Ezra 4:6-16

2. Israel's enemies write letters to prevent rebuilding.

TEXT, Ezra 4:6-16

6

Now in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

7

And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues, wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic.

8

Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows:

9

then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their colleagues, the judges and the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites,

10

and the rest of the nations which the great and honorable Osnappar deported and settled in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the region beyond the River. And now

11

this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now

12

let it be known to the king, that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city, and are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.

13

Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.

14

Now because we are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore we have sent and informed the king,

15

so that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will discover in the record books, and learn that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste.

16

We inform the king that, if that city is rebuilt and the walls finished, as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the River.

COMMENT

The Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 is taken to be a title rather than a name; Young's Analytical Concordance gives its meaning as King. He is identified as Cambyses in Persian history. The designation, Ahasuerus, is used again of a later king throughout the book of Esther, and of an earlier king in Daniel 9:1. No disposition of the letter mentioned here is recorded in the Bible; possibly it was ignored by the king.

Likewise in Ezra 4:7, Artaxerxes may be a title meaning Great King, according to the same source. Another Artaxerxes will appear in Ezra 7, a generation later. These instances reinforce the likelihood that both of these are titles and not personal names.

The Artaxerxes of Ezra 4:7 is thought to be Pseudo-Smerdis, who pretended to be a son of Cyrus and who usurped the throne for about seven months. We see the appropriateness, then, of the phrase, in the days of, in place of the phrase, in. his reign, applied to the former king in the previous verse. Thus the Bible subtly records the fact that the legitimacy of his rule was questioned. This dates the correspondence in 523 B.C., thirteen years after the work on the Temple had begun.

Bishlam, Mithredath, and Tabeel are unidentified in any contemporary historical source. Tabeel, judging from his name (God is good) was a worshiper of God as the Samaritans would be. These three were apparently various officials of the Persian territory between the Euphrates River and the Mediterranean Sea (Ezra 4:11). Their letter is reproduced in Ezra 4:11-16. Reference is made to the text in Aramaic; the portion from Ezra 4:8 to Ezra 6:18 is in Aramaic, probably because the bulk of it is taken from official Persian documents, to which Ezra would have had access. The language used by the Persians for their international correspondence was Aramaic.

While Aramaic is very similar to Hebrew, as Dutch is to German or Portuguese is to Spanish, nevertheless they are different languages. During the Captivity the common people of Israel began to speak in Aramaic; only the government officials had been acquainted with it before (2 Kings 18:26). Consequently the Hebrew spoken in Judea in the N.T. was actually Aramaic, as can be observed from some of the words used by Jesus (Raca, Matthew 5:22; Bar-jonah, Matthew 16:17; Talitha Kum, Mark 5:41; Ephphatha, Mark 7:34).

Rehum, in Ezra 4:8 f, is not to be identified with the man in Ezra 2:2, who was a leader of the returnees. His title, commander, would make him a counsellor of the Persian king. The next name mentioned, Shimshai the scribe, would be the royal secretary. Obviously, then, the lesser officials named in Ezra 4:7 (the rest of the colleagues in Ezra 4:9) had gotten these more influential figures, closer to the king, to sign the actual letter.

Ezra 4:9-10 are the salutation of the letter. Erech, Babylon, and Elam (with Susa as its capital) in Ezra 4:9 were some of the conquered peoples whom the Assyrians settled in Samaria. Osnappar in Ezra 4:10 is probably a shortened form of Ashurbanipal, known as Esar-haddon's successor. The region beyond the river, as already noted, would be the territory ruled by Persia between the Euphrates River (Babylon) and the Mediterranean Sea, and under one general administration. The words, And now, are used in Aramaic correspondence of that age to mark the transition between the salutation and the body of a letter.[26]

[26] Interpreter's Bible, Vol. III, p. 599.

Ezra 4:11 summarizes the salutation and concludes again with the customary phrase, and now. Note that the writers identify themselves to the king as Your servants: a claim to loyalty in contrast to the disloyalty which they claimed to warn him against.

Ezra 4:12 shows the bias and exaggeration of these foes. The words, rebellious and evil city, are intended solely to discredit; there was nothing in Israel's conduct that warranted this judgmental title, at that time. The following words are of the same piece; God's people are accused of rebuilding the city walls, when they were authorized only to rebuild the Temple. In fact, the accusation treats with silence the work being done on the Temple, Lies are the Devil's progeny, as Jesus informs us (John 8:44; John 8:55). It is not until the time of Nehemiah, a half century later, that the Bible speaks of an organized effort to restore the city walls.

