Ezra 1:5-11

2. The people return and begin to rebuild.

TEXT, Ezra 1:5-11

5

Then the heads of fathers-' households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go and rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

6

And all those about them encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with cattle, and with valuables, aside from all that was given as a freewill offering.

7

Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods;

8

and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

9

Now this was their number: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 duplicates;

10

30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind, and 1,000 other articles.

11

All the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

COMMENT

Beginning with Ezra 1:5, these projects are set in motion. From descriptions of their conditions in captivity given prophetically by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:4-7) and historically in Jewish documents, it can be concluded that they had not fared so badly in Babylon; they were able to own their own homes, operate their own businesses, continue their previous religious practices at least in a limited way, educate their own children, and live quite normal lives. Many of them would prefer to continue in their present condition rather than risk an uncertain future.

Those who chose to return would be largely motivated by religious reasons. Isaiah and others had foreseen the return of a purified remnant; in actual fact, it would have been predominantly the most Godly who returned, though not altogether. Health or age may have prevented the return of many equally religious persons.

As noted in Ezra 1:5, the returnees were chiefly from Judah and Benjamin, tribes which had been closest to the Temple: plus a disproportionate number of Levites and especially priests, who had been most intimately identified with Israel's religious affairs.

In Ezra 1:6, the gifts to the travelers are again put into two categories: (1) those which would assist in financing the journey, and (2) those which are offered to God, possibly to be used in sacrifice and in reconstruction of the Temple. It is appropriate that free-will offerings were given for the Temple. Its early predecessor, the Tabernacle, had been built with free-will offerings exclusively (Exodus 35:22).

The list of vessels taken from the Temple by the Babylonians and now restored to Israel to be used once more in the renewed Temple (Ezra 1:7; Ezra 1:9-11) is a reminder of the splendor of the Temple in previous times. These had been preserved by the captors and not melted down for other uses; the ancients frequently demonstrated a fear of misusing things which had been dedicated for sacred uses, and regarded them as unclean for common or profane use. If the number of vessels seems excessive, we need to remember that (1) they were for the use of the entire community of priests, and (2) temples in ancient times were often used as the government banks; that is, temples were expected to be the repositories for the wealth of the state.

The Sheshbazzar of Ezra 1:8; Ezra 1:11 is not clearly identified; he is mentioned in the Bible by Ezra only. Matthew Henry[6] regarded this as another name for Zerubbabel. G. E. Wright[7] takes it as a variant spelling of Shenassar, mentioned as one of Jehoiachin's sons in 1 Chronicles 3:17-18, hence one of the royal family. The Living Bible would allow the interpretation that he was merely a leader of the returning exiles. Any of these three views would be an honest possibility; the first would seem to be the most likely. This will be discussed more fully when it comes up again at Ezra 5:16.

[6] Matthew Henry's Commentary On The Whole Bible, in loc.

[7] G. E. Wright, op. cit., p. 202.

In Ezra 1:9, two things are obscure. The word dishes (chargers in the KJV) and the word duplicates (knives in the KJV) occur only here in the O.T. Other ancient translations (Septuagint, Syriac, Talmud, and Vulgate) disagree on the translations of these terms. It is difficult, then, to know exactly what the articles were which had these names in Ezra's day.

The word for duplicates, for example, is machalaph; the word for knife used in other places is maakeleth; one might suspect that the similarity of sound of the two words, though they are completely different, may have influenced the earlier translation.

While this word never occurs as a noun elsewhere in the O.T., the verb form (chalaph) does. Its meaning is to slip or glide: hence to glide along, or pass through or pierce; therefore to change, or exchange. A slaughter-knife may be suggested because it glides or passes through the flesh. A censor may be indicated because it is pierced, to exude smoke or incense. Or a duplicate of another piece may be indicated by the idea of changing, or exchanging. None of these explanations is totally convincing, so it is impossible to know with certainty what the item was. While this explanation will not brush away the obscurity or relieve our curiosity, it will perhaps indicate why the obscurity is there. Fortunately it is a small detail that really doesn-'t affect the story,

Ezra 1:11 contains another obscurity. The total number of articles is given as 5400; when we add the list in the previous two verses, it comes to but 2499. One suggestion is that one of the figures has become corrupted in transmission. This is the position taken by the translators of the Revised Standard Version; therefore they substitute figures taken from 1EEsther 2:12-13,[8] where the list and the total agree.

[8] I, II Esdras in the Anchor Bible, or in the New English Bible with Apocrypha.

A simpler solution is that Ezra only named major articles in the previous list, but included many others in the final total. We will see that he does the same kind of thing in the next chapter with a list of names and numbers, and then a grand total.

WORD STUDIES

Some of the names involved have interesting meanings.

EZRA: the name comes from a verb meaning to surround or enclose: to protect, as with a wall; hence he was a help, or aid. The word, in feminine form, is used of woman as man's helper in Genesis 2:18. It also occurs in the proper name, Ebenezer (stone of help) in 1 Samuel 7:12, where Samuel raises a monument to memorialize God's having helped them against the Philistine armies.

PERSIA: one possibility as the base meaning is to separate, or spread out (the feet): hence, horseman. This is how they appeared to their contemporaries. The same word is used in Daniel 5:25 (Upharsin) and Daniel 5:26 (Peres), and is translated, divided.

CYRUS-' name possibly is the Persian word for the sun. The name contains the same consonants as the Greek word Lord (kyrios). (The Hebrew was written without vowels at this time.) Cyrus is the one foreigner referred to as a Messiah in the O.T. (Isaiah 45:1).

SUMMARY

During the first full year that Israel was under the rulership of Cyrus, the Persian king, Cyrus, was led by God to publish a decree allowing exiles from Judah (also called Israel) to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple. This was a fulfillment of prophecies by Jeremiah that the nation would survive the captivity and be restored. Those who did not choose to return should contribute to bear the expenses of those who did, and to finance offerings and repairs to the Temple. A number of exiles, chiefly of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (including priests) subsequently set out, bringing with them also a quantity (some five and a half thousand) of valuable items from the first Temple, thanks to Cyrus-' generosity.