Ezrachapter 4
24 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 5th century BC · History
Thus the construction of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, Ezra Overview.
This chapter was written for a small community that had begun to rebuild and found that its neighbours meant to stop it. Tradition gives the book to Ezra, who drew on the official records of the Persian court. Its first hearers knew how an empire worked, with governors, scribes and royal letters. The chapter gathers opposition from several reigns into one place, and part of it is written in Aramaic, the language of the Persian offices. Listen for the argument the letters use to move a king, and notice how little of it is about worship. Read it as a lesson in how resistance usually comes.
Context
- Who
- A community learning that the fight would be fought with letters, not swords
- What
- A record of the opposition to the returned people, from a refused offer of partnership to a royal decree that stopped the work.
- Where
- The building site in Jerusalem, the province of Samaria and the region west of the Euphrates, and the Persian court the letters were sent to.
- When
- The main events run from about 536 to 520 BC, while verses 6 to 23 reach forward to complaints under Xerxes and Artaxerxes decades later; the chapter is arranged by subject, and the later dates are well attested.
- Why
- To show the community that opposition would come through offers, pressure and paperwork, and that the refusal of a false partnership was right even when it cost them years.
Historical context
It starts with an offer of help. "Let us build with you; for we seek your God as ye do." The people making the offer were descendants of populations Assyria had resettled in the north generations earlier, who worshiped the God of the land alongside their own gods. Zerubbabel refuses, and the offer turns instantly into obstruction.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The methods used are bureaucratic and effective: discouraging the people, weakening their hands, hiring counselors against them, and finally writing to the king. The work stopped and stayed stopped until the second year of Darius, about sixteen years, the exact stretch Haggai preached into.
Beginning at verse 8 the book switches into Aramaic and stays there for several chapters. That was not exotic; Aramaic was the working language of the Persian chancery, used for official correspondence from Egypt to India. Preserving these letters in their original language is the sort of thing an archive-based writer does.
The complaint sent to Artaxerxes is a shrewd piece of work. It never mentions religion. It says Jerusalem is a rebellious city with a long record, that if the walls go up the province will stop paying toll, tribute, and custom, and it suggests the king check the archives. Loss of revenue was the argument most likely to move a Persian treasury.
It worked. A decree came back ordering the work to cease, and the officials went up to Jerusalem "by force and power" and made them stop. That episode concerns the city walls in a later reign, which is why Nehemiah later hears that the wall is broken down and the gates burned.
Significance
For the returnees this chapter said opposition would not usually look like an army. It looked like a friendly offer, then a rumor, then a lawyer, then a letter with the king's seal on it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also warned them about the cost of a right refusal. Saying no to the offer in verse 2 bought them sixteen years of stoppage, and the book still records the refusal as the correct decision.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The opposition to the building has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Ezra, and no festival reading.
The chapter is met in the study of the Torah portions, and the corpus shows three joins. Under the third verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 10:1. Under the ninth it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:12, and under the twenty-fourth Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:14.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. He names the adversaries at once. "They are the nations whom Sannecherib settled in the land Israel" (Rashi on Ezra 4:1:1), and he cites 2 Kings 17:24 for their settling in Samaria. Their offer to build he reads as a stratagem. They made it "in order that through them the work of the Temple should be disrupted, that they should build no more" (Rashi on Ezra 4:2:1). The answer "but we" he reads as "we alone shall build" (Rashi on Ezra 4:3:1).
The kings of the chapter are read by the rabbinic chronology. Ahasuerus "reigned after Cyrus; he is the Ahasuerus who took Esther" (Rashi on Ezra 4:6:1). At Artaxerxes Rashi goes further and makes one man of three names. He counts the letters of Cyrus and of Darius to the same number, 520. He then cites Tractate Rosh Hashanah (3b): "The same one is Cyrus, who is Darius, who is Artaxerxes." (Rashi on Ezra 4:7:1). He adds Seder Olam, chapter 30, for the reading that the whole kingdom was called Artaxerxes. Two readings stand in the one note, and he leaves both in it.
From the letter onward Rashi marks the language. His note on the ninth verse reads "Then Aram. אֱדַיִן, equivalent to the Hebrew אָז." (Rashi on Ezra 4:9:1). Several of his notes through the letter and the reply restate the Aramaic closely (Rashi on Ezra 4:11:1 to 4:19:1). At the king's search of the annals he reads the mighty kings of Jerusalem as rulers over the whole region beyond the river, citing Solomon's dominion in 1 Kings 5:4 (Rashi on Ezra 4:20:1).
