liberal hands when something is to be given for the building of
churches and the support of the ministry.—God has the heart of kings also in His
hand and can incline them so that they are obliged to have good-will to His children,
Daniel 2:48. 2) The favorable conduct of Darius: a) he lets himself be guided by a
noble example, yea seeks to surpass it; b) he desires the prayers of the congregation;
c) he used his power in a good and proper manner to help the pious and threaten the
wicked.—Starke: Respecting the duty of subjects to pray for their rulers, even if
they are heathen, see 1 Timothy 2:2; comp. Jeremiah 29:7; 1 Maccabees 12:11.
Magistrates should act in their government so as to comfort themselves with the
general prayers of their subjects. Regents should make arrangements that prayers
should be made to God for their welfare and successful government; for the devil
lays many snares for them, but a devout prayer will help them much. The sword,
intrusted by God to magistrates, must afford protection to the pious, Romans 13:4.
Ezra 6:13-15. The building of the temple or kingdom of God is the final result of all
the divine guidance: 1) It needs the willingness of the congregation, and on this
account also the activity of prophets and preachers; 2) it needs, moreover, kings and
their representatives, and on this account also a direction of history, by which God
works on their hearts; 3) it needs above all the good and gracious will of God.—
Starke: The Lord has a kingdom and He rules among the heathen, Psalm 22:29. He
brings the counsel of the heathen to nought, and turns the thoughts of the nations,
He disposes their hearts. Psalm 33:10; Psalm 33:15.
Ezra 6:16-18. The true joy of dedication1) Upon what it is founded: Starke: My
Christian friend, has the spiritual building of the house of God been established in
thy soul, then forget not to praise and give thanks2) How it is established,—by our
taking to ourselves, with humility and gratitude, what the Lord grants, as truly good
and salutary, and putting our trust in Him with respect to all that is still lacking3)
How it expresses itself by true sacrifices, thus by setting to work in the universal
priesthood.—Starke: Our redemption from the kingdom of the devil and the
deliverance of the church is the work of God alone; for His hand helps powerfully,
Psalm 20:7. And then for the first will our mouth be full of laughter, and our tongue
full with singing, Psalm 126:2.
Ezra 6:19-22. The life of him who has consecrated his heart to be a temple of the

Lord is a continual passover feast, for he feels himself compelled, 1) ever to take
anew grace for grace, fleeing from the death of the curse; 2) ever anew to let himself
be sanctified unto sincerity and truth, so that he rises from the death of sin; 3) to
rejoice with the holy passover joy of redemption, which God has accomplished in
Jesus Christ, and which He will likewise fulfil in Him at last.—[Henry: Let not the
greatest princes despise the prayers of the meanest saints; ’tis desirable to have
them for us, and dreadful to have them against us.—Whatever we dedicate to God,
let it be done with joy, that He will please to accept of it.—The purity of ministers
adds much to the beauty of their ministrations, so doth their unity.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
F #1 - Rawlinson in loco: “A house of writings was discovered as Koyunjik the
ancient ineveh by Mr. Layard in the year1850—a set of chambers, i. e. in the
palace devoted exclusively to the storing of public documents. These were in baked
clay, and covered the floors to the depth of more than a foot.” Many of these
writings were removed to the British Museum, where they have been partially
arranged and translated by Rawlinson, Smith, Talbot and others. The library was
again visited, and many of its treasures removed by Smith in 1873 and ’4and again
in1876. See Assyrian Discoveries of Geo. Smith, ew York, 1875.—Tr.]
F #2 - Rawlinson in loco: “The ancient Persians used parchment for their records
as appears from Ctesias (cap. Diod, Sec. II:32).”—Tr.]
F #3 - When Josephus here lets Herod say that the second temple fell sixty cubits in
height below the temple of Song of Solomon, he accords to the second a height of
sixty cubits, and to that of Solomon of one hundred and twenty cubits, the latter
without doubt on the basis of 2 Chronicles 3:4, where in consequence of an error or
copyist’s mistake there is given to the hall of the temple of Solomon a height of one
hundred and twenty cubits.
F #4 - Ferguson accepts the Sept. δόµος, and understands three stories of stone,
with a fourth story of wood-work on the summit. Rawlinson thinks that Cyrus
would limit the thickness of the walls to three rows of stone with an inner wooden
wainscotting.—Tr.]
F #5 - Rawlinson says, that crucifixion was the most common form of punishment
among the Persians, Vid. Com. in loco and Ancient Monarchies IV, p208; Herod
iii159; iv53. Beh. Ins., Colossians 2, par14, etc.—Tr.]
F #6 - Houbigant and Dathe prefer the Vulgate rendering: domus ejus publicetur,
“let his house be confiscated.” But the balance of authority is in favor of the
translation given above. Rawlinson, in loco.—Tr.].
F #7 - Rawlinson in loco mentions as a corresponding fact that Herodotus, with
similar inexactness, calls Cyrus the king of the Medes (I:206).—Tr.]

F #8 - This was in accordance with the constant usage of prophecy in representing
all the enemies of the kingdom of God by the most prominent enemy of the
prophets’ time. This enemy having been the Assyrian in the times of the prophets, it
was natural that in thinking of the fulfilment of prophecy, the author should use the
prophetic term.—Tr.]
BI 1-5, "And search was made in the house of the rolls.
The search for the decree of Cyrus
Learn—
1. Honest and thorough investigation promotes the interests of religion and of the
Church of God.
2. The advantage of written history.
3. How great should be our gratitude for the sacred writings. (William Jones.)
“The house of books.”
One of Mr. Layard’s most valuable discoveries was that of a set of chambers in a palace
at Koyunjik, the whole of the floor of which was covered more than a foot deep with
terra-cotta tablets inscribed with public records. A similar collection has been recently
found in the neighbourhood of Babylon. In some such record-house the search for the
edict of Cyrus was made. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
A record thus written.
Record of the year
The record here referred to was of what had been done for the house and service of God.
It was a religious record such as I propose we should now read of the past year. Records
are made of changes of what is altering from day to day in that great empire of change of
which we are all subjects. This law of change is often spoken of as a melancholy law. It is
better to regard it as the decree of growth and progress. It is the ordinance of escape
from old limitations, and the impulse of rising to new stages of life to gain fresh energy
of thought and will. A state of sameness or immobility would be in truth a wretched
doom. The record of any year is not a record of sadness or decay alone, even as respects
this world, but very much of delight and advancement.
I. The first chapter is that of new being, birth and growth. Many houses have been made
the scenes of holy gladness by the gifts of God’s creative and inspiring power. What trust
so great as that of a living spirit, with its own individual nature and with capacities for a
peculiar development of intellectual and moral strength? With what reverent, trembling
sense of responsibility it should be received! What office so high in rank, so great in
opportunity, so large in patronage or susceptible of good, with such hope and fear
wrapped up in it, as the parental once? What expanding of outward nature or unfolding
of earthly ambition is really so grand and affecting as that of an undying soul? No
changes of material growth, of splendid seasons and solemn spectacles can equal this. It
makes the purest inspiration of love, it turns self-sacrifice into a pleasure; it plies the
inventive faculties with all knowledge and wisdom to provide for the beloved object; it

draws the mind into long foresight of its benefit and improvement; and by the force of
mingling filial and parental communications exalts the soul to a perception of the
relation of all to Him who is the common Father. Life’s record, then, is not all of gloomy
change and irreparable privation, but of strength enhancing, existence renovating, and
of new possession.
II. But i must turn this illuminated leaf of the record to a pace veiled in shades. It is the
record of sickness and decline. And what shall we say of this change? We cannot make
our record all pleasant and cheerful if we would. The skeleton that the Egyptians carried
to their banquets will intrude upon every feast of our earthly joy and fling its ghastly
shadow both across the avenues of our immediate thought and along the vistas of our
farthest recollection. But although sickness comes with very sharp instrumentalities, yet
she comes with a bright retinue. Patience, resignation, spiritual thoughts of God and of
futurity come with her. As the most blazing effulgence of heaven sleeps within the black
cloud, so in the lowering darkness and eclipse of bodily suffering often lies the very
brilliance of a spiritual and Divine glory.
III. We now turn the last leaf of our record. It ends, like all earthly records, with death.
God by His Son Jesus Christ lifts up the burden of sadness that settles down on a record
like this. Being dead in the body, our departed friends yet speak for truth and goodness
more loudly and more persuasively than when their words fell on our outward hearing.
They have gone that they might awaken our virtue, and that they might chill and
discourage our worldly lusts. Like the stars, though with a warmer attraction, they lift
and beckon us up. The light burns on, the fountain flows, the music sounds for us.
Neither is this final change and record in the providence of God a ground for
lamentation. It is rather a declaration of our native dignity as His children. It is the
announcement of our glorious destiny. It is a summons to us to gird up our loins, trim
our lamps, watch and be ready. (C. A. Bartol.)
2
A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in
the province of Media, and this was written on it:
Memorandum:
BAR ES, "“Achmetha” is the “Ecbatana,” or “Agbatana,” of the Greeks, the Persian
name for which, as we find in the Behistun Inscription, was HaGMaTANa.
We must suppose that, when Babylon had been searched in vain, the other cities
which possessed record-offices were visited, and the decree looked for in them. Ecbatana
was the capital of Cyrus.

