HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  The Speech about Wine

  Then the first, who had spoken of the strength of wine, began and said: 18“Gentlemen, how is wine the strongest? It leads astray the minds of all who drink it. 19It makes equal the mind of the king and the orphan, of the slave and the free, of the poor and the rich. 20It turns every thought to feasting and mirth, and forgets all sorrow and debt. 21It makes all hearts feel rich, forgets kings and satraps, and makes everyone talk in millions.c 22When people drink they forget to be friendly with friends and kindred, and before long they draw their swords. 23And when they recover from the wine, they do not remember what they have done. 24Gentlemen, is not wine the strongest, since it forces people to do these things?” When he had said this, he stopped speaking.

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  a Gk on gold

  b Or but truth is victor over all things

  c Gk talents

  3.1–4.63 The debate of the three bodyguards. This is the one lengthy section of 1 Esdras that has no equivalent in 2 Chronicles or in Ezra-Nehemiah. Its function is to introduce the governor Zerubbabel, explaining how this Jew came to be favored by the Persian king Darius. Zerubbabel proves to be the winner of the debate over what the strongest thing in the world is (4.13, 41), and he is rewarded by being given permission to rebuild the temple (4.42–57, 62–63). It seems likely that the story was popular long before it had the name of Zerubbabel attached to it, since it is found in other forms in different cultures.

  3.1–17 This account of a banquet given by Darius (522–486 BCE) has probably been borrowed from Esth 1.1–2, where the king is Ahasuerus.

  3.1 Media had been an important part of the Persian Empire since Cyrus I conquered it in 550 BCE.

  3.2 Satraps, governors of the satrapies, as the twenty provinces of the Persian Empire were called.

  3.3 But woke up again contradicts v. 13; there may be a textual error.

  3.4–11 The details lack plausibility. Why should the bodyguards suppose that the winner of a competition of their own devising and for their own amusement would be rewarded so handsomely by the king? And why should the answers be put under the king’s pillow if they (his servants, presumably, v. 9) are going to give them to him? Josephus, not surprisingly, rewrites the story to have the king himself make the promise of reward (as does Herod in Mk 6.22–23).

  3.12 Strangely, the third guard has two chances to win the competition! Also, how can women be strongest if truth is stronger still? But above all things truth is victor, an addition to an earlier form of the story.

  3.18–24 The main point of this speech about wine is that it is “strong,” but in it we can also detect a note of praise for wine (cf. Ps 104.15; Sir 31.27–28) as well as a note of warning (cf. Prov 20.1; 23.29–35).

  1 ESDRAS 4

  The Speech about the King

  1Then the second, who had spoken of the strength of the king, began to speak: 2“Gentlemen, are not men strongest, who rule over land and sea and all that is in them? 3But the king is stronger; he is their lord and master, and whatever he says to them they obey. 4If he tells them to make war on one another, they do it; and if he sends them out against the enemy, they go, and conquer mountains, walls, and towers. 5They kill and are killed, and do not disobey the king’s command; if they win the victory, they bring everything to the king—whatever spoil they take and everything else. 6Likewise those who do not serve in the army or make war but till the soil; whenever they sow and reap, they bring some to the king; and they compel one another to pay taxes to the king. 7And yet he is only one man! If he tells them to kill, they kill; if he tells them to release, they release; 8if he tells them to attack, they attack; if he tells them to lay waste, they lay waste; if he tells them to build, they build; 9if he tells them to cut down, they cut down; if he tells them to plant, they plant. 10All his people and his armies obey him. Furthermore, he reclines, he eats and drinks and sleeps, 11but they keep watch around him, and no one may go away to attend to his own affairs, nor do they disobey him. 12Gentlemen, why is not the king the strongest, since he is to be obeyed in this fashion?” And he stopped speaking.