The last verse he reads as the end of a count of seventy years. From the destruction of the Temple under Zedekiah to the first year of Cyrus were fifty-two years, "as is explained in Seder Olam (ch. 29)". Eighteen more ran to the second year of Darius (Rashi on Ezra 4:24:1). He names Darius there as the son of Ahasuerus and Esther. All twenty-four entries the corpus holds on this chapter are kept, and none is linked.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the adversaries, it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:14, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:21:3 and 32:41:2, Sifrei Devarim 331:3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 946:17. On the second it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:5:1 and Tractate Soferim 6:6. On the third, the refusal, it holds Arakhin 5b:15, Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 1:4:1 and 1:4:5, and Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 10:1. On the fourth it holds Arakhin 5b:20.
The kings draw the next run. On the sixth verse, Ahasuerus, the corpus holds Megillah 11a:15, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:20, Esther Rabbah, Petichta 8 and Kohelet Rabbah 10:13:1. On the seventh, Artaxerxes, it holds Sanhedrin 22a:1, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 2:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 2:15, and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:9:4.
The letter and the stopping of the work carry the rest. On the ninth verse the corpus holds Eikhah Rabbah 2:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:12, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:22 and Seder Olam Rabbah 22:1. On the tenth it holds Sanhedrin 94a:12, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:24 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:25. On the twelfth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 64:10, and on the thirteenth Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 8:2, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nedarim 8:3 and Esther Rabbah, Petichta 5. On the seventeenth it holds Megillah 16a:1, on the twenty-first Esther Rabbah 1:1, and on the twenty-third Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther, Introduction 3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 651:7. On the twenty-fourth it holds Megillah 11b:14, Arakhin 13a:3, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:23 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:14. The corpus also sets Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 43:10 under an anchor it prints as Ezra 4:39. That is past the last verse its commentary on this chapter reaches, so it is listed here as the corpus gives it. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezra 4:1:1 to 4:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezra/4.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter, one of them under the anchor Ezra 4:39; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0 and festivalReadingForBook null.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Let us build with you: an offer refused, and counselors hired
Ezra 4:1-2
the enemies of Judah and Benjamin: When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin hear that the exiles are building the temple, they come to Zerubbabel with an offer of kinship. They claim to seek the same God and to have sacrificed to Him since the time of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought them here.
we seek your God: Verse 1 names the speakers enemies of Judah and Benjamin. Albert Barnes identifies these men as Samaritans, a mixed people, partly Israelite and chiefly foreign. He notes from 2 Kings 17:29-41 that they had joined idolatrous rites to the worship of the LORD.
Ezra 4:2
“Compare 2Ki 17:24-28 notes. Since the days - Esar-haddon reigned from 681-668 B.C. Thus, the Samaritans speak of what had taken place at least 130 years previously. There appear to have been at least three colonizations of Samaria by the Assyrian kings. The first is mentioned in 2Ki 17:24. Later in his reign Sargon added to these first settlers an Arabian element. Some 30 or 40 years afterward, Esarhaddon, his grandson, largely augmented the population by colonists drawn especially from the southeast parts of the Empire Ezr 4:10. Thus, the later Samaritans were an exceedingly mixed race.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezra 4:2
“Herein they designed, if it were possible, to hinder the building of it, at least to hinder their comfortable enjoyment of it; as good almost not have it as not have it to themselves, for the pure worship of the true God and him only. Thus are the kisses of an enemy deceitful; his words are smoother than butter when war is in his heart.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezra 4:2
“Let us build with you - We acknowledge the same God, are solicitous for his glory, and will gladly assist you in this work. But that they came with no friendly intention, the context proves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the family heads refuse: "You have no part with us in building a house for our God". They rest the refusal on the decree itself, since Cyrus king of Persia commanded their company to build. The breach later hardens into the Samaritan division that John 4:9 records.
Ezra 4:3
“Ye have nothing to do with us - Because the Samaritans had united idolatrous rites with the worship of Yahweh 2Ki 17:29-41. To have allowed them a share in restoring the temple would have been destructive of all purity of religion. As king Cyrus ... commanded us - The exact words of the edict gave the right of building exclusively to those who should “go up” from Babylonia to Judaea Ezr 1:3.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:3
“Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God--This refusal to co-operate with the Samaritans, from whatever motives it sprang, was overruled by Providence for ultimate good; for, had the two peoples worked together, familiar acquaintanceship and intermarriage would have ensued, and the result might have been a relapse of the Jews into idolatry.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezra 4:4-5
set out to discourage the people of Judah: Refused, the people of the land turn from persuasion to pressure. They discourage the people of Judah, make them afraid to build, and hire counselors against them to frustrate their plans. The opposition runs across reigns as a steady policy, and the verse sets up the long parenthesis that follows.