CLARKE, "At Achmetha - Ecbatana in India, whither it is probable all the records
of Cyrus had been carried. This was a sort of summer residence for the kings of Persia.
GILL, "And there was found at Achmetha,.... Which Jarchi and Aben Ezra take to
be the name of a vessel in which letters and writings were put for safety; but it was no
doubt the name of a place; the Vulgate Latin version has it Ecbatana; and so Josephus
(s); which was the name of a city in Media, where the kings of that country had their
residence in the summer time (t); for it has its name from heat (u); the Persian kings
dwelt at Shushan in the winter, and at Ecbatana in the summer (w); hence they are
compared by Aelian (x) to cranes, birds of passage, because of their going to and from
the above places:
in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, here was found
a roll; which was the decree of Cyrus, which perhaps he took with him when he went
thither:
and therein was a record thus written; as follows.
JAMISO , "Achmetha — long supposed to be the capital of Greater Media (the
Ecbatana of classical, the Hamadan of modern times), [is] at the foot of the Elwund
range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity, Cyrus and his successors on the
Persian throne established their summer residence. There was another city, however, of
this name, the Ecbatana of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media,
and recently identified by Colonel Rawlinson in the remarkable ruins of Takht-i-
Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of Cyrus to his native city, the
Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the stronger capital of Greater Media, Colonel
Rawlinson is inclined to think that he deposited there, in his fortress, the famous decree
relating to the Jews, along with the other records and treasures of his empire [Nineveh
and Persepolis].
K&D 2-4, "Ezr_6:2-4
“And there was found at Achmetha, in the fortress that is in the land of Media, a roll;
and thus was it recorded therein.” In Babylon itself the document sought for was not
found; though, probably the search there made, led to the discovery of a statement that
documents pertaining to the time of Cyrus were preserved in the fortress of Achmetha,
where the record in question was subsequently discovered. ‫א‬ ָ‫ת‬ ְ‫מ‬ ְ‫ח‬ፍ, the capital of Great
Media - τᆭ Εκβάτανα, Judith 1:1, 14, or ᅒγβάτανα (Herod. i. 98) - built by Dejokes, was
the summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings, and situate in the
neighbourhood of the modern Hamadan. Achmetha is probably the Old-Median or Old-
Persian pronunciation of the name, the letters ‫אחם‬ on Sassanidian coins being explained
as denoting this city (Mordtmann in the Zeitschrift der deutsch morgenl. Gesellschaft,
viii. p. 14). The citadel of Ecbatana probably contained also the royal palace and the
official buildings. For ַ‫וּ‬ַ‫ג‬ ְ is found in some MSS and editions ָ‫וּ‬ַ‫ג‬ ְ ; but Norzi and J. H.

Mich. have Pathach under ‫ו‬ as the better authorized reading. ‫ה‬ָ‫ּונ‬‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ִ , stat. emph. of ‫ּון‬‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ִ ,
memorandum, ᆓπόµνηµα, a record of anything memorable. The contents of this
document follow, Ezr_6:3-5. First, the proclamation of King Cyrus in the first year of his
reign: “The house of God at Jerusalem, let this house be built as a place where sacrifices
are offered.” The meaning of the words following is doubtful. We translate ‫ין‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫ּוב‬‫ס‬ ְ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫ּוח‬ ֻ‫א‬ְ‫:ו‬
and let them raise up its foundations, i.e., its foundations are to be again raised up,
restored. ‫ין‬ ִ ֻ‫,א‬ foundations (Ezr_4:12); ‫ין‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫ּוב‬‫ס‬ ְ‫,מ‬ part. Poel of ‫ל‬ ַ‫ב‬ ְ‫,ס‬ to carry, to raise (not to
be raised). ‫ל‬ ַ‫ב‬ ְ‫ס‬ often stands for the Hebrew ‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫,נ‬ to carry, to raise up, to erect; compare
the Samaritan translation of Gen_13:10 : ‫עגין‬ ‫את‬ ‫,וסבל‬ he lifted up his eyes. ‫ין‬ ִ ֻ‫א‬ ‫ל‬ ֵ‫סוֹב‬
analogous with ‫י‬ ֵ‫ד‬ ְ‫ּוס‬‫מ‬ ‫ד‬ ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ּומ‬‫ק‬, Isa_58:12, and signifies to erect buildings upon the
foundations.
(Note: The Vulgate, following a rabbinical explanation, has ponant fundamenta
supportantia, which is here unsuitable. The conjecture of Bertheau, who labours, by
all sorts of critical combinations of the letters in the words ‫ין‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫ּוב‬‫ס‬ ְ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ ִ‫ּוח‬ ֻ‫א‬ְ‫,ו‬ to produce
the text ‫תמנים‬ ‫מאה‬ ‫אמין‬ ‫,אשוהי‬ “its foundation length 180 cubits,” is as needless as it is
mistaken. The interpretation of the words in the lxx, καᆳ ᅞθηκεν ᅞπαρµα, and Pseudo-
Ezra 6, διᆭ πυρός ᅚνδελεχους, are nothing else than unmeaning suppositions.)
Expositors are divided as to the dimensions of the new temple, “its height 60 cubits, and
its breadth 60 cubits,” Antiq. xi. 4. 6; while Solomon's temple was but 30 cubits high,
and, without the side-buildings, only 20 cubits broad. We nevertheless consider the
statements correct, and the text incorrupt, and explain the absence of the measure of
length simply by the fact that, as far as length was concerned, the old and new temples
were of equal dimensions. Solomon's temple, measured externally, inclusive of the porch
and the additional building at the hinder part, was about 100 cubits long (see the ground
plan in my bibl. Archaeol. Table II. fig. 1). To correspond with this length, the new
temple was, according to the desire of Cyrus, to be both higher and broader, viz., 60
cubits high, and as many wide, - measurements which certainly apply to external
dimensions. Zerubbabel's temple, concerning the structure of which we have no further
particulars, was externally of this height and breadth. This may be inferred from the
speech of King Herod in Joseph. Ant. xv. 11. 1, in which this tyrant, who desired to be
famous for the magnificence of his buildings, endeavoured to gain the favour of the
people for the rebuilding of the temple, which he was contemplating, by the remark that
the temple built by their forefathers, on their return from the Babylonian captivity, was
60 cubits too low, - Solomon's temple having been double that height (sc. according to
the height given in 2Ch_3:4, 120 cubits) - and from the fact that Herod made his temple
100 or 120 cubits high. Hence the temple of Zerubbabel, measured externally, must have
been 60 cubits high; and consequently we need not diminish the breadth of 60 cubits,
also given in this verse, by alterations of the text, because Herod's temple was likewise of
this width, but must understand the given dimensions to relate to external height and
breadth. For in Herod's temple the holy places were but 60 cubits high and 20 wide; the
holy place, 40 cubits long, 20 wide, and 60 high; the holy of holies, 20 cubits long, 20
wide, and 60 high. And we may assume that the dimensions of Zerubbabel's temple
preserved the same proportions, with perhaps the modification, that the internal height
did not amount to 60 cubits, - an upper storey being placed above the holy place and the
holy of holies, as in Herod's temple; which would make the internal height of these

