Ezra 3:7-13

The Laying of the Temple Foundation and the Joy of the People.

Ezra 3:7. masons. carpenters: those referred to were the men who hewed the stone from the quarries and those who prepared the rough stone thus obtained. them of Zidon. them of Tyre: as in the case of the first Temple, see 1 Kings 5:6. according. Persia: see Ezra 1:2; the Lebanon range belonged now to the kings of Persia.

Ezra 3:8. in the second year. in the second month: i.e. as the text stands, the second year of the return, 536 B.C., which was also the second month of the year (according to the Chronicler's mode of reckoning); the second month was lyar (= approximately May). But, according to the contemporary prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the beginning of the building of the Temple took place in the sixth month of the second year of Darius I, i.e. the month Elul (= approximately October) 520 (see Haggai 1:1; Haggai 1:15, cf. Haggai 2:10; Haggai 2:15; Haggai 2:18; Zechariah 1:1; Zechariah 1:7), while in Ezra 4:24 it is said that owing to the obstruction of the people of the land the building of the Temple had to cease, and was not taken up again until the second year of Darius; in this verse, as well as in the one before us, the Chronicler's chronology is at fault, the text here also being corrupt. Batten's reconstruction of Ezra 3:8 a, being in part supported by the Greek Ezra, is to be commended, viz.: And in the second year of Darius, in the sixth month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Josadak, and their brethren, and the priests, the Levites, and all (others) who had come in from the captivity to Jerusalem, began and laid the foundation of the house of God. On the first day of the second month of the second year of their coming to Judah and Jerusalem, then they appointed the Levites of twenty years and upward for the work on the house of Yahweh; then arose Jeshua and Bani and Ahijah and Kadmiel, the sons of Hodaviah and the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers, all the Levites doing the work on the house of God, and the builders were erecting the Temple of Yahweh. As Batten explains, the dates are given with the particularity characteristic of the time, as in Hag., first by the king's reign, and then by the sojourn in Jerusalem. That two dates were in the original is suggested by the separation of the year and month by several intervening words. For further justification of the reconstruction, see Batten's notes.

Ezra 3:8. from twenty years old and upwards: the law as to the age when the Levites might begin their work in the sanctuary varied; in Numbers 8:24 f. it is twenty-five years, in Numbers 4:3; Numbers 4:23; Numbers 4:30; Numbers 4:35, thirty, which is also the age given in 1 Chronicles 23:3, while in 1 Chronicles 23:24 of the same chapter it is twenty.

Ezra 3:9. the sons of Judah. the Levites: the text is corrupt, read as above. In Ezra 2:40 the Levites are enumerated as the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel and the children of Hodaviah, but in Nehemiah 10:9 the children of Henadad are added.

Ezra 3:10. they set the priests: read the priests stood with a number of Heb. MSS, the LXX and Vulgate; cf. also the Greek Ezra 5:59. in their apparel: cf. 2 Chronicles 5:12. with trumpets: cf. Numbers 10:8 *; a straight metallic tube, quite unlike the curved ram's horn (1 Chronicles 15:24 *). Regarding their use in the worship of the Temple they were, as a rule, only used for the purpose of giving signals at certain times during the service; in 2 Chronicles 5:11, however, it is stated that the trumpets accompanied the singing: this was not the general rule, though in later times it appears to have become more usual to employ trumpets in the worship itself (cf. 1Ma_4:40; 1Ma_5:33). cymbals: made of brass according to 1 Chronicles 15:19. after the order of David: the Chronicler traces all these arrangements back to David although the Temple did not exist in his day; he was following the traditional belief (cf. 2 Chronicles 29:25).

Ezra 3:11. they sang one to another: i.e. they sang antiphonally; for the words of praise which follow cf. Psalms 106:1; Psalms 136:1; 1 Chronicles 16:34; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:3.

Ezra 3:12. that had seen the first house: cf. Haggai 2:3.