Ezra 4:4
“Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. By threatening them, or by dissuading the workmen from going on, by endeavouring to hinder their having materials from the Tyrians and Zidonians, or money out of the king's revenues to bear the expenses as ordered; see Ezr 6:4.”
They hired counselors against them: Albert Barnes reads hired counselors as officials at the Persian court, bribed to put delays and difficulties in the way of the work. He identifies this Darius as Darius son of Hystaspes. The pressure moved from the building site to the king's court.
The letter to Artaxerxes: this rebellious and bad city
At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes: The narrative jumps forward to the reign of Ahasuerus, where unnamed accusers write against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. The verse gives no content for this letter, only its existence. Keil reads verses 6 through 23 as a topical block on the opposition, gathered here out of strict order.
Ezra 4:6
“In the reign of Ahasuerus - This is the person who is called Cambyses by the Greeks. He reigned seven years and five months; and during the whole of that time the building of the temple was interrupted.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia: A second episode follows under Artaxerxes: Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and their associates write a letter to the king, written in Aramaic and then translated. From the next verse the text itself shifts into Aramaic and stays there through 6:18. The book files the empire's letters in the empire's own language.
Ezra 4:7
“Artaxerxes - Gomates, the Pseudo-Smerdis. He succeeded Cambyses (521 B.C.), and reigned for seven months, when he was deposed and executed by Darius Hystaspis. Written in the Syrian tongue ... - Or, “written in Syriac characters and translated into Syriac.” On the use of this tongue as a medium of communication between the Jews and their Eastern neighbors, see 2Ki 18:26 note.”
Ezra 4:8-10
wrote the letter against Jerusalem: Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe write against Jerusalem. Verse 10 traces them to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who settled them in the cities of Samaria, the policy 2 Kings 17:24 records. The signers come from the same population that offered to help build in verse 2.
Ezra 4:8
“Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort. This means the same letter as before; which, according to Jarchi, was sent in the name of Mithredath Tabeel and his company, was endited by Rehum, master of words or sense, and written by Shimshai the scribe, whom he makes to be a son of Haman (i); but it was written rather in all their names. (i) So Midrash Esther, fol. 85. 3.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:8
“Rehum the chancellor - With this verse the Chaldee part of the chapter begins; and the same language continues to the end of Ezr 6:18. These men wrote to Darius in their own language; and the king in the same dialect returns an answer, chap. 5. This circumstance adds authenticity to what is written: so scrupulous was the inspired penman, that he not only gave the words which each spoke and wrote, but he gave them also in the very language in which they were conceived and in the character peculiar to that language.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Gill reads every name in the list as a people, colonies from Chaldea, Media and Persia settled in the cities of Samaria. The Berean reads several words as offices, the judges and officials, and the rest as places and peoples. Albert Barnes finds no satisfactory explanation of Apharsathchites.
Ezra 4:9
“Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions,.... who all signed the letter; namely, the governors of the following nations: the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites; which were colonies from several parts of Chaldea, Media, and Persia, and were settled in the several cities of Samaria, as several of their names plainly show, as from Persia, Erech, Babylon, Shushan, and Elimais; some account for them all, but with uncertainty; according to R.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:9
“These verses form the superscription or address of the letter (Ezr 4:11, etc.) sent to Artaxerxes. The Dinaites were probably colonists from Dayan, a country often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions as bordering on Cilicia and Cappadocia. No satisfactory explanation can be given of the name Apharsathchites (see Ezr 5:6 note). The Tarpelites were colonists from the nation which the Assyrians called Tuplai, the Greeks “Tibareni,” and the Hebrews generally “Tubal.” (It is characteristic of the later Hebrew language to insert the letter “r” (resh) before labials. Compare Darmesek for Dammesek, 2Ch 28:23 margin).”
the great and honorable Ashurbanipal: Adam Clarke, reading the name as Asnapper, reports that learned men disagreed over who he was. Some took him for Shalmaneser and some for King Esar-haddon of Assyria, and Clarke allows he may have been an officer who escorted these peoples. The Syriac version calls him Asphid.