places amount to only about 30 or 40 cubits.
(Note: While we acknowledge it possible that the holy and most holy places,
measured within, may have been only 40 cubits high, we cannot admit the objection
of H. Merz, in Herzog's Realencycl. xv. p. 513, that 20 cubits of internal breadth is an
inconceivable proportion to 60 cubits, this being the actual proportion in Herod's
temple, as Merz himself states, p. 516, without finding it in this instance ”
inconceivable.”)
In like manner must the 60 cubits of breadth be so divided, that the 5 cubits internal
breadth of the side-buildings of Solomon's temple must be enlarged to 10, which,
allowing 5 cubits of thickness for the walls, would make the entire building 60 cubits
wide (5 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 5).
(Note: The conjecture of Merz in his above-cited article, and of Bertheau, that the
dimensions of Zerubbabel's temple were double those of Solomon's, - viz. the holy
and most holy places 40 cubits high and 40 wide, the upper chambers 20 cubits
high, the side-chambers each 10 cubits high, and the whole building 120 cubits long,
- must be rejected as erroneous, by the consideration that Herod's temple was only
the length of Solomon's, viz., 100 cubits, of which the holy of holies took up 20, the
holy place 40, the porch 10, the additional building behind 10, and the four walls 20.
For Herod would by no means have diminished the length of his building 20, or
properly 40 cubits. We also see, from the above-named dimensions, that the 60
cubits broad cannot be understood of internal breadth.)
The statement in Ezr_6:4, “three layers of great stones, and a layer of new timber,” is
obscure. ְ‫ך‬ ָ ְ‫ד‬ִ‫נ‬ means row, layer, and stands in the Targums for the Hebrew ‫,טוּר‬ “used of a
layer of bricks;” see Gesen. Thes. p. 311, and Levy, chald. Wörterbuch, ii. p. 93. ‫ל‬ ָ‫ל‬ְ ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ב‬ ֶ‫,א‬
stone of rolling, one that is rolled and cannot be carried, i.e., a great building stone. ‫ת‬ ַ‫ד‬ ֲ‫,ח‬
novus, as an epithet to ‫ע‬ፎ, is remarkable, it being self-evident that new wood is generally
used for a new building. The lxx translates εᅽς, reading the word ‫ה‬ ָ‫ד‬ ֲ‫ח‬ (Ezr_6:3). This
statement involuntarily recalls the notice, 1Ki_6:36, that Solomon built the inner court,
‫ים‬ִ‫ז‬ ָ‫ר‬ ֲ‫א‬ ‫ּת‬‫ת‬ ֻ‫ר‬ ְⅴ ‫טוּר‬ְ‫ו‬ ‫ית‬ִ‫ז‬ָ‫ג‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫טוּר‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫לשׁ‬ ְ‫;שׁ‬ hence Merz expresses the supposition that “this is certainly
a fragment, forming the conclusion of the whole design of the building, which, like that
in 1Ki_6:36, ends with the porch and the walls of the fore-court,” Thus much only is
certain, that the words are not to be understood, as by Fritzsche on 1 Esdr. 6:25, as
stating that the temple walls were built of “three layers of large stones, upon which was
one layer of beams,” and therefore were not massive; such kind of building never being
practised in the East in old times. “And let the expenses be given out of the king's
house.” This is more precisely stated in Ezr_6:8 of the royal revenues on this side the
river. ‫א‬ ָ‫ק‬ ְ‫פ‬ִ‫נ‬ the expense (from ‫ק‬ ַ‫פ‬ְ‫,נ‬ Aphel, to expend), therefore the cost of building.
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:2 And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that [is] in the
province of the Medes, a roll, and therein [was] a record thus written:
Ver. 2. And there was found at Achmetha] Or Ecbatana. This was occasioned by the
malice of the Jews’ adversaries, and proved a great furtherance to the finishing of
the temple. Sic canes lingunt ulcera Lazari. So dogs licked the sores of Lazarus. All
things work together for good to them that love God, Romans 8:28. Venenum
aliquando pro remedio fuit, At length a poison will be for a medicine. saith Seneca.

WHEDO , "DARIUS’S LETTER A D DECREE, Ezra 6:1-12.
This whole passage (Ezra 6:1-12) may be regarded as a part of the answer (chap.
Ezra 5:5, note) which was returned to the communication of Tatnai and his
companions. Comp. Ezra 6:6. The king’s letter may have contained more than is
here given, but this was all that suited our historian’s purpose.
WHEDO , "2. Achmetha — The Chaldee form of the Persian Hagmatana or
Hagmatan, and the Ecbatana of the classical writers. Its site is usually identified
with the modern Hamadan. Herodotus (i, 98) describes it as a great city, whose walls
were built circle within circle, each wall out-topping the one beyond it by the height
of its battlements. This was done by means of the conical hill on which the city was
built. The circular walls were seven in number, and the royal palace and treasury
were within the innermost wall. It was originally the capital of the Medes, and hence
its location here noticed as in the province of the Medes, but it was subsequently
made the summer residence of the Persian kings. Hither it would seem the royal
records had been transferred for greater security. The Behistun inscription shows
that Babylon revolted at the beginning of Darius’s reign, but was soon reconquered,
and that may have been the occasion of this transfer of the archives, and among
them this celebrated roll containing Cyrus’s decree for the restoration of the exiles,
and the rebuilding of their temple. Perhaps, however, the record in question had
never been deposited at Babylon, but placed originally among the archives kept at
Achmetha.
PETT, "Ezra 6:2
‘And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, a
roll, and in it was thus written for a record,’
So attention was turned to the palace at Achmetha (Ecbatana). Ecbatana was a
magnificent city (see Judith 1:1-4) and the former capital city of the Median
Empire. It had become the summer residence of the Persian kings, and was in the
province of Media In its archives was found a scroll in which was recorded the
decree which was being sought. What follows was presumably recorded in Darius’
reply to Tattenai.
LA GE, "Ezra 6:2. And there was found at Achmetha.—Search was made for the
writing in Babylon; but it was found in Achmetha, after that there was probably
found in the archives at Babylon a reference to the archives of Achmetha for the
documents of the time of Cyrus. The letters ‫אחם‬ engraved on coins seem to designate
this city. Comp. Mordtmann, D. M. Zeitschrift, VIII, S14, In ancient Persian,
however, Achmetha probably was Hagamatha.—[Rawlinson in loco: “in the
Behistun inscription Hagmatana.”—Tr.]—In Greek it is ’Αγβάτανα (Herod. I:98) or
’Eκβάτανα ( Judith 1:14), the summer-residence of the Persian and Parthian kings,
built by Deiokes, the capital of Media the great, in the vicinity of the present
Hamadan.—In the palace.—The archives were especially in the citadel, ‫ה‬ ָ‫ִיר‬‫בּ‬=ἡ

βάρις, which embraced the palace and likewise the other prominent buildings.—A
roll and therein was a record.[F 2]—We should expect directly after ‫ַהּ‬‫וּ‬ַ‫ג‬ְ‫בּ‬ (there is
less authority for a kametz in the last syll.) the contents of the writing; indeed ‫ָה‬‫נ‬‫ְרוֹ‬‫כ‬ְ‫דּ‬
(st. emph. of ‫ְרוֹן‬‫כ‬ִ‫)דּ‬ may have been a superscription in the writing itself about
equivalent to: memorandum; nevertheless it is here connected with the previous
clause as a memorandum was written therein. The contents do not follow until Ezra
6:3-5.
3
In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a
decree concerning the temple of God in
Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to
present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid.
It is to be ninety feet [16] high and ninety feet
wide,
BAR ES, "It is difficult to reconcile the dimentions here with expressions in
Zechariah Zec_4:10, Haggai Hag_2:3, and even Ezra Ezr_3:12, which imply that the
second temple was smaller than the first (compare 1Ki_6:2). Perhaps the dimensions
here are those which Cyrus required the Jews not to exceed.
CLARKE, "The height thereof threescore cubits - This was much larger than
the temple of Solomon. This was sixty cubits high, and sixty cubits broad; whereas
Solomon’s was only twenty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high.
GILL, "In the first year of Cyrus the king; the same Cyrus the king made a
decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be
builded,.... See Ezr_1:1,
the place where they offered sacrifices; to God in times past, ever since it was built
by Solomon:

