Ezra 4:8-23

Ezra 4:8 to Ezra 6:18. Extract from an Aramaic Document.

Ezra 4:8 contains a letter, together with the king's reply to it, written by adversaries of the Jews to Artaxerxes for the purpose of frustrating the building of the city walls. The writers are different from those mentioned in Ezra 4:7 as writing to Artaxerxes; two letters are, therefore spoken of, so that what is said in Ezra 4:7 cannot be in reference to the letter now dealt with. Moreover, this letter has nothing to do with the events recorded in Ezra 4:1, for it refers to the building of the Temple, while Ezra 4:8 refers to the building of the city walls. Ezra 4:8 is, therefore, out of place here.

Ezra 4:8. Rehum and Shimshai are probably both foreign names. The chancellor = the governor of the province; scribe = here the governor's secretary.

Ezra 4:9. The names of these nationalities to which the Samaritans belonged show the non-Jewish origin of the latter, or at least of the bulk of them.

Ezra 4:10. Osnappar: i.e. Assurbanipal, 668- 626 B.C., the son and successor of Esarhaddon.

Ezra 4:12. and have finished the walls: see note on Ezra 3:8; this was the point of supreme importance, for with the walls of the city complete, Jerusalem could defy her enemies.

Ezra 4:13. if... finished: cf. Ezra 4:16; these words do not agree with what is said in Ezra 4:12, where the walls are spoken of as completed.

Ezra 4:14. we eat the salt of the palace: i.e. since we are in the service of the king and receive maintenance from him.

Ezra 4:15. the book of the records of thy fathers: cf. Ezra 6:1 f., Esther 2:23; Esther 6:1; Esther 10:2; the words show the care with which the records of the past were kept by the Persian kings.

Ezra 4:16.. thou shalt have no portion beyond the river: i.e. he will lose his Syrian province.

Ezra 4:18. hath been plainly read: cf. Nehemiah 8:8, and see note there; read translated, the king was not likely to understand Aramaic.

Ezra 4:22. why... kings: read lest damage should increase to the kings-' loss; there is no interrogative in the Aramaic.