Ezrachapter 4
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Key verse
Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour, therefore have we sent and certified the king;
It stands in The letter to Artaxerxes: this rebellious and bad city, verses 6 to 16.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Opposition arrives first as an offer of partnership: 'Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as ye do.' Zerubbabel refuses ('Ye have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God') and the people of the land answer by weakening the hands of Judah and hiring counsellors against them from Cyrus's days even until Darius. The chapter then leaps ahead to the Aramaic correspondence: Rehum and Shimshai warn Artaxerxes that Jerusalem is a rebellious city which, once rebuilt, will pay him no tribute. The king orders search made, learns that mighty kings had reigned there, and stops the work by force of arms. So it ceased until the second year of Darius.
Context
History · Ezra · Ezra overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezra 4 falls in First return under Zerubbabel (chapters 1–6). Cyrus's decree (538 BC); the altar restored; temple foundation laid amid weeping and shouting; Samaritan opposition; Haggai and Zechariah's prodding; the temple finished in 515 BC.
After it: Ezra's return and covenant reform, chapters 7–10.
The whole shape of Ezra→The world behind this chapter
Ezra 4The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Let us build with you: an offer refused, and counselors hired
1. (vv. 1-2)
Ezra 4:1
“Adversaries - i. e., the Samaritans, a mixed race, partly Israelite but chiefly foreign, which had replaced to some extent the ancient inhabitants after they were carried into captivity by Sargon (see 2Ki 17:6 note).”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:1evangelical
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)· Ezra 4:2evangelical
Ezra 4:2, 3 more voices
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.”
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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.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:2evangelical
Ezra 4:2
“Then they came to Zerubbabel, and the chief of the fathers,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:2reformed
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.”
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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)· Ezra 4:2puritan
a.the adversaries of Judah: and Benjamin hear that the returned exiles are building the temple and come to Zerubbabel with an offer that sounds like kinship: they claim to seek the same God and to have sacrificed to him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria. Esarhaddon is the seventh-century king whose resettlement policy created the mixed population of 2 Kings 17:24-33, so the offer comes from a religion built by import rather than covenant. The approach looks like help and reads, on the text's own terms, as the first test of the young community's boundary.
2. (v. 3)
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 ...”
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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.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:3evangelical
Ezra 4:3, 1 more voice
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)· Ezra 4:3reformed
a.Ye have nothing to do: Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the heads of the fathers answer with a flat refusal: Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, and ground it in Cyrus's own decree naming who was commissioned to build. The bench reads the refusal two ways, named without a verdict between them: a guarding of the restored community's charter under the very grant that authorized it, or the opening breach that hardens over centuries into the Samaritan schism the Gospels inherit at John 4:9. Either reading traces the boundary to the decree's own terms, the specific commission Cyrus gave to Zerubbabel's company alone.
3. (vv. 4-5)
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.”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:4reformed
Ezra 4:5
“Hired counselors - Rather, “bribed” officials at the Persian court to interpose delays and create difficulties, in order to hinder the work. Darius - i. e., Darius, the son of Hystaspes”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:5evangelical
a.weakened the hands of: Refused, the people of the land turn from persuasion to pressure: they weaken the hands of the people of Judah, trouble them in building, and hire counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose. The narrator marks the span plainly, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia, a stretch of years compressed into one verse. Opposition here spans reigns as a sustained policy, and the verse sets up the long parenthesis that follows.
B. The letter to Artaxerxes: this rebellious and bad city
1. (v. 6)
Ezra 4:6
“In the year of the reign of Ahasuerus... they wrote an accusation, etc. Josephus (Antiquities XI, 2, 3) believes that this Artaxerxes, who received the letter of accusation from the Samaritans and forbade the construction of Jerusalem and the temple, was Cambyses, the son of …”
Bede· written before 735· Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah· Ezra 4:6patristic
Ezra 4:6, 1 more voice
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)· Ezra 4:6evangelical
a.in the reign of Ahasuerus: The narrative jumps forward to the reign of Ahasuerus, generally identified with the Xerxes of the book of Esther, where unnamed accusers write against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. The verse gives no content for this letter, only its existence, before the text jumps forward again in the next verse. Keil reads verses 6 through 23 as a topical block on the opposition itself, gathered here out of strict order to make one argument about resistance across reigns.
2. (v. 7)
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.””
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On the use of this tongue as a medium of communication between the Jews and their Eastern neighbors, see 2Ki 18:26 note.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:7evangelical
a.in the days of Artaxerxes: A second and fuller episode follows under Artaxerxes: Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and their companions write a letter, and the verse notes twice that it was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. Syrian here is Aramaic, the diplomatic language of the Persian province, and the notice prepares the reader for what the Hebrew text itself does at the next verse, where the narrative shifts into Aramaic and stays there through 6:18 before returning once more at 7:12-26. The book files the empire's own correspondence in the empire's own tongue.
3. (vv. 8-10)
Ezra 4:8
“Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort.”
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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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:8reformed
Ezra 4:8, 1 more voice
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.”
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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)· Ezra 4:8evangelical
Ezra 4:9
“Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions,....”