and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; so as to bear and support the
building erected on them, as the word signifies:
the height thereof sixty cubits; which were thirty more than the height of Solomon's
temple, 1Ki_6:2 though sixty less than the height of the porch, which was one hundred
and twenty, 2Ch_3:4 and which some take to be the height of the whole house; and
hence it may be observed what Herod said (y), that the temple then in being wanted sixty
cubits in height of that of Solomon's:
and the breadth thereof sixty cubits; whereas the breadth of Solomon's temple was
but twenty, 1Ki_6:2, but since it cannot reasonably be thought that the breadth should
be equal to the height, and so very disproportionate to Solomon's temple; many learned
men understand this of the extension of it as to length, which exactly agrees with the
length of the former temple, 1Ki_6:2.
BE SO , "Ezra 6:3. The height thereof threescore cubits — These proportions
differ from those of Solomon’s temple, which was but thirty cubits high, only the
porch was a hundred and twenty cubits high, and but twenty cubits in breadth.
Either therefore Solomon’s cubits were sacred cubits, which were larger than the
other, and these but common cubits; or, the sixty cubits of height are meant only for
the porch. And the word rendered breadth, should be rendered the extension or the
length of it; it being improbable that the king should give orders about the breadth,
and none about the length of it.
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:3 In the first year of Cyrus the king [the same] Cyrus the king
made a decree [concerning] the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be
builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be
strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, [and] the breadth thereof
threescore cubits;
Ver. 3. The height thereof threescore cubits] Yet was it less than Solomon’s temple,
Haggai 2:3, Ezra 3:12. Solomon’s cubits therefore were longer (likely) than these
here mentioned.
WHEDO , "3. Be strongly laid — Gesenius and Furst render, be erected, or set up.
Height… breadth… threescore cubits — These proportions differ from those of
Solomon’s temple, the height of which was thirty cubits, and its breadth twenty,
while only its length was threescore, or sixty cubits. See 1 Kings 6:2. But we need not
suppose that this record of Cyrus contained the exact measures which were followed
in the rebuilding of the temple. Even had he commanded that the building be made
of this size, it does not follow that the Jews were careful to observe this part of his
orders. Or it may be these numbers are faulty, having been taken down from the
indistinct remembrance or careless copying of some Persian scribe, for this record
has the appearance of being not a copy of Cyrus’s proclamation to the Jews, but a
document prepared by the royal scribe or recorder as a part of the chronicles or
annals of Cyrus, to be deposited among the archives of the empire. At any rate,

these numbers are not an authoritative guide to estimate the size of the second
temple.
CO STABLE, "Verses 3-5
Cyrus" memorandum6:3-5
The memorandum provided details that the edict did not contain. Among these
details were the dimensions of the proposed temple. It was to be twice as high and
three times as wide as Solomon"s temple ( Ezra 6:3; cf. 1 Kings 6:2). Obviously,
Cyrus intended to sponsor a temple that would excel Solomon"s and thereby bring
greater glory to himself. The fact that the foundations, when completed, appeared
less impressive than Solomon"s ( Ezra 3:12-13), suggests that the Jews did not take
full advantage of their opportunity and resources. The Persian government had
committed to pay for the building ( Ezra 6:4). We too often fail to take full
advantage of our opportunities and resources to glorify God.
LA GE, "Ezra 6:3 contains first probably stereotype introductory forms; at first
the date: In the first year of king Cyrus (as in Ezra 5:13); then the short preamble:
Cyrus the king made a decree; then a statement of the contents; then the following
words: the house of God at Jerusalem, stand alone by themselves, and constitute to a
certain extent a title. Then the command: Let the house be built as a place where
offerings are brought and whose foundations are capable of supporting (namely, the
structure).—‫ר‬ַ‫ת‬ֲ‫א‬ is placed before the relative clause in stat. constr. as ‫ְקוֹם‬‫מ‬, Hosea
2:1, etc. ‫ִין‬‫ל‬ְ‫ב‬‫סוֹ‬ְ‫מ‬ ‫ִי‬‫ה‬‫שּׁוֹ‬ֻ‫ְא‬‫י‬ is hardly to be explained as: “its foundation they may set up”
(Keil), or “may be erected (Ges. in his Thesaurus). In this sense the additional clause
would be superfluous. We would expect an optative instead of a participle. It is
made co-ordinate with the previous relative clause by the participle, and not with
the principal clause “let the house of God be built.” ‫,סבל‬ which only in very detached
passages is like the Heb. ‫,נשׂא‬ in the Targum of Deuteronomy 24:15 and in the
Samaritan translation of Genesis 13:10, means, as in Hebrew, without doubt also in
Chald, first and chiefly, to drag, bear a burden. Accordingly we regard as the safest
explanation: whose foundations are burden-bearing, that Isaiah, capable of
carrying, durable for the buildings erected upon them. Cyrus might have been
present to state briefly in his own way the very reason why the house of God in
Jerusalem was to be built. It is a place wherein they from ancient times offer
offerings, thus a place long ago sanctified, and besides the foundations are still
present and in a condition capable of bearing a building upon them. The two
participles, thus viewed, are used without regard to tense. The Vulgate and the
Rabbins likewise let this conception betray itself since they render: ponant
fundamenta supportantia. Although it is more natural to suppose that this second
relative clause should be synonymous with the first, yet there is no change in the text
that could be at all proposed (e.g., ‫ין‬ ִ‫שּׁ‬ִ‫א‬ for ‫ין‬ ִ‫שּׁ‬ֻ‫)א‬ that would throw any light. Whilst
indeed Esdras had διὰ πυρὸς ἐνδελεχοῦς, the Sept. seems, although rendering very
freely (κὰι ἔθηκαν ἔπαρµα) to have followed our text.
In order that the house might be large and elevated enough, Cyrus at once fixed ’its
height and breadth (comp. Daniel 3:1 for ‫ֵהּ‬‫י‬ָ‫ְת‬‫פּ‬), and indeed both, sixty cubits, double

that of the temple of Solomon. Comp. 1 Kings 6:2. Even if in this passage the cubit
of commerce of the exile times were meant, whilst in 1 Kings 6:2, on the other hand,
the ancient Mosaic or holy cubit ( 2 Chronicles 3:3), which according to Ezekiel
40:5; Ezekiel 43:13, was a hand’s breadth longer than the former, namely, eighteen
and a half Rhenish inches, the difference would still be significant enough. But it is
probable that the reference here is to the Mosaic cubit. The measurements for the
new temple appear, since they were just double, to have been chosen with reference
to those of the old temple, and on their basis. It is probable that Cyrus thought he
could not make the matter of the temple his own affair without at least surpassing
Solomon to the extent of double. Perhaps this explains why he fixes nothing at all
respecting the length. Probably he knew that a greater length than that of the
temple of Solomon was not desirable, since otherwise the temple buildings would
have taken relatively too much space, and the extent of the courts, which needed
much space, be too limited. Since now he could not well go beyond Solomon in this
respect, he rather makes no standard at all. The building of Solomon’s temple had a
length of sixty cubits, twenty for the most holy place, forty for the holy place, and
besides a vestibule of ten cubits. This was besides surrounded on the two long sides
and in the rear, by wings of five cubits breadth. The length of the temple of Herod
was limited to essentially the same measurements. But if they did not wish to exceed
these measurements, the sixty cubits breadth could only be applied to measure the
outer breadth, embracing likewise the wings, unless they would entirely abandon
the relations rendered sacred by the tabernacle, and almost throughout retained by
the temple of Solomon. The holiest of all had been a cube in both the tabernacle and
the temple of Solomon and the holy place again had had double the length of this
cube, and this arrangement of the parts seems to have been regarded as the most
essential. The internal breadth of the second temple could not well amount to more
than that of the first temple, or than that which it subsequently had in the temple of
Herod, namely, twenty cubits (with Keil and against Merx in Herz’s Real-Enc. XV.
S 513 and Berth.) Thus there remained to the side buildings a considerable space. If
we reckon ten cubits for each side, whilst in the temple of Solomon only five cubits
had been applied to that purpose, since the breadth in that case would have
amounted to twenty cubits in the clear, in all thirty cubits, there still remain twenty
cubits for the four walls, which in the temple of Herod likewise took up the same
amount of space. Whether accordingly the internal height was likewise limited,
whether it at least in the holiest of all was diminished to the measure of the length
and breadth, as it were, by the addition of upper chambers, such as had been in the
temple of Solomon likewise, these taking up ten cubits in height, we know not. In the
temple of Herod there was assigned to the holiest of all, as well as to the holy place,
an internal height of sixty cubits, whilst still forty to sixty cubits in height were
applied to the upper chambers. And it is possible that Zerubbabel and Jeshua
likewise already acted with more freedom with reference to the height, an internal
height of only twenty cubits in connection with an external height of sixty cubits,
would have been almost too much out of proportion. That they really carried the
external height to sixty cubits, seems to follow from Josephus Arch. xv11, 1.[F 3]
PETT, "Ezra 6:3

