36The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three. 37Of Immer, one thousand fifty-two. 38Of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven. 39Of Harim, one thousand seventeen.
40The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the descendants of Hodaviah, seventy-four. 41The singers: the descendants of Asaph, one hundred twenty-eight. 42The descendants of the gatekeepers: of Shallum, of Ater, of Talmon, of Akkub, of Hatita, and of Shobai, in all one hundred thirty-nine.
43The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth, 44Keros, Siaha, Padon, 45Lebanah, Hagabah, Akkub, 46Hagab, Shamlai, Hanan, 47Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah, 48Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam, 49Uzza, Paseah, Besai, 50Asnah, Meunim, Nephisim, 51Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur, 52Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha, 53Barkos, Sisera, Temah, 54Neziah, and Hatipha.
55The descendants of Solomon’s servants: Sotai, Hassophereth, Peruda, 56Jaalah, Darkon, Giddel, 57Shephatiah, Hattil, Pochereth-hazzebaim, and Ami.
58All the temple servants and the descendants of Solomon’s servants were three hundred ninety-two.
59The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, though they could not prove their families or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel: 60the descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda, six hundred fifty-two. 61Also, of the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Habaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai (who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). 62These looked for their entries in the genealogical records, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean; 63the governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim.
64The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, 65besides their male and female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred male and female singers. 66They had seven hundred thirty-six horses, two hundred forty-five mules, 67four hundred thirty-five camels, and six thousand seven hundred twenty donkeys.
68As soon as they came to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, some of the heads of families made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site. 69According to their resources they gave to the building fund sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred priestly robes.
70The priests, the Levites, and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and its vicinity;a and the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all Israel in their towns.
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a 1 Esdras 5.46: Heb lacks lived in Jerusalem and its vicinity
2.1–2a Apparently a list of leaders from various periods after the return. Zerubbabel and Jeshua are the governor and the priest of 3.2; perhaps Nehemiah is the governor Nehemiah (Neh 1.1), Seraiah the father of the priest Ezra (Ezra 7.1), and Bigvai the governor of Judea (Aramaic Yehud) after Nehemiah known from the Elephantine papyri.
2.2b–58 A census of inhabitants of Judea (the province Yehud), at some unknown time after the return from exile. The list is paralleled in Neh 7 and 1 Esd 5, with many variations, especially in the numbers.
2.2b The Israelite people, i.e., laypersons, as distinct from priests, Levites, and other religious professionals (vv. 36–58).
2.3–35 These are not the names of individuals, but of clans or phratries (vv. 3–20) and of towns (vv. 21–35).
2.36–39 Other lists of postexilic priests are in Neh 10.2–8; 12.1–7.
2.40–42 Levites are also listed in Neh 10.9–13; 12.8–9. The temple singers (cf. 1 Chr 9.33–44) and gatekeepers (cf. 1 Chr 9.17–27) seem also to be regarded as Levites (as in Neh 12.9, 24–25).
2.43–54 Temple servants, a hereditary caste of temple servitors (Hebrew netinim), mostly with non-Israelite names.
2.55–57 Solomon’s servants, ostensibly the descendants of Solomon’s Canaanite slaves (1 Kings 9.20–21; 2 Chr 8.7–8), now temple officials.
2.59–69 Unlike the census of inhabitants of the province in vv. 2b–58, this appears to be a report of the returned exiles from five towns in Babylonia.
2.61 Barzillai, a contemporary of David (2 Sam 17.27–29; 19.31–39). For a male to take the name of his wife’s family is unparalleled in the OT.
2.62–63 Unclean, in the ritual sense, and so unable to officiate as priests or be fed from the temple revenues (not to partake of the most holy food).
2.63 We cannot tell which governor (Hebrew tirshata, a Persian title signifying “His Excellency”) of the Persian province of Judea is intended here. Urim and Thummim, sacred lots enabling the answers to difficult questions to be divined, were apparently two small objects kept in a pouch of the high priest’s ephod (Ex 28.30; Lev 8.8); they could yield the responses “yes,” “no,” or “no answer” (cf. 1 Sam 14.36–37; 23.9–12; 30.7–8).
2.64 The figure of 42,360 members of the assembly differs from the total of the individual sums (29,818) in vv. 2b–58. Such figures often suffer from scribal errors. But perhaps the 42,360 are returnees, including women, and the 29,818 are inhabitants of the province at a later date including those who had not been exiled, but excluding women.
2.65 Both male and female servants and male and female singers are counted, so probably women members of the community are also included in the total of v. 64. The singers are secular entertainers; the temple singers have been mentioned in v. 41, and there were no female singers in the temple, as far as we know.
