Ezra 4:1-24
FEUD BETWEEN THE JEWS AND SAMARITANS This chapter describes the desire of the Samaritans to take part in the rebuilding of the Temple, and their successful opposition to the Jews on their request being refused.... [ Continue Reading ]
FEUD BETWEEN THE JEWS AND SAMARITANS This chapter describes the desire of the Samaritans to take part in the rebuilding of the Temple, and their successful opposition to the Jews on their request being refused.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ADVERSARIES] The term is here anticipatory of the opposition subsequently displayed. The people thus designated were the Samaritans, who, in the main, were the descendants of the immigrants who, to replace the Israelite population that had been deported after the fall of Samaria, had been introd... [ Continue Reading ]
WE SEEK YOUR GOD] A priest had been brought back from captivity to teach them how to fear the Lord (2 Kings 17:28; 2 Kings 17:32). WE DO SACRIFICE UNTO HIM] so one reading of the HEB., followed by the LXX, the clause expanding the plea of common worship. Another reading is 'yet we do no sacrifice,'... [ Continue Reading ]
AS KING CYRUS, etc.] The fact that they were not authorised to extend to others the privileges conferred upon them by Cyrus was probably not the only motive that actuated the Jews. They no doubt felt that to admit to closer association such a hybrid community as the Samaritans, with their mixture of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND] i.e. the Samaritans and the other hostile neighbours of the Je ws; the annoyances they caused are referred to in Zechariah 8:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REIGN OF DARIUS] i.e. Darius Hystaspis, the third in succession to Cyrus, who was followed on the throne by Cambyses, Gomates (who personated Smerdis, and is consequently often styled Pseudo-Smerdis), and Darius, in the order named. Darius reigned from 521-485, so that the rebuilding of the Temp... [ Continue Reading ]
AHASUERUS] i.e. Xerxes (485-464), the successor of Darius Hystaspis.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARTAXERXES] i.e. Artaxerxes Longimanus (464-424), the successor of Xerxes. Since both Xerxes and Artaxerxes lived after Darius Hystaspis, to whom Ezra 4:24 probably refers, and to whose reign the contents of Ezra 5 belong, the section, Ezra 4:6, departs from the chronological succession of events ei... [ Continue Reading ]
REHUM.. SHIMSHAI] It is not clear whether Ezra 4:7 refer to more than one letter sent on different occasions by the enemies of the Jews, or to a single letter written by the persons named in Ezra 4:7 (who were presumably Samaritans) and communicated through the Persian officials named in Ezra 4:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
DINAITES] The identification of most of the peoples mentioned in this v. is uncertain. The Susanchites were the natives of Shushan, the capital of Elam.... [ Continue Reading ]
ON THIS SIDE] RV 'beyond' (and so in Ezra 4:11; Ezra 4:16; Ezra 5:3; Ezra 5:6; Ezra 8:36), regarded from the point of view of the Persian court.... [ Continue Reading ]
AT SUCH A TIME] RV 'and so forth' (and so in Ezra 4:11 and Ezra 4:17).... [ Continue Reading ]
JOINED THE FOUNDATIONS] RV 'repaired the foundations.'... [ Continue Reading ]
_So_ THOU SHALT ENDAMAGE] RV 'in the end it will endamage.'... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HAVE.. PALACE] Mt. 'we have salted the salt of the palace': cp. the term 'salary,' from _salarium,_ 'money given to provide salt.'... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BOOK OF THE RECORDS] For such see Ezra 6:2. A REBELLIOUS CITY] This, so far as it was true, applied to Jerusalem only under Babylonian rule (see 2 Kings 24:1). But the circumstances of the time rendered the walling of the city suspicious, since Egypt, which lay so near, had recently been in revo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SECOND YEAR.. DARIUS] 520 b.c., if, as is most probable, Darius Hystaspis is meant, as in Ezra 4:5 (the closing words of which are here repeated). But some suppose Darius Nothus (423-405) to be intended.... [ Continue Reading ]