‘In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree:’
These words were probably taken from the preamble to the decree. It made clear
that the decree in question was made in the first year of Cyrus, and thus within a
short time of his conquest of Babylon.
Large numbers of scholars now agree that this decree was genuine. It was written in
Aramaic and bears all the hallmarks of a Persian document of the time. It was a
different decree from the one mentioned in Ezra 1:2-4. That was for public
consumption. This one was to be filed away as a record, and recorded the details of
what Cyrus required with respect to the building of the Temple.
4
with three courses of large stones and one of
timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal
treasury.
BAR ES, "The word translated “row” occurs only in this passage. Some regard it as a
“course,” and suppose that after every three courses of stone there followed a course of
timber. Others understand three “storeys” of stone, with a fourth “storey” of woodwork
on the summit (compare 1Ki_6:5-6). Others consider that Cyrus intended to limit the
thickness of the walls, which were not to exceed a breadth of three rows of stone, with an
inner wooden wainscotting.
Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house - i. e., “out of the Persian
revenue,” a portion of the decree which was probably not observed during the later years
of Cyrus and during the reign of Cambyses, and hence the burthen fell upon the Jews
themselves Ezr_2:68-69.
CLARKE, "Three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber - We have
noticed this kind of building before, three courses of stones, and then a course of strong
balk; and this continued to the square of the building.
And let the expenses be given - Cyrus had ordered wood to be cut at Libanus, and
conveyed to Joppa at his expense; but it does not appear that he furnished the other
expenses of the building, for we have already seen that the Jews contributed for the
defraying of all others. But it appears that he provided at his own expense the sacrifices
and offerings for the temple. See Ezr_6:9.

GILL, "With three rows of great stones,.... Which Jarchi interprets of the walls of
it, and these stones of marble; and so Ben Melech:
and a row of new timber; of cedar wood upon the rows of stone, see 1Ki_6:36 or for
the lining and wainscoting the walls:
and let the expenses be given out of the king's house; treasury, or exchequer; but
it does not appear that this part of the decree was observed, at least hitherto; but the
Jews built at their own expense, and perhaps did not exactly observe the directions given
as to the dimensions of the house.
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:4 [With] three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber: and
let the expenses be given out of the king’s house:
Ver. 4. Out of the king’s house] i.e. Out of the royal revenue in those parts, Ezra
7:20. Herodotus testifieth that Cyrus and Darius (who married his daughter Atossa,
and made him his pattern for imitation) were highly honoured among the Persians
for their kingly munificence; God hath threatened that the nation and kingdom that
will not serve the Church shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted,
Isaiah 60:12, Ezra 6:12.
WHEDO , "4. With three rows of… stones — There is no with in the Chaldee, and
the passage has the appearance of a fragmentary excerpt. The language, however,
reminds us of 1 Kings 6:36, (see note there,) and may, perhaps, be best understood
of the platform of the inner court, which, like that of the first temple, was to have
three layers of stone and one of new timber.
LA GE, "Ezra 6:4 gives still further directions, but it is difficult to understand
them.—Three rows of great stones.—‫ְָך‬‫ב‬ְ‫ִד‬‫נ‬ is used in the Targ. for the Hebrew ‫,טוּר‬
which is from ‫טוּר‬ =circumire, and means the surrounding wall or walls ( Ezekiel
46:23), but also the rows ( Exodus 28:17, etc.; so also indeed 1 Kings 7:3-4).
Fritzsche on Esdras6:25, Keil and Merx (l. c.), regard its meaning as row or course,
and accordingly understand it to be = the walls, whether of the temple (Fritzsche) or
of the inner porch (Keil and Merx)—of the latter it is very appropriately said in 1
Kings 6:36, that Solomon built them: ‫זים‬ ָ‫ר‬ֲ‫א‬ ‫ֹת‬ ‫ת‬ ֻ‫ְר‬‫כּ‬ ‫ְטוּר‬‫ו‬ ‫ִית‬‫ז‬ָ‫נּ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫טוּר‬ ‫ה‬ָ‫לשׁ‬ ְ‫,שׁ‬ they should
have below three layers of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams. But that the walls
of the temple building itself, of which alone we can think according to Ezra 6:3,
should be built of four such courses is highly improbable, for such an unfinished
massive method of building has no where been found in the Orient. But if the walls
of the inner court were meant, these would certainly have been mentioned, or if
something had been left out that was originally contained in the edict of Cyrus for
explanation (Merx), these words would most suitably have been omitted likewise.
Moreover ‫טּוּר‬ in the above mentioned passage, 1 Kings 6:36, very probably has a
different meaning. It is very worthy of remark, that ‫טּוּר‬ as well here as also
immediately afterwards, 1 Kings 7:2, so also in Ezekiel 46:23, occurs with reference
to four-sided rooms, which were enclosed round about, just as ‫ִים‬‫כ‬ָ‫בּ‬ְ‫ִד‬‫נ‬ is used in our
passage. othing is more appropriate then than to understand thereby the four side

enclosures which enclosed the room; whether walls, as in the inner court, 1 Kings
6:36; Ezekiel 46:23, or side buildings that surrounded a four-cornered room, as 1
Kings 7:2. The sense of 1 Kings 7:36, Isaiah, then, that Solomon provided the inner
court on three sides with walls of quarried stone, on the one other side, without
doubt the front side, where the chief entrance was, where then there was probably a
larger door, with an enclosure of hewn cedar. Our passage, however, then says that
three of the temple walls—for it can only refer to these according to Ezra 6:3—were
of hewn stone, the other, namely, the front, which must for the most part be
composed of a large entrance, was to be made of wood. In confirmation of this view
it is sufficient that in the temple of Herod also, the entrance side of the holy place
was still composed of one great folding door, sixteen cubits broad. In the same
manner then, moreover, was the inner court enclosed, as we conclude from 1 Kings
6:36.[F 4]—And a row of now timber.—Instead of ‫ת‬ַ‫ֲד‬‫ח‬ = new after ‫אָע‬ = timber, it is
appropriate to read ‫ה‬ָ‫ֲד‬‫ח‬=one, as then the Sept, already renders εἶς, yet this numeral
is absent also in 1 Kings 6:36.—And let the expenses.—‫א‬ָ‫ְת‬‫קּ‬ְ‫פ‬ִ‫נ‬ from ‫ַק‬‫פ‬ְ‫נ‬ (in Aphel = to
give out) is the expense, and indeed here that which was caused by the building of
the temple.—From the house of the king is according to Ezra 6:8 sq. = from the
royal revenues on this side of the river.
PETT, "Ezra 6:3-4
‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be built on the place
where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be fixed; the height of it to be
threescore cubits, and the breadth of it threescore cubits, with three courses of
massive stones, and a course of new timber, and let the expenses be given out of the
king’s house.’
In it Cyrus declared that ‘concerning the house of God at Jerusalem’, the house was
to be rebuilt on its holy site, the place where sacrifices had been offered, and its
foundations were to be fixed, that is, in the same place as the previous foundations.
His concern was to make use of the ancient sacredness of the site for the benefit of
his realm. He wanted sacrifices to be offered there as a sweet savour to the God of
Heaven while the priests and people prayed for the life of the king and for his sons
(Ezra 6:10). The sacredness of the site would ensure God’s response. He made a
similar request to Marduk, the god of Babylon, and to other gods throughout his
realm. He was seeking to get the gods on his side, and keep the people happy at the
same time.
The building of the Temple was not, however, just a vague command. He wanted to
have some say in how large it would be. So some details of how it was to be built
were recorded, although the main detail was left to the builders who could call on
the knowledge of people who had seen Solomon’s Temple (Ezra 3:12). It was to have
a height of sixty cubits, and a breadth of sixty cubits. In other words it was to be
twice as large as Solomon’s Temple, as befitted a Persian king. (Solomon’s Temple
was thirty cubits high and twenty cubits broad (1 Kings 6:2) but with side rooms at
each side of five cubits (1 Kings 6:6), making thirty cubits in all). It was to be built
with three courses of stones followed by one of timber, the same pattern presumably
being repeated again and again. It would thus be massive, whilst protected against

