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Ezra Chapter
One
New King James Version (NKJV)
Ezra
1:1 Now
in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia
that the word of the Lord by the mouth
of Jeremiah might be fulfilled
the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Cyrus king of Persia
so that he made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom
and also put it in writing
saying
YLT And in the first year of
Cyrus king of Persia
at the completion of the word of Jehovah from the mouth
of Jeremiah
hath Jehovah waked up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia
and he
causeth an intimation to pass over into all his kingdom
and also in writing
saying
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia
Not in the first of his reign over Persia
for he had been many years king over
that
and now had all the kingdoms of the earth given him
( Ezra
1:2 )
but over Babylon
and the dominions belonging to it
which
commenced with Darius upon the taking of Babylon; he reigned in all thirty
years
as Cicero F7
from a Persian writer relates; or twenty nine
according to Herodotus F8;
but in what year this was is not certain; Africanus F9
has proved
from various historians
that it was the first year of the fifty
fifth Olympiad
perhaps about the twentieth of Cyrus's Persian government F11;
(See Gill on Daniel 10:1)
that the word of the Lord
by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be
fulfilled;
which foretold that the Jews should return from their captivity at the end of
seventy years
which fell on the first of Cyrus
reckoning from the fourth of
Jehoiakim
and the first of Nebuchadnezzar
see ( Jeremiah 25:1 Jeremiah 25:11 Jeremiah 25:12 ) ( 29:10 ) .
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia;
who has the hearts of all men in his hands
and even of the kings of the earth
and can turn them as he pleases; he wrought upon him
put it into his heart
enlightened his mind
showed him what was right
and his duty to do
and
pressed him to the performance of it; so that he could not be easy until he had
done it
and he was made thoroughly willing
and even eager to do it:
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom
and put it also in writing; gave it in writing to his heralds to read and
proclaim throughout all his dominions:
saying;
as follows.
FOOTNOTES:
F7 De Divinatione
l. 1.
F8 Clio
sive
l. 1. c. 214.
F9 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 10. c. 10. p. 488.
F11 Nic. Abrami Pharus
p. 303.
Ezra
1:2 Thus
says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven
has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is
in Judah.
YLT `Thus said Cyrus king of
Persia
All kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah
God of the heavens
given to
me
and He hath laid a charge on me to build to Him a house in Jerusalem
that
[is] in Judah;
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia
Of whom
and this edict of his
Isaiah prophesied two hundred years before he
was born
( Isaiah 44:28 )
the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth;
many he had conquered before he took Babylon
and then the whole Babylonian
monarchy fell into his hands. Herodotus F12
says
he ruled over all Asia; Xenophon F13
reckons up many nations that were under his government
Medes and Hyrcanians
Syrians
Assyrians
Arabians
Cappadocians
both the Phrygians
Carians
Phoenicians
Babylonians
Bactrians
Indians
Cilicians
Sacae or Scythians
Paphlagonians
Megadinians
and many other nations
the Greeks inhabiting Asia
and the Cyprians
and Egyptians; and elsewhere he says F14
the borders of his kingdom were
to the east the Red sea
to the north the
Euxine Pontus
to the west Cyprus and Egypt
and to the south Ethiopia. And the
possession of these kingdoms Cyrus ascribes
not to his own martial courage and
skill
but to the providence and disposal of the God of heaven
which he seems
to have had some notion of:
and he hath charged me to build an house at Jerusalem
which is in
Judah;
in the prophecy of Isaiah
which
according to Josephus F15
he had seen and read
and believed it to be a charge upon him
and a command
unto him to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; however
to give leave for the
rebuilding of it
and to encourage to it
and assist in it; an Arabic writer
says F16
that Cyrus married a sister of Zerubbabel
and that it was at her request that
the Jews had leave to return; which is merely fabulous.
FOOTNOTES:
F12 Clio
sive
l. 1. c. 130. So Sallust
Bell. Catalin. p. 2.
