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Ezra 5:10

in Ezra 5

We also asked for their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

We asked them their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were at the head of them.

KJV

We asked their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them.

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This verse in Ezra 5

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

So we questioned the elders

on Ezra 5:9-10

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.

This site's exposition

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

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.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Note, (1.) The temple of God among men is to be built by prophecy, not by secular force (that often hinders it, but seldom furthers it), but by the word of God. As the weapons of our warfare, so the instruments of our building, are not carnal, but spiritual, and they are the ministers of the gospel that are the master-builders.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Not a word was uttered to dispirit the Jews or afford cause of triumph to their opponents. Matters were to go on till contrary orders arrived from Babylon. After surveying the work in progress, he inquired: first, by what authority this national temple was undertaken; and, secondly, the names of the principal promoters and directors of the undertaking.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

also..their names We also asked them the names of the builders, the heads of the construction, in order to let you know.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ezra 5:10:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאַ֧ףand also

    veafH638 →4 times

  • שְׁמָהָתְהֹ֛םnames their

    shemahatehomH8036 →12 times

  • שְׁאֵ֥לְנָאwe asked

    sheelena'H7593 →6 times

  • לְּהֹ֖םto them

    lehom

  • לְהוֹדָעוּתָ֑ךְto make known to you

    lehodautakhH3046 →47 times

  • דִּ֛יthat

    diH1768 →345 times

  • נִכְתֻּ֥בwe will write

    nikhtuvH3790 →8 times

  • שֻׁם־[the] name of

    shum-H8036 →12 times

  • גֻּבְרַיָּ֖אmen the

    guvraiya'H1400 →21 times

  • דִּ֥יwho

    diH1768 →345 times

  • בְרָאשֵׁיהֹֽם׃ ס[are] at heads their

    verasheihomH7217 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Ezra

Cyrus Restores the Vessels of the Temple, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Cyrus Restores the Vessels of the Temple, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezra: the study guide →Read Ezra 5 →

This page draws on Berean Standard Bible, Ezra 5; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).

Read on in Ezra 5 →