  The Speech about Women

  13Then the third, who had spoken of women and truth (and this was Zerubbabel), began to speak: 14“Gentlemen, is not the king great, and are not men many, and is not wine strong? Who is it, then, that rules them, or has the mastery over them? Is it not women? 15Women gave birth to the king and to every people that rules over sea and land. 16From women they came; and women brought up the very men who plant the vineyards from which comes wine. 17Women make men’s clothes; they bring men glory; men cannot exist without women. 18If men gather gold and silver or any other beautiful thing, and then see a woman lovely in appearance and beauty, 19they let all those things go, and gape at her, and with open mouths stare at her, and all prefer her to gold or silver or any other beautiful thing. 20A man leaves his own father, who brought him up, and his own country, and clings to his wife. 21With his wife he ends his days, with no thought of his father or his mother or his country. 22Therefore you must realize that women rule over you!

  “Do you not labor and toil, and bring everything and give it to women? 23A man takes his sword, and goes out to travel and rob and steal and to sail the sea and rivers; 24he faces lions, and he walks in darkness, and when he steals and robs and plunders, he brings it back to the woman he loves. 25A man loves his wife more than his father or his mother. 26Many men have lost their minds because of women, and have become slaves because of them. 27Many have perished, or stumbled, or sinned because of women. 28And now do you not believe me?

  “Is not the king great in his power? Do not all lands fear to touch him? 29Yet I have seen him with Apame, the king’s concubine, the daughter of the illustrious Bartacus; she would sit at the king’s right hand 30and take the crown from the king’s head and put it on her own, and slap the king with her left hand. 31At this the king would gaze at her with mouth agape. If she smiles at him, he laughs; if she loses her temper with him, he flatters her, so that she may be reconciled to him. 32Gentlemen, why are not women strong, since they do such things?”

  The Speech about Truth

  33Then the king and the nobles looked at one another; and he began to speak about truth: 34“Gentlemen, are not women strong? The earth is vast, and heaven is high, and the sun is swift in its course, for it makes the circuit of the heavens and returns to its place in one day. 35Is not the one who does these things great? But truth is great, and stronger than all things. 36The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses it. All God’s worksa quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous. 37Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all human beings are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish. 38But truth endures and is strong forever, and lives and prevails forever and ever. 39With it there is no partiality or preference, but it does what is righteous instead of anything that is unrighteous or wicked. Everyone approves its deeds, 40and there is nothing unrighteous in its judgment. To it belongs the strength and the kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of truth!” 41When he stopped speaking, all the people shouted and said, “Great is truth, and strongest of all!”

  Zerubbabel’s Reward

  42Then the king said to him, “Ask what you wish, even beyond what is written, and we will give it to you, for you have been found to be the wisest. You shall sit next to me, and be called my Kinsman.” 43Then he said to the king, “Remember the vow that you made on the day when you became king, to build Jerusalem, 44and to send back all the vessels that were taken from Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart when he beganb to destroy Babylon, and vowed to send them back there. 45You also vowed to build the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judea was laid waste by the Chaldeans. 46And now, O lord the king, this is what I ask and request of you, and this befits your greatness. I pray therefore that you fulfill t
he vow whose fulfillment you vowed to the King of heaven with your own lips.”

  47Then King Darius got up and kissed him, and wrote letters for him to all the treasurers and governors and generals and satraps, that they should give safe conduct to him and to all who were going up with him to build Jerusalem. 48And he wrote letters to all the governors in Coelesyria and Phoenicia and to those in Lebanon, to bring cedar timber from Lebanon to Jerusalem, and to help him build the city. 49He wrote in behalf of all the Jews who were going up from his kingdom to Judea, in the interest of their freedom, that no officer or satrap or governor or treasurer should forcibly enter their doors; 50that all the country that they would occupy should be theirs without tribute; that the Idumeans should give up the villages of the Jews that they held; 51that twenty talents a year should be given for the building of the temple until it was completed, 52and an additional ten talents a year for burnt offerings to be offered on the altar every day, in accordance with the commandment to make seventeen offerings; 53and that all who came from Babylonia to build the city should have their freedom, they and their children and all the priests who came. 54He wrote also concerning their support and the priests’ vestments in whichc they were to minister. 55He wrote that the support for the Levites should be provided until the day when the temple would be finished and Jerusalem built. 56He wrote that land and wages should be provided for all who guarded the city. 57And he sent back from Babylon all the vessels that Cyrus had set apart; everything that Cyrus had ordered to be done, he also commanded to be done and to be sent to Jerusalem.

