Ezra 6:1-22
COMPLETION AND DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE This chapter relates the authorisation of the construction of the Temple, and the completion of the work.... [ Continue Reading ]
COMPLETION AND DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE This chapter relates the authorisation of the construction of the Temple, and the completion of the work.... [ Continue Reading ]
ACHMETHA] i.e. Ecbatana in Media.... [ Continue Reading ]
THREESCORE CUBITS, etc.] The dimensions here given, which considerably exceed those of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 6:2), perhaps marked the limits beyond which the builders were not to go.... [ Continue Reading ]
_With_ THREE ROWS, etc.] cp. 1 Kings 6:36, which suggests that these materials were used in the construction of the Court, not of the edifice, of the Temple. OUT. OF THE KING'S HOUSE] i.e. from the king's resources: cp. 1 Kings 7:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW _therefore,_ etc.] At this v. the decree of Darius begins.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOVERNOR OF THE JEWS] i.e. Zerubbabel (Sheshbazzar), who was subordinate to Tatnai (Ezra 5:3).... [ Continue Reading ]
SACRIFICES OF SWEET SAVOURS] cp. Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO ALTER] i.e. the decree.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARTAXERXES] The Temple was really completed in the reign of Darius (Ezra 6:15), but Artaxerxes (464-424 b.c.) bestowed treasure upon it (see Ezra 7).... [ Continue Reading ]
ADAR] February-March. THE SIXTH YEAR] i.e. 516 b.c. The Temple, which was begun for the second time in the second year of Darius, 520 b.c. (Haggai 1:14), had taken more than four years to finish. No complete description of it is forthcoming, but some information respecting it can be derived from all... [ Continue Reading ]
TWELVE HE GOATS] The number (see Numbers 7:37) was representative of the twelve tribes of Israel, though only a few of them had returned from their exile and were present at the festival.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE PRIESTS, etc.] better, 'for the priests had purified themselves, and the Levites, as one man, were all of them pure.' KILLED THE PASSOVER FOR ALL] i.e. the Levites, who in Hezekiah's time killed the passover lambs only for such as were not clean, now killed them for all alike, both priests a... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL SUCH AS HAD SEPARATED, etc.] cp. Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah 10:28. The allusion is to the Israelites left in the country when the flower of the population was removed by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon, who had become contaminated by the surrounding heathen, but now detached themselves from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KING OF ASSYRIA] i.e. Darius, whose predecessors had conquered Babylon, the mistress of Assyria.... [ Continue Reading ]