Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Ezra 6:19-22
The Writer Now Commences Again In Hebrew.
The writer now changes back from using Aramaic to using Hebrew. This is in order that the whole passage from Ezra 4:1 to Ezra 6:22, although written mainly in Aramaic, might be enveloped in Hebrew. In the opening and closing passages, which are in Hebrew (Ezra 4:1 and Ezra 6:19) the emphasis is on what God's people were doing. In the Aramaic section the emphasis is on the activities of the Persians, even though in relation to the people of God. It was partly necessary, and more convenient, because the primary documents cited were in Aramaic.
The Celebration Of The Passover (Ezra 6:19).
This would not have been the first Passover celebrated since the return, it would have been observed every year. But this was an unusually joyous one, for it was the first Passover that they had celebrated in connection with their new Temple. Now they really felt that Israel was established in the land. We can compare how Israel had first observed the Passover on entering the land after the Exodus (Joshua 5:10). They now met as a pure people free from the taints of foreign surroundings, and with their worship established. It was now over a month since the Temple had been dedicated.
‘And the children of the captivity kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.'
As was required in the book of Moses they who had returned from exile observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month of their religious calendar, along with all in the land who had maintained their pure worship of YHWH (Ezra 6:21).
‘For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together. All of them were pure. And they killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.'
It had become the custom at this time for the Levites to have a part to play in the celebration of the Passover. This comes out in 2 Chronicles 35 where Josiah called on them to sanctify themselves in readiness for their service at the Passover (see 2 Chronicles 35:6). In readiness for this service the priests and Levites here purified themselves together. This would partly be through avoiding all that was unclean, and partly by washing their clothes and abstaining from sex. The result was that all of them were pure. Thus they were in a position to kill the passover lambs for all those who had returned from exile, and for any of their brothers the priests who were not in a state to be able to kill the lambs, for example the ones who had not been able to prove their ancestry, and those who were disabled. They were also able to kill then for themselves.
‘And the children of Israel who were come again out of the captivity, and all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek YHWH, the God of Israel, did eat,'
Thus all the returned exiles partook of the Passover, along with all in the land who had either remained faithful to YHWH, and all, either Jew or Gentile, who had forsaken their unclean ways and their idolatry in order to seek YHWH, the God of Israel. All such ate of the Passover.
‘And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy. For YHWH had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.'
And following the Passover they observed the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as was the usual practise (Leviticus 23:4). And they did it with especial joy because they had been enabled to complete the building of the Temple, and were now able to use it for worship. And this was because YHWH had ‘turned the heart of the king of Assyria', namely Darius.
But why should he be called the King of Assyria here? We have seen Cyrus called, in this book, the King of Persia (Ezra 1:1). And he is also called King of Babylon (Ezra 5:13) because he righted what the former king of Babylon had done. And this did, of course, mean that he was the King of Assyria, for he ruled over the former Babylonian empire which had conquered Assyria. He was also in non-Biblical records called King of Egypt, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of Anshan to name but three. However, we still have to ask the question, why the writer should use this title of Darius here? One probable reason is that it was the kings of Assyria who had initially defiled the Temple. It was they who had ‘persuaded' Ahaz to introduce a false altar into it, certainly connected with false gods (2 Kings 16:10; 2 Chronicles 28:23; 2 Chronicles 28:25). Equally certainly it was the Assyrians who had caused Manasseh to install the worship of the host of heaven in the Temple (2 Kings 21:3; 2 Chronicles 33:3). Furthermore the kings of Assyria are mentioned in Nehemiah as ones who had initially ‘brought trouble on Israel' (Nehemiah 9:32). Thus, comparing the situation with that of Babylon in Ezra 5:13, it would have been seen as only poetic justice that a king who was ‘King of Assyria', should be the one who assisted in the building of a new pure Temple. It revealed the hand of God.
There are also grounds for thinking that at this time Assyria had become the symbol of great and proud empire (as Babylon would later), and certainly the Persian kings saw themselves as successors to both the Assyrian and the Babylonian empires. This would tie in with what is said above.