Ezra 4:10
“The great and noble Asnapper - Whether this was Shalmaneser, or Esar-haddon, or some other person, learned men and chronologists are not agreed. The Syriac terms him Asphid; but of this person we know no more than we do of Asnapper. He might have been the military officer who was appointed to escort this people to Judea.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezra 4:11-13
(This is the text of the letter: The charge is specific. The Jews are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city, and if the work goes on they will not pay tribute, duty, or toll. The accusers argue from the royal treasury, making a rebuilt wall a threat to Persian income.
Ezra 4:11
“And at such a time - The word וכענת ucheeneth has greatly perplexed all commentators and critics. The versions give us no light; and the Vulgate translates it et dicunt salutem, “and they wish prosperity.” Some translate it and so forth; and our translators supposed that it referred to the date, which however is not specified, and might have been as easily entered as the words and at such a time.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
that rebellious and wicked city: The accusation fixes on the city, its walls and its foundations. Rebellious and wicked are the writers' words, and verse 15 sends the king to his archives to confirm them. Matthew Henry calls their report of the present work grossly false in matter of fact.
they will not pay tribute, duty, or toll: Albert Barnes takes tribute as the money tax, duty as payment in kind, and toll, probably, as a charge for use of the Persian highways. He finds the word for royal treasury nowhere else.
Ezra 4:13
“Toll, tribute, and custom - Rather, “tribute, provision, and toll” (so Ezr 4:20). The “tribute” is the money-tax imposed on each province, and apportioned to the inhabitants by the local authorities; the “provision” is the payment in kind, which was an integral part of the Persian system; the “tolI” is probably a payment required from those who used the Persian highways. The revenue - The word thus translated is not found elsewhere, and can only be conjecturally interpreted.”
Ezra 4:14-16
we are in the service of the palace: They ask Artaxerxes to search the record books of his fathers. There, they claim, he will find that Jerusalem is a rebellious city, inciting sedition from ancient times. The appeal to the archives gives the charge the shape of a legal brief, built to survive the king's own check.
Ezra 4:14
“Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace - More literally: Now because at all times we are salted with the salt of the palace; i.e., We live on the king’s bounty, and must be faithful to our benefactor. Salt was used as the emblem of an incorruptible covenant; and those who ate bread and salt together were considered as having entered into a very solemn covenant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:14
"Now, in consideration of this, it is not meet for us to see the king's dishonour; " and therefore they urge him to stop the building of the temple, which would certainly be the king's dishonour more than any thing else. Note, A secret enmity to Christ and his gospel is often gilded over with a pretended affection to Caesar and his power.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the record books of your fathers: Albert Barnes notes that Ctesias also attests such record books at the Persian king's court. Matthew Henry calls it unfair to lay the iniquity of the fathers on the children. The sedition charged belongs to ancient times.
Ezra 4:15
“The book of the records - Compare Est 2:23; Est 6:1; Est 10:2. The existence of such a “book” at the Persian court is attested also by Ctesias. Of thy fathers - i. e., thy predecessors ripen the throne, Cambyses, Cyrus, etc. If Artaxerxes was the Pseudo-Smerdis (Ezr 4:7 note), these persons were not really his “fathers” or ancestors; but the writers of the letter could not venture to call the king an impostor.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:15
“It was therefore very unfair, though not uncommon, thus to impute the iniquity of the fathers to the children. (2.) Their information concerning what was now doing was grossly false in matter of fact.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
no dominion west of the Euphrates: The letter closes on its largest claim. Verse 13 warned of lost tribute, and this verse warns of a lost province, the whole region west of the Euphrates. Verse 20 shows the king taking up the point, recalling mighty kings who once ruled over Jerusalem and that whole region.
Ezra 4:16
“We certify the king, that if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up,.... As it formerly was, and now attempted, as they suggest: by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side the river; the river Euphrates; intimating that the Jews would not only shake off his yoke, and refuse to pay tribute themselves, but would seize on all his dominions on that side the river, and annex them to their own.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 4:16
“19 And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. 20 There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The king's answer stops the work by force and power
Ezra 4:17-19
Then the king sent this reply: Artaxerxes answers Rehum, Shimshai and their associates by the same channel, and says their letter was translated and read in his presence. He issued a decree, and a search found that this city has revolted against kings from ancient times. The king's own archives become the ground for what follows.
Ezra 4:17
“Peace, and at such a time - The word וכעת ucheeth is like that which we have already considered on Ezr 4:10, and probably has the same meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
translated and read in my presence: King Artaxerxes speaks of himself in the plural, which John Gill calls the courtly usage kings had come to adopt. Gill adds that a letter written in Aramaic had to be translated, and Albert Barnes notes that Persian kings had documents read to them. Verse 7 records that translation.