The exaggeration is all the more evident in that the words are finishing may be translated just as correctly have finished, as in the KJV. The falsehood is obvious. In Ezra 4:13; Ezra 4:16, the letter itself acknowledges that the walls had not actually been finished.

We do not mean that every example of exaggeration is an evidence that a person is deliberately working for the Devil; exaggeration is used for a variety of purposes. A well-meaning Christian on occasion may innocently or unintentionally use this device. But it is God's nature that His speech coincides with reality and with constructiveness (Hebrews 6:18 states this principle, and Genesis 1:3 gives an example); and the Christian seeks to be as much like God as possible (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16).

What we have in the verse before us, however, is a designed misstatement intended for destructive purposes.

Ezra 4:13 reveals the equally false assumptions drawn from the first falsehood. Tribute, custom, and toll are different forms of taxes.[27] The word revenue in Ezra 4:13 is a conjectural translation. It is more likely that it should read at length; thus, at length (eventually) damage will be done to the king.[28] Their method thus was to aim at the king's self-concern.

[27] For more detail, see Word Studies, end of this chapter.
[28] Ellicott's Commentary on The Whole Bible, III, p. 467.

Ezra 4:14 enlarges on this. The phrase, we are in the service of the palace, is most expressive; literally it reads, we eat the salt of the palace. This is first of all a recognition of their dependence on the king: our word salary incidentally comes from the Latin word for salt, and reflects the government policy of paying its servants with salt. But it is also a reference to the binding nature of a salt covenant (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5).[29] They were claiming that they were bound by covenant loyalty to reveal these threats to the king.

[29]. Oriental custom required that when persons had eaten salt together, they were brothers and must defend one another at all costs. Note what a long-standing and binding custom Judas violated when he broke bread with Jesus and went out and betrayed Him the very same hour (John 13:21-30). Consider also the meaning of the church's breaking bread together. More on this in Word Studies, end of this chapter.

In Ezra 4:15 they assert that a check of the records will verify their charges. Esther 6:1 shows how carefully the events of the palace were recorded and consulted. Similar Babylonian records were also available, and are indicated by the phrase, your fathers (predecessors). The Babylonian Chronicle has been recovered, and even lists food rations for the captives from Judah, including Jehoiachin by name.

Observe that there is no charge of contemporary wrongdoing in this part of the letter, for which they claim any substantiation. It is all what they have done in past days; they charge that this was the reason Jerusalem was laid waste after its defeat, some sixty-five years before.

Ezra 4:16 concludes that if Israel is allowed to continue its rebuilding, the result is that they would undermine the Persian government's control of the total area from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. That is crediting the people of Jerusalem with tremendous military power or influence far beyond reason. It might easily be argued that the building of an army could lead to military action or revolt; it is hard to see how defensive measures, such as building a wall, would be a threat to the peace of neighboring nations.

WORD STUDIES

1.

ENEMY: Tsar: Ezra 4:4; the basic idea in the word is to exert pressure: hence, to press in on, or oppress. It is the word used in Psalms 23:5. Of course, most of the people who do this are our enemies; but even our friends or relatives, consciously or unconsciously, can add pressure to us. Many of Israel's most bitter enemies were peoples most closely related to her. God prepares a table (provides) for us in the midst of all these situations.

2.

DISCOURAGE: Meraph Yadim: Ezra 4:4; literally, as in KJV, weaken the hands. It means to make the hands hang down, to relax, let fall, or weaken: thus, to discourage, The word is in the repetitive participial form indicating continuity of action; they continuously again and again weakened the hands.

3.

TRIBUTE: Mindah: Ezra 4:13; has the basic idea of a gift, i.e., the kind of a gift measured out; it is always used of another nation, for example to avoid military attack.

4.

CUSTOM: Belo: Ezra 4:13; payment in kind; i.e., a portion of the crops. This tax would usually be paid by a nation's own citizens.

5.

TOLL: Halak: Ezra 4:13; privilege to walk; hence, payment for passage through a land.

6.

SALT: Melach: Ezra 4:14. Possibly it means to be rubbed small, or pulverized. Since salt is used to preserve, it was used as a symbol of an enduring, permanent agreement, forever sacred and inviolable. Salt must always accompany offerings (Leviticus 2:13), as a symbol of a perpetual bond of friendship and loyalty.