ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Ezra 5

5:1–17 The Work Is Resumed, and Local Officials Seek Confirm­ation of Cyrus’s Decree. After a period of inactivity, the leaders resume work on rebuilding the temple, and provincial officials inquire into its legitimacy.

Ezra 5:1–2 The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, are also known from their books. These two books contain prophecies made in the second year of King Darius, 520 b.c. (Hag. 1:1; 2:1; Zech. 1:1, 7; see note on Ezra 4:24; see also 6:14). Haggai says the people had lost sight of their priority of rebuilding the temple (Hag. 1:4–6). Ezra 5:1–2 connects the work of the prophets and the renewed activity. Zerubbabel and Jeshua are simply reconfirming Cyrus’s decree, recognizing it as God’s will.

Ezra 5:3–5 The officials Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai are much more neutral than the officials in 4:8–10. Clearly they have no knowledge of Cyrus’s decree, probably because the work had long been stopped. They are interested only in the proper authorization of this work. They do not interfere with its progress. The eye of their God was watching over the builders’ activity and protecting them.

Ezra 5:6–17 Verse 6 introduces the copy of the letter sent by Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai to Darius, and vv. 8–17 recite the letter itself.

Ezra 5:8 The province of Judah lay within the Persian province Beyond the River (see also note on 2:69). Tattenai (5:6) served as governor of the province, in Samaria. The house of the great God is a diplomatic way of referring to the temple and the God of Israel. It does not imply the letter writers believe in him.

Ezra 5:11 The letter writers probably got their information from the returned exiles themselves, since it reflects their understanding of the situation. Instead of giving their actual names when asked, the returned exiles say, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth. That is, they are serving the one true God of the whole world. The great king of Israel is Solomon.

Ezra 5:12 This verse sums up the message of 1–2 Kings.

Ezra 5:13–15 These verses repeat information given in 1:2–4. The text stops short of claiming that Cyrus had also commanded that the rebuilding be funded by donations from places in Babylon where the exiles lived (see note on 1:3–4). This was perhaps more than Tattenai or even the exiles cared to suggest at this point.

Ezra 5:13 Cyrus the king made a decree. See 1:1–4.

Ezra 5:14 Sheshbazzar was one of the early leaders of the returning exiles (see 1:8). Here he is called governor, a name applied to Tattenai himself in 5:3. The term could be used loosely, since Judah would not have had a “governor” on a par with the governor of the entire province Beyond the River (v. 6, etc.). Darius’s reply also refers to a “governor of the Jews” (6:7), a name given to Zerubbabel in Hag. 1:1.

Ezra 5:16–17 it has been in building. The period when building had stopped was irrelevant both to the information Tattenai was giving and the request he was making. Tattenai, following the Jews’ own account, wants to link the original authorization and the present building activity. So he portrays Sheshbazzar as having laid the temple’s foundations, since it was under his authority, though that achievement is attributed to Zerubbabel and Jeshua in 3:8–10.