Ezrachapter 5
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 5th century BC · History
So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, but it has not yet been completed.”
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, Ezra Overview.
This chapter was written for a community that had let the temple stand half built for years. Tradition gives the book to Ezra, and this chapter keeps an official letter in the Aramaic of the Persian offices. Its first hearers had heard the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in person, and their books stand beside this one. The chapter shows the people acting on a prophet's word and then answering to the empire for it. Listen for how the elders describe themselves and their history to a foreign official. Notice who the chapter says was watching the elders while the letter travelled. Read it as obedience that went ahead of permission.
Context
- Who
- Builders who had restarted without a permit and were about to be asked for one
- What
- An account of the building resumed at the prophets' word, the governor's inquiry and his letter to Darius asking for a search of the records.
- Where
- The building site in Jerusalem, visited by the officials of the Persian region west of the Euphrates.
- When
- The second year of Darius, 520 BC, the same year as the first messages of Haggai and Zechariah, which the dates in those books fix with good certainty.
- Why
- To show that the LORD protected the builders through an ordinary legal process, and that the returned people owned their history before the empire.
Historical context
Haggai and Zechariah preach, and Zerubbabel and Joshua start building, without waiting for authorization. "The prophets of God helping them" is how the chapter describes the support they had.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Then the government shows up. Tattenai, governor "beyond the river," comes to ask who authorized this. That title is real and precise: Beyond the River was the Persian administrative region covering Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, west of the Euphrates. Babylonian business tablets have turned up naming a Tattannu as an official in that region under Darius, which places the man and the office in exactly the right decade.
What happens next says a lot about Persian administration. Tattenai does not shut the site down. He asks for names, takes a statement, and writes to the king to check the record, due process rather than a raid. The text notes that the eye of God was on the elders, so they were not made to stop while the letter traveled.
The Jews' answer is a summary of their whole history in a sentence: we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we build the house that was built many years ago by a great king of Israel, and then, unprompted, they confess why it was destroyed. "Our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath." They did not blame Babylon.
They also give the decisive legal fact: Cyrus made a decree, and the vessels were handed over to Sheshbazzar, and the work has been going on since.
Significance
This was the community learning that obedience sometimes has to move before permission arrives. They started on a prophet's word and dealt with the paperwork afterward.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the delay while the letter traveled to Persia and back, a round trip of months, was itself the protection. Nothing stopped. The eye of their God was on them, and it looked like an ordinary administrative pause.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is not read 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 two joins. Under the second verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:14, and under the twelfth Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 28:1.
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 reads the renewed building as obedience to prophecy ahead of permission. In the second year of Darius a word came to Haggai and Zechariah for the Jews of Judea. It told them "to build the edifice of the Temple without the authorization of King Darius" (Rashi on Ezra 5:1:1). The builders began, "and with them were the prophets of the Holy One, blessed be He, helping and assisting them" (Rashi on Ezra 5:2:2).
The governor's inquiry he reads as the same adversaries returning, "to accuse and to slander them regarding the matter of the building" (Rashi on Ezra 5:3:1). The eye of their God he reads as God's eye on the elders "to upraise them (sic) in the work of the building" (Rashi on Ezra 5:5:1), with the translator's own mark kept. Many of his notes through the letter restate the Aramaic word for word (Rashi on Ezra 5:4:1 to 5:11:1).
In the elders' answer Rashi reads a confession of the exile's cause. "But now, since our forefathers angered the God of the heavens, He delivered them into the hands of the Chaldean king of Babylon" (Rashi on Ezra 5:12:1). At the vessels he names Sheshbazzar as Daniel again, as he did in the first chapter (Rashi on Ezra 5:14:1). That is the saying of the Rabbis he reported there, and it is reported here as theirs. The chapter closes on the request that the archives in Babylon be searched (Rashi on Ezra 5:17:1). All twenty-four entries the corpus holds on this chapter are kept, and none is linked.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty-one rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the prophets, it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:1 and Vayikra Rabbah 6:6. On the second it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 2:14 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:24. On the third it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:7:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 186:8. On the eighth it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:23 and a passage of Otzar Midrashim from the Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, at 1:33.
The twelfth verse, the fathers who angered God, draws the heaviest run in the chapter. The corpus holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 41:9 and Recension B 47:2, Kohelet Rabbah 12:7:1, and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 1:9. With them stand Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 28:1, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 4:10, Pesikta Rabbati 14:1, Vayikra Rabbah 17:7, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 263:1 and 759:11.
On the fifteenth verse the corpus holds Tractate Soferim 7:2. On the sixteenth it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 17 and Pesikta Rabbati 6:1. 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 5:1:1 to 5:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezra/5.json, the 21 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; 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.