  Zerubbabel’s Prayer

  58When the young man went out, he lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven, saying, 59“From you comes the victory; from you comes wisdom, and yours is the glory. I am your servant. 60Blessed are you, who have given me wisdom; I give you thanks, O Lord of our ancestors.”

  61So he took the letters, and went to Babylon and told this to all his kindred. 62And they praised the God of their ancestors, because he had given them release and permission 63to go up and build Jerusalem and the temple that is called by his name; and they feasted, with music and rejoicing, for seven days.

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  a Gk All the works

  b Cn: Gk vowed

  c Gk in what priestly vestments

  4.1–12 This speech about the power of the king portrays an absolute monarch who determines the lives of his subjects. There is at least a hint of sycophancy about this speech, which is (in the narrative) being delivered in the presence of the king. But the author no doubt also intends to criticize the despotism he describes.

  4.13–32 This speech about women is put in the mouth of the historical personage Zerubbabel, known as the governor of the province of Judea (cf. Ezra 3.2). The attitude taken toward women here is ambivalent, as is that toward wine and the king in the previous speeches. Although women can further men’s interests (vv. 16–17), they also can be harmful to men (vv. 18–19, 26–27). Interestingly, women’s power here is only in relation to individual men; they have no political or social power of their own.

  4.29 No concubine of a Persian king by the name Apame is known from other sources. The point would be made better if no reference were made to the woman’s parentage.

  4.33–41 This speech in praise of truth contains no ambivalence about its subject. Truth is here not freedom from error, but more like “virtue” it is the opposite of unrighteousness (vv. 37, 39–40). It is hard to see any real argument in this speech that truth is “strong” there is a claim that it endures and prevails (4.38), but no evidence is brought forward. The speech about truth has not been well integrated into the story of the three-cornered contest, which apparently existed in an earlier version without Zerubbabel.

  4.38 The origin of the aphorism “Great is truth and it prevails” (often quoted in the Vulgate version, magna est veritas et praevalet).

  4.42–57 This account of the resumption of the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple differs somewhat from that of the other biblical books.

  4.43 Ezra 1.7–8 (cf. 6.5; 1 Esd 3.10–12) says that it was Cyrus, not Darius, who restored the temple vessels.

  4.45 No other biblical text says that the Edomites burned the temple, though Ob 11–14 has them involved in the destruction of the city.

  4.47 Zerubbabel and Darius were not involved in the building of the city of Jerusalem; it was, rather, Nehemiah under Artaxerxes.

  4.48 The letters of safe conduct and permission to take cedars from Lebanon were given to Nehemiah, not Zerubbabel (Neh 2.7–8).

  4.49–56 The various rights given here to Zerubbabel and his community (freedom; privacy; tax-free status; removal of Idumeans; specific sums for temple worship; support of priests, Levites, and city guardkeepers) are not to be found in the decree of Cyrus in Ezra 6.6–12, though the provision of temple vessels, tax-free status for temple personnel, and specific sums for maintaining temple worship are promised by Artaxerxes to Ezra (Ezra 7.12–26).

  4.58–63 Praise and celebration.

  4.59–60 Zerubbabel’s prayer of thanks combines many conventional OT phrases.

  4.63 As before (e.g., v. 47), the building of the city Jerusalem is here ascribed to Zerubbabel rather than Nehemiah, whose work does not appear in 1 Esdras at all (the Nehemiah in 5.8 may or may not be the governor Nehemiah; see also note on 5.40).

  1 ESDRAS 5

  List of the Returning Exiles

  1After this the heads of ancestral houses were chosen to go up, according to their tribes, with their wives and sons and daughters, and their male and female servants, and their livestock. 2And Darius sent with them a thousand cavalry to take them back to Jerusalem in safety, with the music of drums and flutes; 3all their kindred were making merry. And he made them go up with them.

