Ezra 6:13-18

3. The completion of the building, and its dedication

TEXT, Ezra 6:13-18

13

Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence, just as King Darius had sent.

14

And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

15

And this temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar; it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

16

And the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

17

And they offered for the dedication of this temple of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, corresponding to the number of tribes of Israel.

18

Then they appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites in their orders for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

COMMENT

Ezra 6:13 shows the result which Darius-' decree had made: it was meticulously obeyed.

Ezra 6:14, like the dedication plate on a new post office, lists all the people responsible for the construction, from the God of Israel who commanded it, through three administrations of kings, two prophets, Israel's governor and high priest, and down to the elders. The name of Artaxerxes raises questions. Surely this is not the Artaxerxes of Ezra 4:7; Ezra 4:23, who held up construction!

One alternative is to see a reference to the Artaxerxes of the next chapter (Ezra 7:12; Ezra 7:21), whose cooperation gave life to the ceremonies in the new building. So Ezra may include him here because the restoration would have been incomplete without his contribution.

Another possibility is that all three names may be different titles for Darius.[39][39] Anchor Bible, p. 50.

But the first idea is not impossible; it was a fact of history that a part of the construction had taken place during his rule, before he blocked its continuation. His being mentioned out of sequence and placed last may be just as an afterthought, suggesting his little importance to the project.

Ezra 6:15 gives the date for its completion. Adar would be the twelfth month, about our February-March. Construction has occupied four and a half years.

In Ezra 6:16 the description of the dedication begins. There are no tears as in Ezra 3:12: only joy. Dedications after extensive repairs had also been conducted by Josiah (2 Chronicles 30:17) and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 35:11).

Ezra 6:17 describes two kinds of sacrifice. The one for dedication would be the burnt offering (Leviticus 1), in which all of the edible meat of the animals would be consumed in fire, thus representing total consecration. This offering was always appropriate at dedication services.

The other, the sin offering, would be appropriate as they draw the curtain over the long years of suffering in exile because of their sins, as they celebrate God's forgiveness. We can-'t help noticing the number twelve, a goat for each of the tribes of Israel (cf. Numbers 7). Again it is obvious that they regarded themselves as the remnant of all the tribes. It was an appropriate gesture, for this was the first time in almost four centuries, since the division of the nation under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, that all Israel had been able to worship together in one temple.

Admittedly, Elijah had called attention to the twelve tribes which had received God's word, when he built his altar of twelve stones. (1 Kings 18:31). And some seventy-eight years before the incident recorded here, Israel had rejoiced together (Ezra 3:1-3; Ezra 3:11). But in neither case were they worshiping in a temple.

The 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs (total 700) of the burnt offering may be contrasted by Solomon's 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep (total, 144,000) in 1 Kings 8:63.

Also, there was no mention of fire descending from heaven, as at Solomon's dedication service (2 Chronicles 7:1-2). But the people may have reflected on encouraging words from Haggai (Ezra 2:9) that the temple would be more glorious in the future than it had ever been in the past.

Ezra 6:18 witnesses the reinstatement of the priests and Levites to their duties in the House of God, as specified by Moses (Numbers 3:6; Numbers 3:10; Numbers 8:9).

With Ezra 6:18, this Aramaic portion of Ezra ends.

WORD STUDIES

DARIUS: Preserver, conservator. His name very aptly describes the character of his reign. Cyrus had brought the nation to greatness, and Darius preserved and extended that which Cyrus had begun.
BURNT OFFERING: that which ascends. (The base of this word appears in the second component of the name of the Israeli airline, EL AL.) Two ideas may be present: (1) the total offering ascended in smoke to God, or (2) the priest ascended to the altar with the offering.

PASSOVER: (Pasach: the word, Paschal, comes from this.) To leap over, or pass over (a stream, for example). When God passed over the doors of the Israelites, they were spared, or delivered (Exodus 12:13; Exodus 12:27). Therefore the word almost always refers to this sparing or deliverance.

UNLEAVENED: (The word, matzoth, comes from this): the word imitates the sound of sucking something out with relish: hence, something sweet, i.e., unleavened or unfermented.