earthquakes. The courses of timber would enable it to respond to earth movement.
The details of the whole were left for the builders to decide.
This was not intended to be a detailed building plan and we need not therefore ask
why its length is not given. That was already determined by the length of Solomon’s
Temple (sixty cubits in length (1 Kings 6:2) plus additional for the porch and the
back rooms (1 Kings 6:3; 1 Kings 6:16). This might be seen as having the intention
of making a perfect cube, 60 x 60 x 60. It may simply be symbolic with no intention
of carrying it out. The cost of the whole was to be borne by the Persian treasury.
Cyrus undoubtedly expected that the benefits that would accrue to him and his
house for honouring the God of Heaven would far outweigh the cost of building.
This generosity towards the restoration of Temples is paralleled elsewhere. The
kings of Persia were prepared to pay generously for the support of the gods.
5
Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of
God, which ebuchadnezzar took from the temple
in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be
returned to their places in the temple in
Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house
of God.
GILL, "And also let the golden and silver vessels,.... See Ezr_1:7 and which
confirms what the Jews said to Tatnai, Ezr_5:14.
K&D, "Ezr_6:5
“And also let the vessels ... be restored, and brought again to the temple at Jerusalem,
to their place, and (thou) shalt place them in the house of God.” On the matter of this
verse, comp. Ezr_1:7 and Ezr_5:14. The sing. ְ‫ך‬ ַ‫ה‬ְ‫י‬ (comp. Ezr_5:5) is distributive: it (each
vessel) to its place. ‫ת‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ַ‫ת‬ְ‫ו‬ (comp. ‫ת‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ֲ‫א‬ Ezr_5:15) cannot, according to the sense, be third
pers. fem. (neutr.), but only second pers. imperf. Aphel: thou shalt place. None but
Sheshbazzar can be addressed (Ezr_5:15), though he is not named in Ezr_6:3. The

historian is evidently not giving the contents of the document word for word, but only its
essential matter; hence he infers the address to Sheshbazzar from the answer of the
Jewish elders (Ezr_5:15). Perhaps it was also remarked in the document, that Coresh
caused the sacred vessels to be delivered to Sheshbazzar (Ezr_1:8).
BE SO , "Ezra 6:5. And place them in the house of God — Thus far the decree of
Cyrus is recited, which justified all the allegations of the Jews in the foregoing
chapter. In the next verse the decree of Darius thereupon appears to begin.'
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:5 And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God,
which ebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which [is] at Jerusalem, and
brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which [is] at
Jerusalem, [every one] to his place, and place [them] in the house of God.
Ver. 5. And also let the golden and silver vessels] This was decreed, and this was
done accordingly, Ezra 1:7-8. Let good resolutions be put in execution; purpose
without performance is like a cloud without rain; and not unlike Hercules’s club in
the tragedy, of a great bulk, but stuffed with moss and rubbish.
LA GE, "Ezra 6:5 adds the order for the restoration of the temple vessels, that was
so important. The sing. ‫ְַך‬‫ה‬ְ‫י‬ (respecting the form vid.V:5) is explained after the
previous plural from the conception of the different vessels as one sum total. ‫ֵת‬‫ח‬ַ‫,תּ‬
thus written and pointed, Isaiah 2 d pers. imperf. Aph. with transitive meaning =
cause to be delivered, comp. Ezra 5:15. If this meaning is to be retained, we must
suppose that the edict of Cyrus was addressed to some individual, perhaps
Zerubbabel himself, and that Cyrus now turns immediately to him. Yet the
transition to the direct address is here somewhat singular and abrupt, and it seems
best to take ‫ֵת‬‫ח‬ַ‫תּ‬ as 3 d pers. fem. imperf. Kal, which indeed should be pointed ‫חוֹת‬ֵ‫תּ‬
or at least ‫ֹת‬ ‫ח‬ֵ‫תּ‬ with the indefinite subject.
Ezra 6:6. The previous edict of Cyrus is now followed by the order of Darius, so
favorable and careful in its provisions for the Jews, that it is as if the latter would
not only confirm the former’s action out of reverence, but even surpass him. If it
should be difficult for the little congregation of Jews to conduct the worship in
Jerusalem in accordance with the prescriptions of the law, in that a great expense
was especially necessary for the offerings, Darius helped them to bear the burden by
his great liberality. He at first in Ezra 6:6-7 arranged that his governor should not
hinder the work.— ow therefore Tatnai, etc.—For the connection with previous
context see notes on Ezra 6:1.—And your companions, your Apharsachites = those
who are your companions, etc. For an explanation of the terms comp. Ezra 5:3;
Ezra 5:6.—Be (or keep yourself) far from thence, e. g., interfere not with the
imposition of burdens or hindrances.
PETT, "Ezra 6:5
‘And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which ebuchadnezzar
took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be

restored, and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to its
place, and you shall put them in the house of God.’
Furthermore the Temple vessels of gold and silver, which had been appropriated by
ebuchadnezzar, were to be restored to the house of God in Jerusalem, ‘every one
to its place’. All was to be restored as formerly. The God of Heaven was to be fully
satisfied that His house and everything in it was as before, courtesy of the kings of
Persia. The minutiae of ritual was to be scrupulously followed, thus ensuring
maximum benefit for the realm. Following the correct ritual would have been seen
as important.
‘You shall put them in the house of God.’ It is noteworthy that all references to
Cyrus’ edict stress that the Temple is ‘the house of God’. See Ezra 1:2-4; Ezra 4:3.
6
ow then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates,
and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow
officials of that province, stay away from there.
BAR ES, "This verse gives the words of the decree of Darius, which was grounded
upon, and probably recited, the decree of Cyrus.
CLARKE, "Be ye far from thence - Do not interrupt the Jews in their building;
but, on the contrary further them all in your power.
GILL, "Now therefore Tatnai, governor beyond the river,.... The river
Euphrates, that side of it towards the land of Israel; Josephus (z) calls this man master
of the horse:
Shetharboznai, and your companions the Apharsachites, which are beyond
the river, be ye far from thence; keep at a distance from the Jews, and give them no
disturbance, nor interrupt them in their work of building of the temple, but mind your
own business and government.
HE RY, " The confirmation of it by a decree of Darius, grounded upon it and in

pursuance of it.
1. The decree of Darius is very explicit and satisfactory.
(1.) He forbids his officers to do any thing in opposition to the building of the temple.
The manner of expression intimates that he knew they had a mind to hinder it: Be you
far hence (Ezr_6:6); let the work of this house of God alone, Ezr_6:7. Thus was the
wrath of the enemy made to praise God and the remainder thereof did he restrain.
K&D, "Ezr_6:6-12
Acting upon the discovered edict, Darius warned the governor and royal officials on
this side the Euphrates, not to hinder the building of the house of God at Jerusalem. On
the contrary, they were to promote it by furnishing what was necessary for the work, and
paying the expenses of the building out of the royal revenues to the elders of the Jews
(Ezr_6:6-8). They were also to provide for the worship of God in this temple such
animals as the priests should require for sacrifice (Ezr_6:9, Ezr_6:10), under pain of
severe punishment for transgressing this command as also for any injury done to the
temple (Ezr_6:11, Ezr_6:12). This decree was undoubtedly communicated to the
governor in the form of a written answer to his inquiries (Ezr_6:13). Without, however,
expressly stating this to be the case, as Ezr_6:1 and Ezr_4:17 would lead us to expect, the
historian gives us in Ezr_6:6. the actual contents of the royal edict, and that in the form
of a direct injunction to the governor and his associates on this side the river: “Now
Tatnai, governor, ... be ye far from thence.” The suffix ‫ּון‬‫ה‬ ְ‫ֽת‬ָ‫ו‬ָ‫נ‬ ְ‫,וּכ‬ and their associates, is
indeed unsuitable to the form of an address, of which Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai are the
subjects; the narrator, however, in using it, had in mind the title or introduction of the
royal letter. On this matter, comp. Ezr_5:6. ‫ק‬ ַ‫ח‬ ָ‫ר‬ and ‫יק‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ְ‫,ר‬ to be far from, figuratively to
keep from anything, e.g., from good, Psa_53:2. ‫ה‬ ָ ַ ‫ן־‬ ִ‫,מ‬ from thence, from Jerusalem; in
other words, trouble yourselves no longer, as, according to Ezr_5:3, you have done
about what is being done there.
COFFMA , "Verse 6
BE SO , "Ezra 6:6-7. Be ye far from thence — Come not near Jerusalem to give
the Jews any hinderance or disturbance. Let the work of the house of God alone —
The manner of expression intimates that he knew they had an inclination to hinder
it. Thus was the wrath of the enemy made to praise God, and the remainder thereof
did he restrain.
DARIUS' REPLY TO TATTE AI; GOVER OR BEYO D THE RIVER
" ow therefore, Tettanai, governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your
companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, be ye far from thence: let
the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of
the Jews build this house of God in its place."
"This order must have stunned Tettanai and his companions."[9] ot only did
Darius confirm the existence of the decree of Cyrus, he added his own authority and
power to back it up, and even commanded the expenses of the project to be borne by

