Ezra 6:6-12

2. Darius-' decree ordering the reconstruction.

TEXT, Ezra 6:6-12

6

Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your colleagues, the officials of the provinces beyond the River, keep away from there.

7

Leave this work on the house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

8

Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the River, and that without delay.

9

And whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine, and anointing oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request, it is to be given to them daily without fail,

10

that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

11

And I issued a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this.

12

And may the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence.

COMMENT

Ezra 6:6 begins abruptly, suggesting that the introduction of Darius-' letter has been omitted, to get immediately to the issue. In effect, Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai are commanded in Ezra 6:6-7 not to interfere. The phrase, keep away from there, apparently was an Aramaic legal formula for such occasions.[34][34] Anchor Bible, Ezra-Nehemiah, p. 50.

Ezra 6:8 specifies that tax money is to be provided from the general area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River to pay the total cost. We may wonder why a Persian ruler would give first priority to this project; verse ten will furnish an answer.

Ezra 6:9 lists the various items for Israel's sacrifices that were also to be furnished daily and financed from the public treasury. Evidently they had inquired of Israel's priests what would be needed. Since every day was to begin and end with a burnt offering (Numbers 28:3-6), this need was specifically anticipated. Wine was a frequent part of offerings (Exodus 29:40 f.; Leviticus 23:13). And so was oil; it is mentioned particularly at the anointing of priests for service (Leviticus 8:30). Incidentally, Darius is known to have ordered a similar list of supplies for the Hebrew community in Egypt.[35]

[35] Interpreter's Bible, Vol. III, p. 618.

This list is notable in that it corresponds exactly with instructions in Leviticus: bulls, rams, lambs (Leviticus 1:5; Leviticus 1:10), accompanied by wheat and salt (Leviticus 2:1).

In Ezra 6:10, two reasons are given for Darius-' action. For the benefit of the community of Israel, the offerings would be pleasing to their God. For the benefit of the Persians, the priests were asked to pray for the king and his sons, that is, the total officialdom. This would not have been considered unreasonable; Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:7) had urged prayers for the Babylonian rulers when many of Israel's citizens were under this authority. Paul recommends the same course of action in the N.T. (1 Timothy 2:1-2) respecting Roman rulers. The surprise is that the mighty Persian ruler would request a handful of subjugated, impoverished people whom he was befriending to pray to their strange God for him!

Ezra 6:11 threatens any violator with painful death, and the reduction of his home to an outhouse. This comes as a shock if we have become acclimated to expecting kindness from the Persians. The Assyrians and Babylonians were noted for their sadism, including the impaling of victims on pointed posts to induce lingering death; but the Persians followed a policy of benevolence toward their enemies to encourage rapid surrender. But this is another matter, having to do with the enforcing of justice.

It is obvious from Persian accounts that they were acquainted with both impalement and crucifixion as a means of punishing criminals. Herodotus,[36] the Greek who recorded Persian history, speaks of Persian crucifixions, though they are like those with which Julius Caesar[37] later punished pirates, in that the victims were first killed and then affixed to crosses,

[36] Great Books of The Western World, Vol. VI, p. 123.

[37] Suetonius, The Lives of The Twelve Caesars, p. 48.

In Ezra 6:12 Darius invokes a curse in the name of Israel's God on anyone who would change his decree so that the temple would be destroyed. Dr. Ironside[38] mentions that this curse was fulfilled in the case of Antiochus Epiphanes, of Herod (who altered the Temple), and of the Romans in AD 70. However, there is no need to insist on a literal fulfilment here; after all, the curse is only the pronouncement of the pagan Darius. (Nevertheless, the same idea is expressed in Genesis 12:3.) We may ask, has God bound Himself to carry out the curse pronounced in His name by a pagan? It is noteworthy that when Solomon dedicated the previous Temple, he recognized that God might destroy it because of the people's sins, and Solomon did not pray for the destruction in turn of its destroyers: only for Israel's restoration if they returned to God (1 Kings 8).

[38] Ironside, ibid, p. 55.

The mention in Ezra 6:12 that God has caused His name to dwell there may be supported by Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 12:11 and 1 Kings 5:5. Here again the name means more than a word written on the front of a building; it is a promise of His personal presence.

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.