2.66–67 Horses, mules, camels, and donkeys are all pack animals, for carrying loads (horses were not used for riding at this time); the list seems to be something like a caravan inventory.
2.68 The building and furnishing of the Second Temple is here regarded as the responsibility of the community at large rather than of a king, as it was with Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6–7). The giving of freewill offerings is reminiscent of the accounts of the construction of the tabernacle (Ex 25.2–7; 35.21–29); 1 Chr 29.6–9 also ascribes the funding of the First Temple to the donations of the people.
2.69 Sixty-one thousand darics. A daric was a gold coin of 8.4 grams, apparently named for Darius I (522–486 BCE), represented on his coins half-length or kneeling with a bow and arrow. This reference to darics at a time earlier than Darius is anachronistic and suggests a composition or revision of this text later than the time it purports to describe. The total weight of gold in 61,000 darics (41,000 in Neh 7.70–72) is 1,133 pounds. Minas are not coins, but weights of about 570 grams (20 ounces), fifty times the weight of a shekel. 5,000 minas of silver would weigh 6,250 pounds. Priestly robes, i.e., tunics, of intricately embroidered linen (Ex 28.4–5; cf. 28.39; 39.27–29).
EZRA 3
Worship Restored at Jerusalem
1When the seventh month came, and the Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together in Jerusalem. 2Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his kin set out to build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as prescribed in the law of Moses the man of God. 3They set up the altar on its foundation, because they were in dread of the neighboring peoples, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the LORD, morning and evening. 4And they kept the festival of booths,a as prescribed, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance, as required for each day, 5and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the sacred festivals of the LORD, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the LORD. 6From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid. 7So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from King Cyrus of Persia.
Foundation Laid for the
Temple
8In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work on the house of the LORD. 9And Jeshua with his sons and his kin, and Kadmiel and his sons, Binnui and Hodaviahb along with the sons of Henadad, the Levites, their sons and kin, together took charge of the workers in the house of God.
10When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the LORD with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel; 11and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.
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a Or tabernacles; Heb succoth
b Compare 2.40; Neh 7.43; 1 Esdras 5.58: Heb sons of Judah
3.1–7 Sacrifices are resumed.
3.1 The seventh month, Tishri (September/October) 538 BCE. The Israelites were in the towns. The people had settled in their ancestral homes in the country towns and villages, as well, of course, as in Jerusalem. The people gathered…in Jerusalem. The seventh month, the most important in the liturgical year (Num 29), required in principle the presence in Jerusalem at least of all males in order to celebrate the Festival of Booths (see note on 3.4).
3.2 Jeshua, the high priest (cf. Neh 12.10; Hag 1.1, 14; 2.2), called Joshua in Haggai, is here named before Zerubbabel because the context concerns worship. Usually their names are given in the reverse order (e.g., Ezra 2.2; 3.8; 4.3; 5.2). Jeshua’s father, Jozadak (Jehozadak), was high priest at the time of the exile in 587 BCE (1 Chr 6.15). Zerubbabel, grandson of the exiled king of Judah, Jehoiachin (Jeconiah; 1 Chr 3.17–19), is the Jewish governor appointed by the Persians. To build the altar. The assumption is that the altar of the First Temple had been destroyed (on destroying altars, cf. 2 Kings 23.15). As prescribed in the law of Moses, i.e., built of unhewn stones (Ex 20.25; cf. Deut 27.6; 1 Macc 4.42–47).
3.3 On its foundation, i.e., on the foundation of the old altar still remaining. Continuity of tradition is deemed important for the legitimacy of the worship. Because they were in dread. The reestablishment of worship is the priority in the restoration of the state as a means of warding off danger from the neighboring peoples, lit. “the peoples of the lands,” such as Edomites and Ammonites. Cf. the term people of the land for the inhabitants of Palestine proper (note on 4.4). Burnt offerings…morning and evening, the prescribed “perpetual offering” (Hebrew tamid), a lamb together with flour, oil, and wine, the staple produce of the land (Ex 29.38–42; Num 28.3–8).
3.4 The festival of booths (Tabernacles) was held from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the seventh month (Lev 23.33–36). The daily burnt offerings are detailed in Num 29.12–38, totaling in the week 71 bulls, 15 rams, 105 lambs, and 7 goats.
3.5 Throughout the year sacrifices would be offered: the public regular burnt offerings daily, the new moon offerings monthly, the offerings at sacred festivals seasonally, and the private freewill offerings irregularly. The sacred festivals are enumerated in Lev 23.
3.6 The first day of the seventh month. According to the narrator’s report, the date is September 17, 538 BCE. The foundation of the temple…was not yet laid, better “work had not yet started on the temple rebuilding.” Many of the foundations must have survived from the ruins of the First Temple. The point is that sacrificial worship was resumed long before the temple building itself was repaired.