the tax revenues which Tattenai controlled; and that probably meant that some of
the expense would come out of Tattenai's own pockets.
"Be ye far from thence" (Ezra 6:6). This should not be interpreted to mean that the
governor was not to go near the temple for purposes of inspection; but, "It meant:
Do not interfere with or impede the work on the building."[10] Matthew Henry
commented that, "The manner of Darius' expression here indicates that he knew
that Tattenai and his companions had a mind to hinder the work."[11
TRAPP, "Ezra 6:6 ow [therefore], Tatnai, governor beyond the river,
Shetharboznai, and your companions the Apharsachites, which [are] beyond the
river, be ye far from thence:
Ver. 6. Be ye far from thence] i.e. Come not at them, to hinder them at all. Thus,
though the Church’s enemies bandy together and bend all their forces against her;
yet are they bounded by Almighty God (who saith unto them, Be ye far from
thence), as is the raging sea, Jeremiah 5:22. Surely, saith the psalmist, the wrath of
man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain, Heb. gird, that is,
keep it within compass, as with a girdle. The Septuagint render it thus, The remnant
of wrath shall keep holy day to thee, that is, it shall rest from working, or acting,
how restless soever it be within.
WHEDO , "6. ow therefore, Tatnai — Here Darius turns from quoting the
record of Cyrus, which forms a part of his letter in answer to the Samaritan
governor’s letter, (Ezra 5:5, note,) and proceeds to prohibit all interference with the
Jews or hindering of their work.
Be ye far from thence — That is, far from Jerusalem. Meddle not at all with their
work.
CO STABLE, "Verses 6-12
Darius" decree6:6-12
Evidently Darius also saw the Jerusalem temple as a monument to his own success.
He instructed Tattenai to allow the Jewish governor, Zerubbabel, and his people to
proceed unobstructed. Darius seems to have viewed Zerubbabel as the ruler of the
Jews living in the jurisdiction of Tattenai, who governed the whole province that
included Palestine and Jerusalem. Darius further specified that the provincial
treasury should pay all costs ( Ezra 6:8), and that the provincial governor should
provide the items required for sacrifices in the temple. The king also wanted the
Jews to pray for him and his family ( Ezra 6:10).
"Although Darius revered Ahuramazda especially, it is understandable that in a
world of polytheism he would want to make sure that he was in the favor of every
god in his empire." [ ote: Fensham, The Books ..., p90.]
One wonders if stories about Daniel (ca605-536 B.C.), who served under Cyrus (

Daniel 6:28), might have had some influence on Darius. The Darius that the book of
Daniel mentions, however, was Darius the Mede, not this Darius, who was a Persian.
". . . Darius [the Persian] himself was a monotheist and an adherent of the new faith
of Zoroastrianism, but it is not known whether this religious orientation had any
effect on his policies this early in his reign." [ ote: Vos, p49.]
Impaling ( Ezra 6:11) was a common method of execution in the Persian Empire (cf.
Esther 7:9-10), and Darius practiced it. After he subdued a rebellion in Babylon,
Darius impaled3 ,000 rebels there. [ ote: Herodotus, 2:3:159.]
"Impalement was a well-known kind of punishment in the ancient ear East for
grave offenses. One side [end?] of a beam was sharpened and the other side planted
in the ground. The sharp point was inserted under the chest of a person and pushed
through his esophagus and lungs. He was then left to hang until he died." [ ote:
Fensham, The Books . . ., p91.]
The king closed his decree by calling down Yahweh"s curse on anyone who might
attempt to change it ( Ezra 6:12).
"Darius" curse on anyone who would destroy the temple was fulfilled in: (a)
Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated it in167 B.C, and died insane three years
later; (b) Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.), who added extensively to the temple to glorify
himself, and who had domestic trouble and died of disease; and (c) the Romans ,
who destroyed the temple in A.D70 , and later had their empire destroyed." [ ote:
Martin, pp663-64.]
PETT, "Verses 6-12
The King Instructs Tattenai On How To Proceed (Ezra 6:6-12).
Having established what was in the decree of Cyrus, king Darius now issued his
instructions to Tattenai and his colleagues on how they are to proceed. ot only
were the returnees to be allowed to complete the building of the house of God, but
they were to be assisted out of state revenues. Furthermore they were to be provided
with everything that was necessary in order to fully satisfy the God of Heaven, in
the form of offerings and sacrifices, and all that pertained to them. Darius was
clearly well informed concerning the requirements. He would have had many
Jewish advisers.
Ezra 6:6
‘ ow therefore, Tattenai, governor of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your
companions the Apharsachites, who are of Beyond the River, be you far from there
(‘leave them alone’ or ‘go somewhere else’).’
ote the formal nature of the address. It follows exactly the pattern of the original
letter addressed to Darius (Ezra 5:6). And it informed Tattenai and his assistants
that they were to leave the builders alone to get on with what they were doing. ‘Be

you far from there’ signifies that they are to leave things alone, and possibly
suggests that they are to move elsewhere as they are no longer required to be at the
site of the new Temple. That would not, of course, mean that they were not to check
up on how the work was going, but that they should not interfere in any way while it
was going smoothly.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "THE DEDICATIO OF THE
TEMPLE
Ezra 6:6-22
THE chronicler’s version of the edict in which Darius replies to the application of
the Satrap Tattenai is so very friendly to the Jews that questions have been raised as
to its genuineness. We cannot but perceive that the language has been modified in its
transition from the Persian terra-cotta cylinder to the roll of the Hebrew chronicler,
because the Great King could not have spoken of the religion of Israel in the
absolute phrases recorded in the Book of Ezra. But when all allowance has been
made for verbal alterations in translation and transcription, the substance of the
edict is still sufficiently remarkable. Darius fully endorses the decree of Cyrus, and
even exceeds that gracious ordinance in generosity. He curtly bids Tattenai "let the
work of the house of God alone." He even orders the Satrap to provide for this work
out of the revenues of his district. The public revenues are also to be used in
maintaining the Jewish priests and in providing them with sacrifices-"that they may
offer sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the
king and of his sons." [Ezra 6:10]
On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that Darius sent a reply that was
favourable to the Jews, for all opposition to their work was stopped, and means
were found for completing the temple and maintaining the costly ritual. The Jews
gratefully acknowledged the influence of God on the heart of Darius. Surely they
were right in doing so. They were gifted with the true insight of faith. It is no
contradiction to add that-in the earthly sphere and among the human motives
through which God works by guiding them-what we know of Darius will account to
some extent for his friendliness towards the Jews. He was a powerful ruler, and
when he had quelled the serious rebellions that had broken out in several quarters
of his kingdom, he organised his government in a masterly style with a new and
thorough system of satrapies. Then he pushed his conquests farther afield, and
subsequently came into contact with Europe, although ultimately to suffer a
humiliating defeat in the famous battle of Marathon. In fact, we may regard him as
the real founder of the Persian Empire. Cyrus, though his family was of Persian
origin, was originally a king of Elam, and he had to conquer Persia before he could
rule over it, but Darius was a prince of the Persian royal house. Unlike Cyrus, he
was at least a monotheist, if not a thoroughgoing Zoroastrian. The inscription on his
tomb at aksh-i-Rustem attributes all that he has achieved to the favour of Ormazd.
"When Ormazd saw this earth filled with revolt and civil war, then did he entrust it
to me. He made me king, and I am king. By the grace of Ormazd I have restored the