Ezra 4:18
“The letter which ye sent unto us,.... The plural number is used, being now become courtly for kings thus to speak of themselves: hath been plainly before me; by such that understood both the Syrian and Persian languages; the letter was written in the Syrian language, and the king being a Persian, it was necessary it should be interpreted and explained to him.”
revolted against kings from ancient times: Albert Barnes names the revolts the Babylonian archives would record, raised or threatened by Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah at 2 Kings 24. He finds no sign of any rebellion against Persia.
Ezra 4:19
“The archives of the Babylonian kingdom would contain accounts of the insurrections raised, or threatened, by Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah 2Ki 24:1, 2Ki 24:10, 2Ki 24:20. It does not appear that there had ever been any rebellion against Persia.”
Ezra 4:20-22
mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem: Artaxerxes recalls that mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem and received tribute, duty, and toll. On that ground he orders the officials to stop these men and the building until he gives the order. The decree is provisional, and later chapters make good on that when the work resumes.
Ezra 4:20
“Beyond the river - That is, the Euphrates. Both David and Solomon carried their conquests beyond this river. See 2Sa 8:3, etc., and 1Ki 4:21, where it is said, Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines; and unto the borders of Egypt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
issue an order for these men to stop: The order stops the rebuilding of the city. Matthew Henry reads it as aimed at the walling of the city. He charges Rehum and Shimshai with applying it in verse 23 to the temple, the house they held in ill will.
Ezra 4:21
“Until another commandment shall be given from me - The rebuilding was only provisionally suspended. The decree was, Let it cease for the present; nor let it proceed at any time without an order express from me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the royal interests to suffer?: The king closes in the accusers' own terms. Verse 13 warned that the royal treasury would suffer, and here the king fears the royal interests will suffer. Matthew Henry reads their care for the king's honor as a cover for ill will toward the temple.
Ezra 4:22
“Take heed now that ye fail not to do this,.... To put his orders into execution, and at once, without any loss of time, oblige the Jews to desist from rebuilding the walls of their city, which he was told they were doing, though a great falsehood: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? of him and his successors, to be deprived of their toll, tribute, and customs, and to have insurrections, mutinies, and rebellions, in the dominions belonging to them.”
Ezra 4:23-24
they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem: Verse 24 closes the parenthesis where it opened, returning to the temple, whose work ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius. Keil takes verses 6 to 23 as a deliberate aside on opposition, since chapter 5 resumes the work already halted at 4:5.
Ezra 4:23
“As they abused the king in obtaining this order by their mis-informations, so they abused him in the execution of it; for the order was only to prevent the walling of the city, but, having force and power on their side, they construed it as relating to the temple, for it was that to which they had an ill will, and which they only wanted some colour to hinder the building of.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
it remained at a standstill: Adam Clarke dates the return to 536 BC, the stoppage to 522 BC and the restart to 519 BC. Matthew Henry holds that the Jews could have kept building had they cared for the house of God, and he cites the prophets' rebuke. Chapter 5 opens with those prophets.
Ezra 4:24
“So it ceased unto the second year of - Darius - They had begun in the first year of Cyrus, b.c. 536, to go up to Jerusalem, and they were obliged to desist from the building b.c. 522; and thus they continued till the second year of Darius, b.c. 519. See the chronology in Hag 1:1 (note) and Zec 1:1 (note) and the following chapter, Ezra 5 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezra 4:24
“Though now a stop was put to it by the violence of the Samaritans, yet that they might soon after have gone on by connivance, if they had had a due affection to the work, appears by this, that before they had that express warrant from the king for doing it ( ch. vi. ) they were reproved by the prophets for not doing it, ch.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezra 4:24
“Then ceased the work of the house of God--It was this occurrence that first gave rise to the strong religious antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans, which was afterwards greatly aggravated by the erection of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
The chapter is arranged by subject, and the kings it names in the Berean text show the order. Verses 1 to 5 run from Cyrus to Darius, verse 6 names Xerxes, verses 7 to 23 name Artaxerxes, and verse 24 returns to the second year of Darius, where chapter 5 takes up the story. Verse 7 says the letter to Artaxerxes was written in Aramaic, and from verse 8 the text itself is in Aramaic, which continues to Ezra 6:18. The letter of verses 11 to 16 and the reply of verses 17 to 22 are set out in full with their greetings, as official documents.
Keep studying
People and groups3
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).