  4These are the names of the men who went up, according to their ancestral houses in the tribes, over their groups: 5the priests, the descendants of Phinehas son of Aaron; Jeshua son of Jozadak son of Seraiah and Joakim son of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, of the house of David, of the lineage of Phares, of the tribe of Judah, 6who spoke wise words before King Darius of the Persians, in the second year of his reign, in the month of Nisan, the first month.

  7These are the Judeans who came up out of their sojourn in exile, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away to Babylon 8and who returned to Jerusalem and the rest of Judea, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Resaiah, Eneneus, Mordecai, Beelsarus, Aspharasus, Reeliah, Rehum, and Baanah, their leaders.

  9The number of those of the nation and their leaders: the descendants of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two. The descendants of Shephatiah, four hundred seventy-two. 10The descendants of Arah, seven hundred fifty-six. 11The descendants of Pahath-moab, of the descendants of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred twelve. 12The descendants of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four. The descendants of Zattu, nine hundred forty-five. The descendants of Chorbe, seven hundred five. The descendants of Bani, six hundred forty-eight. 13The descendants of Bebai, six hundred twenty-three. The descendants of Azgad, one thousand three hundred twenty-two. 14The descendants of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-seven. The descendants of Bigvai, two thousand sixty-six. The descendants of Adin, four hundred fifty-four. 15The descendants of Ater, namely of Hezekiah, ninety-two. The descendants of Kilan and Azetas, sixty-seven. The descendants of Azaru, four hundred thirty-two. 16The descendants of Annias, one hundred one. The descendants of Arom. The descendants of Bezai, three hundred twenty-three. The descendants of Arsiphurith, one hundred twelve. 17The descendants of Baiterus, three thousand five. The descendants of Beth-lomon, one hundred twenty-three. 18Those from Netophah, fifty-five. Those from Anathoth, one hundred fifty-eight. Those from Bethasmoth, forty-two. 19Those from Kiriatharim, twenty-five. Those from Chephirah and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three. 20The Chadiasans and Ammidians, four hundred twenty-two. Those from Kirama and Geba, six hundred
twenty-one. 21Those from Macalon, one hundred twenty-two. Those from Betolio, fifty-two. The descendants of Niphish, one hundred fifty-six. 22The descendants of the other Calamolalus and Ono, seven hundred twenty-five. The descendants of Jerechus, three hundred forty-five. 23The descendants of Senaah, three thousand three hundred thirty.

  24The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah son of Jeshua, of the descendants of Anasib, nine hundred seventy-two. The descendants of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two. 25The descendants of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven. The descendants of Charme, one thousand seventeen.

  26The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua and Kadmiel and Bannas and Sudias, seventy-four. 27The temple singers: the descendants of Asaph, one hundred twenty-eight. 28The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, the descendants of Ater, the descendants of Talmon, the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Hatita, the descendants of Shobai, in all one hundred thirty-nine.

  29The temple servants: the descendants of Esau, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth, the descendants of Keros, the descendants of Sua, the descendants of Padon, the descendants of Lebanah, the descendants of Hagabah, 30the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Uthai, the descendants of Ketab, the descendants of Hagab, the descendants of Subai, the descendants of Hana, the descendants of Cathua, the descendants of Geddur, 31the descendants of Jairus, the descendants of Daisan, the descendants of Noeba, the descendants of Chezib, the descendants of Gazera, the descendants of Uzza, the descendants of Phinoe, the descendants of Hasrah, the descendants of Basthai, the descendants of Asnah, the descendants of Maani, the descendants of Nephisim, the descendants of Acuph,a the descendants of Hakupha, the descendants of Asur, the descendants of Pharakim, the descendants of Bazluth, 32the descendants of Mehida, the descendants of Cutha, the descendants of Charea, the descendants of Barkos, the descendants of Serar, the descendants of Temah, the descendants of Neziah, the descendants of Hatipha.