earth."
"All that I have done I have done through the grace of Ormazd. Ormazd brought
help to me until I had completed my work. May Ormazd protect from evil me and
my house and this land. Therefore I pray unto Ormazd, May Ormazd grant this to
me."
"O Man! May the command of Ormazd not be despised by thee, leave not the path
of right, sin not"
Such language implies a high religious conception of life. Although it is a mistake to
suppose that the Jews had borrowed anything of importance from Zoroastrianism
during the captivity or in the time of Cyrus-inasmuch as that religion was then
scarcely known in Babylon-when it began to make itself felt there, its similarity to
Judaism could not fail to strike the attention of observant men. It taught the
existence of one supreme God-though it coordinated the principles of good and evil
in His being, as two subsidiary existences, in a manner not allowed by Judaism-and
it encouraged prayer. It also insisted on the dreadful evil of sin and urged men to
strive after purity, with an earnestness that witnessed to the blending of morality
with religion to an extent unknown elsewhere except among the Jews. Thus, if
Darius were a Zoroastrian, he would have two powerful links of sympathy with the
Jews in opposition to the corrupt idolatry of the heathen-the spiritual monotheism
and the earnest morality that were common to the two religions. And in any case it
is not altogether surprising to learn that when he read the letter of the people who
described themselves as "the servants of the God of heaven and earth," the
worshipper of Ormazd should have sympathised with them rather than with their
semi-pagan opponents. Moreover, Darius must have known something of Judaism
from the Jews of Babylon. Then, he was restoring the temples of Ormazd which his
predecessor had destroyed. But the Jews were engaged in a very similar work;
therefore the king, in his antipathy to the idolaters, would give no sanction to a
heathenish opposition to the building of the temple at Jerusalem by a people who
believed in One Spiritual God.
Darius was credited with a generous disposition, which would incline him to a
kindly treatment of his subjects. Of course we must interpret this according to the
manners of the times. For example, in his edict about the temple-building he gives
orders that any one of his subjects who hinders the work is to be impaled on a beam
from his own house, the site of which is to be used for a refuse heap. [Ezra 6:11]
Darius also invokes the God of the Jews to destroy any foreign king or people who
should attempt to alter or destroy the temple at Jerusalem. The savagery of his
menace is in harmony with his conduct when, according to Herodotus, he impaled
three thousand men at Babylon after he had recaptured the city. Those were cruel
times-Herodotus tells us that the besieged Babylonians had previously strangled
their own wives when they were running short of provisions. The imprecation with
which the edict closes may be matched by one on the inscription of Darius at
Behistum, where the Great King invokes the curse of Ormazd on any persons who
should injure the tablet. The ancient despotic world-rulers had no conception of the

modern virtue of humanitarianism. It is sickening to picture to ourselves their
methods of government. The enormous misery involved is beyond calculation. Still
we may believe that the worst threats were not always carried out; we may make
some allowance for Oriental extravagance of language. And yet, after all has been
said, the conclusion of the edict of Darius presents to us a kind of state support for
religion which no one would defend in the present day. In accepting the help of the
Persian sovereign the Jews could not altogether dissociate themselves from his way
of government. evertheless it is fair to remember that they had not asked for his
support. They had simply desired to be left unmolested.
Tattenai loyally executed the decree of Darius; the temple-building proceeded
without further hindrance, and the work was completed about four years after its
recommencement at the instigation of the prophet Haggai. Then came the joyous
ceremony of the dedication. All the returned exiles took part in it. They are named
collectively "the children of Israel" - another indication that the restored Jews were
regarded by the chronicler as the representatives of the whole united nation as this
had existed under David and Solomon before the great schism. Similarly there are
twelve he-goats for the sin-offering-for the twelve tribes. [Ezra 6:17] Several classes
of Israelites are enumerated, -first the clergy in their two orders, the priests and the
Levites, always kept distinct in Ezra; next the laity, who are described as "the
children of the captivity." The limitation of this phrase is significant. In the
dedication of the temple the Israelites of the land who were mixed up with the
heathen people are not included. Only the returned exiles had built the temple; only
they were associated in the dedication of it. Here is a strictly guarded Church.
Access to it is through the one door of-an unimpeachable genealogical record.
Happily the narrowness of this arrangement is soon to be broken through. In the
meanwhile it is to be observed that it is just the people who have endured the
hardship of separation from their beloved Jerusalem to whom the privilege of
rejoicing in the completion of the new temple is given. The tame existence that
cannot fathom the depths of misery is incapable of soaring to the heights of bliss.
The joy of the harvest is for those who have sown in tears.
The work was finished, and yet its very completion was a new commencement. The
temple was now dedicated-literally "initiated"-for the future service of God.
This dedication is an instance of the highest use of man’s work. The fruit of years of
toil and sacrifice is given to God. Whatever theories we may have about the
consecration of a building-and surely every building that is put to a sacred use is in
a sense a sacred building-there can be no question as to the rightness of dedication.
This is just the surrender to God of what was built for Him out of the resources that
he had supplied. A dedication service is a solemn act of transfer by which a building
is given over to the use of God. We may save it from narrowness if we do not limit it
to places of public assembly. The home where the family altar is set up. where day
by day prayer is offered, and where the common round of domestic duties is
elevated and consecrated by being faithfully discharged as in the sight of God, is a
true sanctuary; it too, like the Jerusalem temple, has its "Holy of Holies." Therefore
when a family enters a new house, or when two young lives cross the threshold of

what is to be henceforth their "home," there is as true a ground for a solemn act of
dedication as in the opening of a great temple. A prophet declared that "Holiness to
the Lord" was to characterise the very vessels of household use in Jerusalem.
[Zechariah 14:21] It may lift some of the burden of drudgery which presses on
people who are compelled to spend their time in common house-toil, for them to
perceive that they may become priests and priestesses ministering at the altar even
in their daily work. In the same spirit truly devout men of business will dedicate
their shops, their factories, their offices, the tools of their work, and the enterprises
in which they engage, so that all may be regarded as belonging to God, and only to
be used as His will dictates. Behind every such act of dedication there must be a
prior act of self-consecration, without which the gift of any mere thing to God is but
an insult to the Father who only seeks the hearts of His children. ay, without this a
real gift of any kind is impossible. But the people who have first given their own
selves to the Lord are prepared for all other acts of surrender.
According to the custom of their ritual, the Jews signalised the dedication of the
temple by the offering of sacrifices. Even with the help of the king’s bounty these
were few in number compared with the lavish holocausts that were offered in the
ceremony of dedicating Solomon’s temple. [1 Kings 8:63] Here, in the external
aspect of things, the melancholy archaeologists might have found another cause for
lamentation. But we are not told that any such people appeared on the present
occasion. The Jews were not so foolish as to believe that the value of a religious
movement could be ascertained by the study of architectural dimensions. Is it less
misleading to attempt to estimate the spiritual prosperity of a Church by casting up
the items of its balance-sheet, or tabulating the numbers of its congregations?
Looking more closely into the chronicler’s description of the sacrifices, we see that
these were principally of two distinct kinds. [Ezra 6:17] There were some animals
for burnt-offerings, which signified complete dedication, and pledged their offerers
to it. Then there were other animals for sin-offerings. Thus even in the joyous
dedication of the temple the sin, of Israel could not be forgotten. The increasing
importance of sacrifices for sin is one of the most marked features of the Hebrew
ritual in its later stages of development. It shows that in the course of ages the
national consciousness of sin was intensified. At the same time it makes it clear that
the inexplicable conviction that without shedding of blood there could be no
remission of sins was also deepened. Whether the sacrifice was regarded as a gift
pleasing and propitiating an offended God, or as a substitute bearing the death-
penalty of sin, or as a sacred life, bestowing, by means of its blood, new life on
sinners who had forfeited their own lives, in any case, and however it was
interpreted, it was felt that blood must be shed if the sinner was to be freed from
guilt. Throughout the ages this awful thought was more and more vividly presented,
and the mystery which the conscience of many refused to abandon continued, until
there was a great revelation of the true meaning of sacrifice for sin in the one
efficacious atonement of Christ.
A subsidiary point to be noticed here is that there were just twelve he-goats
sacrificed for the twelve tribes of Israel. These were national sin-offerings, and not

EZRA 6 COMMENTARY EXPLORING THE DECREE OF CYRUS

EZRA 6 COMMENTARY EXPLORING THE DECREE OF CYRUS

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EZRA 6 COMMENTARY EXPLORING THE DECREE OF CYRUS