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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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:9reformed
Ezra 4:9, 1 more voice
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).”
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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).
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:9evangelical
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)· Ezra 4:10evangelical
a.wrote a letter against Jerusalem: Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem, and the roll of their companions in verse 9 names peoples from across the empire, Dinaites, Apharsathchites, Tarpelites and the rest. Verse 10 traces them to the great and noble Asnappar, generally identified with the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who set them in the cities of Samaria, the same resettlement policy that 2 Kings 17:24 records under Sargon's line. The letter's signers descend from the very population that offered to help build the temple back in verse 2, opposition and offer rising from the same mixed community.
4. (vv. 11-13)
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.””
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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)· Ezra 4:11evangelical
Ezra 4:12
“Be it known unto the king,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:12reformed
Ezra 4:12, 1 more voice
Ezra 4:12
“Now, therefore, let it be known to the king, etc., thanks be to God, that the enemies of the city of the Lord, which is the Church, confess the truth about that city; for if it were built after captivity and its walls made of …”
Bede· written before 735· Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah· Ezra 4:12patristic
Ezra 4:13
“Toll, tribute, and custom - Rather, “tribute, provision, and toll” (so Ezr 4:20).”
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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.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:13evangelical
a.This is the copy of: The text now quotes the letter itself, opening with the formula that marks official correspondence through this section, Thy servants the men on this side the river. The charge is specific: the Jews are building the rebellious and the bad city, setting up its walls and joining its foundations, and if the work continues Jerusalem will stop paying toll, tribute and custom. The accusers argue from the crown's revenue, framing a rebuilt wall as a threat to Persian income.
5. (vv. 14-16)
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.”
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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)· Ezra 4:14evangelical
Ezra 4:14, 1 more voice
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.
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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)· Ezra 4:14puritan
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.”
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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.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:15evangelical
Ezra 4:15, 1 more voice
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)· Ezra 4:15puritan
Ezra 4:16
“We certify the king, that if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up,....”
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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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:16reformed
Ezra 4:16, 2 more voices
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)· Ezra 4:16puritan
Ezra 4:16
“We announce to the king, that if that city is built, etc. He names the Euphrates river, within which is Syria. Which rightly indicates the stream of holy baptism, either because it is one of the four rivers which, rising from one source in paradise, …”
Bede· written before 735· Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah· Ezra 4:16patristic
a.Now because we have maintenance: The officials press their loyalty: maintenance from the king's palace makes silence about the king's dishonour unthinkable to them, so they ask Artaxerxes to search the book of the records of his fathers. There he will find, they claim, that Jerusalem is a rebellious city that has moved sedition of old, the very cause of its destruction. The appeal to archives gives the accusation the shape of a legal brief, built to survive a king's own verification.
C. The king's answer stops the work by force and power
1. (vv. 17-19)
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)· Ezra 4:17evangelical
Ezra 4:18
“The letter which ye sent unto us,....”
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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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:18reformed
Ezra 4:18, 1 more voice
Ezra 4:18
“Hath been ... read - It is doubtful if the Persian monarchs could ordinarily read. At any rate, it was their habit to have documents read to them (compare Est 6:1). This is still the ordinary practice in Eastern courts.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:18evangelical
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.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Ezra 4:19evangelical
a.sent the king an answer: Artaxerxes answers through the same channel it came by, and the letter is read before him plainly. He orders a search of the records and reports what is found: this city of old time has made insurrection against kings, and rebellion and sedition have been made in it. The king's own archives become the ground for what follows, and the text lets the reader see that process.
2. (vv. 20-22)
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)· Ezra 4:20evangelical
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)· Ezra 4:21evangelical
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?”
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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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Ezra 4:22reformed
a.There have been mighty kings: Artaxerxes recalls that mighty kings have ruled over Jerusalem and over all the country beyond the river, receiving toll, tribute and custom, a memory of Judah and Israel's own monarchy read back through Persian administrative eyes. On that ground he commands the officials to cause the men to cease and to stop the building until another commandment comes from him, and he closes with a warning against negligence, why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings. The decree is provisional, another commandment, a detail that later chapters make good on when the work resumes.
3. (vv. 23-24)
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…”
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and which they only wanted some colour to hinder the building of.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Ezra 4:23puritan
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.”
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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)· Ezra 4:24evangelical
Ezra 4:24, 2 more voices
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)· Ezra 4:24reformed
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.”
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) they were reproved by the prophets for not doing it, ch.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Ezra 4:24puritan
a.they went up in haste: With the king's letter in hand, Rehum, Shimshai and their companions go up to Jerusalem in haste and make the Jews cease by force and power, the topical block on opposition reaching its practical end. Verse 24 then closes the parenthesis exactly where it opened, returning the narrative to the temple's own story with the same verb the chapter began with, ceased, and dating the resumption to the second year of the reign of Darius. Keil and the bench read this return as the chapter's own signal that verses 6 through 23 stand as a deliberate aside on hostility itself, since chapter 5 picks up the temple work already stopped by chapter 4 verse 5's earlier notice.
This page carries no textual note on Ezra 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).