Two prophets speak and the building begins again
Ezra 5:1-2
the prophets Haggai and Zechariah: prophesy, and the halted work restarts before any new royal word arrives. This verse and Ezra 6:14 anchor both prophetic books in the narrative. Haggai's book supplies what they preached, rebuking a people who paneled their own houses while the Lord's house lay waste.
Ezra 5:1
“Haggai and Zechariah stirred up Zerubbabel and Joshua Ezr 5:2; Hag 1:14, and warned the people against neglecting the building of the temple, in order to give themselves to the beautifying of their own houses (see Hag 1:4, Hag 1:9). Zechariah was the son of Berechiah, and grandson of Iddo (see the marginal reference; Mat 23:35). Compare a similar application of “son” in the case of Jehu (see the 2Ki 9:20 note).”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezra 5:1
“For fifteen years the work was completely suspended. These two prophets upbraided them with severe reproaches for their sloth, negligence, and worldly selfishness (Hag 1:4), threatened them with severe judgments if they continued backward, and promised that they would be blessed with great national prosperity if they resumed and prosecuted the work with alacrity and vigor.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
rose up and began to rebuild: Adam Clarke sees three offices at work together here. Zerubbabel is the civil governor, Jeshua the high priest, and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets. Albert Barnes, citing Haggai 1:14, credits the two prophets with stirring the leaders to rise.
Ezra 5:2
“Then rose up Zerubbabel - Here we find three classes of men joining in the sacred work: Zerubbabel the civil governor; Jeshua the high priest or ecclesiastical governor; and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets. How glorious it is when we see the civil government joining with the sacerdotal and prophetic for the establishment and extension of true religion!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezra 5:3-4
Tattenai, governor of the region west of the Euphrates, comes to the site with Shethar-bozenai. They ask who authorized the Jews to rebuild this temple, and they ask for the builders' names. The question is one of jurisdiction, and the elders answer it by giving their names openly.
Ezra 5:3
“Governor on this side the river - Compare Ezr 4:10 note. Tatnai was apparently satrap of Syria, which included the whole tract west of the Euphrates from Cilicia to the borders of Egypt. Zerubbabel must have been, to some extent, under his authority. Who hath commanded you to build? - There was no doubt a formal illegality in the conduct of Zerubbabel and Jeshua: since all edicts of Persian kings continued in force unless revoked by their successors.”
The Berean makes this a second question from Tattenai's party. Adam Clarke reads the verse as the Jews' reply to verse 3, in which they give the names of the builders. Verse 10, in the governors' letter, records that they asked for the names.
Ezra 5:4
“What are the names - It is most evident that this is the answer of the Jews to the inquiry of Tatnai, Ezr 5:3, and the verse should be read thus: Then said we unto them after this manner: These are the names of the men who make this building.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the eye of their God: The chapter's one line of open theology sits inside an administrative Aramaic report: the eye of their God was on the elders. John Gill takes the eye of God as his watchful care over the elders. The verse answers in advance whether this building has real authority behind it.
Ezra 5:5
“The eye of their God was upon the elders - The watchful care of God was upon the elders. They were assured of his favor; and they found his especial providence working in their behalf.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Tattenai's report: who commanded you to build this house?
Ezra 5:6-8
This is the text of the letter: The report is fair. It names the house of the great God, notes the large stones, and says the work is carried out diligently and prospers in their hands. Matthew Henry notes that a hostile governor could have framed it as rebellion, as the letter of chapter 4 did.
Ezra 5:6
“The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, which were on this side the river,.... Which is thought by some to be one of the nations mentioned, Ezr 4:9 the name being pretty near alike to two of them; but perhaps might be a distinct colony in those parts Tatnai was governor of: these sent unto Darius the king; and is as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 5:6
“Apharsachites, like Apharsites, and Apharsathchites Ezr 4:9, are thought by some to be forms of the word “Persians,” which is applied here generally to the foreign settlers in Samaria. (Others identify the first and the third names with the “Paretaceni,” a people on the Medo-Persian border.)”
All peace: The report opens by wishing Darius all peace. Bede calls it very different from the letter, which at 4:11 opened on the writers as the king's servants and went straight to its charge. Tattenai's men go first to what they saw.
with large stones: Albert Barnes takes large stones literally, stones so large that they were rolled along. Others, he notes, translate the phrase polished stones. Matthew Henry reads the house of the great God as the officials' reason for caution: they dared not oppose its building without orders.
Ezra 5:8
Great stones - literally, as in the margin; i. e., stones so large that they were rolled along, not carried. Others translate “polished stones.”