3.7 The account of the building of the Second Temple is intended to remind readers of the building of Solomon’s temple (2 Chr 3; cf. 1 Chr 22.2–4), for the narrator sees the Second Temple as essentially a rebuilding and continuation of the First Temple. Money, probably an anachronistic translation, for coins were not yet in common use. The Hebrew is lit. “silver,” which would have been weighed out as wages. Masons, i.e., stonecutters (as in 1 Chr 22.2). Carpenters. The English word is too specific; the Hebrew is lit. “cutters,” i.e., workers in wood, metal, and stone (cf. 1 Chr 22.15). Food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians. Solomon too paid his artisans from Sidon and Tyre in kind (wheat and oil, 1 Kings 5.11). Cedar trees from Lebanon. These tall and robust trees, highly prized throughout the ancient Near East, were ideal for roof beams. Isa 60.13 speaks of the “glory of Lebanon” coming to Jerusalem to “beautify” the temple. To the sea, to Joppa, better “to the port at Joppa.” For Solomon’s temple too (according to 2 Chr 2.16) logs bound together as rafts had been towed from Lebanon to Joppa, Tell Qasile, just north of modern Tel Aviv. The grant…from King Cyrus, probably not the money grant (6.4), but his permission for timber to be taken free from the Lebanon mountains, which had become a royal Persian forest.
3.8–13 Preparations for the rebuilding are made.
3.8 In the second year, 537 BCE. Not much is said to have been done at this time (cf. laid the foundation, v. 10), for work ceases until the reign of Darius (522–486 BCE; 4.5) and then is resumed and completed in his sixth year (6.15). In the second month, Ziv, or Iyyar (April-May). In the same month Solomon too began work on his temple (1 Kings 6.1; 2 Chr 3.2); it was a suitable season for building work, after the spring rains and the early harvest of flax and barley. Zerubbabel, Jeshua. See note on 3.2. All who had come…from the captivity. Those who had not been in exile in Babylonia but had remained in the land seem to be studiously ignored by the author. Twenty years old, the minimum age for levitical duties according to the Chronicler (1 Chr 23.24, 27; 2 Chr 31.17).
3.9 In accordance with his custom, the author lingers over the names and functions of the Levites, creating the impression that he himself was a Levite. This Jeshua is a Levite, not the high priest (v. 2).
3.10 Laid the foundation. Whether there was any foundation laying we do not know (cf. note on 3.6), for the Hebrew says only that they “restored, repaired,” which must mean in the context that they began to repair. 2 Kings 25.9 speaks only of the burning of the temple by the Babylonians, and the large dressed foundation stones, up to 12 or 15 feet in length (1 Kings 5.17; 7.10), would not have been much damaged by the collapse of the temple. In their vestments. The Hebrew has simply “clothed” presumably a word like “in linen” has been accidentally omitted. Trumpets of silver (Num 10.2) blown by priests and cymbals of bronze (1 Chr 15.19) sounded by the sons of Asaph, the musicians’ guild among the Levites (see Ezra 2.41; 2 Chr 29.25–26), were a rhythmical backing for the vocal music. According to…King David. See 1 Chr 16.4–6; 25.1, 6.
3.11 For he is good…toward Israel, a quotation from a psalm such as 106 (v. 1) or 136 intended for responsive singing. The theme of the praise is God’s fidelity (steadfast love) to the nation; true to his promise, he has enabled them to return to the land. The shout is often associated with military victory and the return of the ark of the covenant, seat of the divine king (e.g., 1 Sam 4.5–6; Pss 47.5; 132.16), to the center of the people. Because the foundation…was laid, rather “because of the rebuilding” (cf. notes on 3.6; 3.10).
3.12 The first house, Solomon’s temple, destroyed in 587 BCE, fifty years previously. When they saw this house, rather, with the Hebrew, “this (or that) was the temple in their eyes (i.e., as far as they were concerned),” a parenthetica
l phrase that follows the first house on its foundations.
EZRA 4
Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple
1When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel, 2they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of families and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of King Esar-haddon of Assyria who brought us here.” 3But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, “You shall have no part with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.”
4Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build, 5and they bribed officials to frustrate their plan throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.
Rebuilding of Jerusalem Opposed
6In the reign of Ahasuerus, in his accession year, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia; the letter was written in Aramaic and translated.a 8Rehum the royal deputy and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows 9(then Rehum the royal deputy, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, the judges, the envoys, the officials, the Persians, the people of Erech, the Babylonians, the people of Susa, that is, the Elamites, 10and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River wrote—and now 11this is a copy of the letter that they sent):
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