Ezra 5:9-10
So we questioned the elders: Tattenai's men asked who authorized the rebuilding and wrote down the names of the leaders. John Gill notes the request is procedural, meant to let the king call the builders to account if their claim proved false. Recording both question and answer keeps Darius from ruling on hearsay.
Ezra 5:9
“Then asked we those elders,.... The elders of the province of Judea; the chief men of it: who commanded you to build this house, and to make up these walls? see Ezr 5:3.”
the names of their leaders: The names the governors wrote down belonged to the elders of verse 9. Verse 5 has already said that the eye of their God was on these same elders. The list went to Darius with the letter.
Ezra 5:10
“We asked their names also,.... The names of the elders, those that set men about this work: to certify that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them; take the names of them in writing, that they might with certainty acquaint the king who they were, and that if it was necessary they might be called to an account for what they were doing.”
Ezra 5:11-12
servants of the God of heaven and earth: The elders answer that they are servants of the God of heaven. That title is the Persian era's court language for the Lord, used when the book's kings decree. They name the exile's cause plainly, that their fathers angered the God of heaven, and He delivered them to Nebuchadnezzar.
Ezra 5:11
“We are the servants of the God of heaven - How simple, plain, and ingenuous is this confession! They were the servants of the God of heaven. How came they then into bondage! Why, they provoked the God of heaven - repeatedly sinned against him, and then he gave them into the hands of their enemies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
since our fathers angered the God of heaven: John Gill names the provocation as the fathers' idolatries. He takes the confession as the answer to why the servants of the God of heaven, and the house for his name, were given up. Gill points to 2 Chronicles 36:19 for the same destruction.
Ezra 5:12
“But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath,.... By their idolatries; which accounts for it how it was that they who were the servants of the great God of heaven and earth, and this temple built for the honour of his name, were not preserved by him; but they were carried captive, and this house left desolate: it was for their sins for which he (God) gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon; see 2Ch 36:19.”
Ezra 5:13-15
Cyrus king of Babylon issued a decree: In his first year Cyrus king of Babylon issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. He is the Cyrus of the book's opening chapter. Cyrus also returned the gold and silver articles Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon, giving them to Sheshbazzar, to put in the temple in Jerusalem.
Ezra 5:13
“But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon,.... That is, the first year he was king of Babylon, having taken it, otherwise he was king of Persia many years before: the same King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God; see Ezr 1:1.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 5:13
“Cyrus the king . . . made a decree--The Jews were perfectly warranted according to the principles of the Persian government to proceed with the building in virtue of Cyrus' edict. For everywhere a public decree is considered as remaining in force until it is revoked but the "laws of the Medes and Persians changed not" [Da 6:8, 12, 15].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
whom he appointed governor: Chapter 1 called Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. Here the elders add the office Cyrus gave him, governor, and the letter carries that title to Darius. The temple of Babylon is the house of Nebuchadnezzar's gods named at 1:7.
Ezra 5:14
“Of which, and of what is said concerning them, and particularly of the delivery of them to Sheshbazzar, whom Cyrus made governor of Judah, and ordered him to carry them to Jerusalem, and build the temple there, and put them in it, see Ezr 1:7.”
The elders quote the instruction of Cyrus as their authority. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the Jews acted within Persian law, a decree standing until a later king revoked it. Albert Barnes finds a formal illegality, the order to stop in chapter 4 being still in force.
Ezra 5:16-17
laid the foundation of the house of God: Sheshbazzar laid the foundation, and the elders' answer closes with an admission that the house is still unfinished. That unfinished house is the reason for the letter, the work Tattenai found in progress. His request is even-handed, that the royal archives be searched to see whether Cyrus issued the decree.
Ezra 5:16
“Sheshbazzar - Probably the military officer that conducted the people from Babylon, and had the oversight of the work; but some think that Ezra is meant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the royal archives in Babylon: The governors ask for a search at Babylon. Albert Barnes notes from 6:2 that the decree was found at Ecbatana, a provincial capital outside the search they asked for. Matthew Henry holds that Artaxerxes, given a report as fair as this one, would have let the work go on.
Ezra 5:17
“Let there be search made ... at Babylon - They perhaps doubted whether proof of the decree of Cyrus remained in the archives. The Pseudo-Smerdis had had the records in his power for seven months; and, when he reversed the policy of his predecessors, might have been expected to destroy their edicts. The decree was not found at Babylon, the most natural place for it, but in the provincial capital of Ecbatana, which Tatnai and his friends had not asked Darius to have searched (see Ezr 6:2).”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezra 5:17
“We have reason to think that if Artaxerxes, in the foregoing chapter, had had the Jews' cause as fairly represented to him as it was here to Darius, he would not have ordered the work to be hindered.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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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; Bede, Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah; Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of 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).