F13 Cyropaedia
l. 1. in principio.
F14 L. 8. c. 48.
F15 Antiqu. l. 11. c. 1. sect. 1
2.
F16 Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 5. p. 82.
Ezra
1:3 Who
is among you of all His people? May his God be with him
and let him go
up to Jerusalem which is in Judah
and build the house of the Lord God of Israel
(He is God)
which is in Jerusalem.
YLT who [is] among you of all
His people? His God is with him
and he doth go up to Jerusalem
that [is] in
Judah
and build the house of Jehovah
God of Israel -- He [is] God -- that
[is] in Jerusalem.
Who is there among you of all his people?
&c.] The people of God
the Israelites
as well of the ten tribes
as of
the two of Judah and Benjamin; for this edict was published throughout all his
dominions
where were the one as well as the other:
his God be with him;
to incline his heart to go
to protect him in his journey
and succeed and
prosper him in what he goes about:
and let him go up to Jerusalem
which is in Judah
and build the
house
of the Lord God of Israel
he is the God;
the one only living and true God:
which is in Jerusalem;
who has been in former times
and is to be worshipped there; though Aben Ezra
says
this is to be connected with "the house of the Lord"; as if the
sense was
to build the house
that was in Jerusalem
or to be built there; and
so our version connects them
putting those words into a parenthesis
"he
is God"; but this is contrary to the accents.
Ezra
1:4 And
whoever is left in any place where he dwells
let the men of his place help him
with silver and gold
with goods and livestock
besides the freewill offerings
for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
YLT `And every one who is
left
of any of the places where he [is] a sojourner
assist him do the men of
his place with silver
and with gold
and with goods
and with beasts
along
with a free-will offering for the house of God
that [is] in Jerusalem.'
And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth
Is left behind
and cannot go up through poverty
not having a sufficiency to
bear his charges in his journey to Jerusalem:
let the men of his place keep him with silver
and with gold
and
with goods
and with beasts;
with money to bear the expenses of his journey
with goods to furnish his
house
or trade with
when he came to Judea
and with cattle to carry him
and
his goods
and to till the ground with
when he came thither; and the men
exhorted to this are either the Gentiles that dwelt in the cities where these
poor Jews were
or the richer Jews
who chose as yet not to go up until they
saw how things would succeed; and are therefore called upon to assist their
brethren who had a will
but not ability:
besides the freewill offering for the house of God that is in
Jerusalem:
which they freely gave
and sent by them for the rebuilding of the temple.
Ezra
1:5 Then
the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin
and the priests
and the Levites
with all whose spirits God had moved
arose to go up and build
the house of the Lord
which is in Jerusalem.
YLT And heads of the fathers
of Judah and Benjamin rise
and the priests and the Levites
even every one
whose spirit God hath waked
to go up to build the house of Jehovah
that [is]
in Jerusalem;
Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin
&c.] Princes of these tribes
and heads of families in them
and of some
other tribes too
though chiefly of these
as appears from ( 1 Chronicles 9:3 )
and the priests and the Levites:
whose presence was necessary both to direct in the building of the temple
and
to animate to it
and to set the vessels in their proper places; and
particularly to assist in the setting up of the altar
and to offer sacrifices
on it
which was the first thing done when come to Jerusalem
( Ezra
3:2 Ezra 3:3 )
with all them whose spirit God raised to go up
to build the house
of the Lord
which is in Jerusalem;
God
who "works" in men "both to will and to do"
wrought
powerfully by his Spirit on their hearts
inclined their minds
and made them
willing to go up
and set about this work; and such a divine
powerful
and
efficacious operation upon them
was necessary to engage them in it
since the
embarrassments
difficulties
discouragements
and objections
were many: some
of them were well settled
and had contracted a pleasing acquaintance with many
of their neighbours
and indeed to most of them it was their native place; and
as for Judea and Jerusalem
they knew nothing of but what their fathers had
told them; the way to it unknown
long
and dangerous
at least fatiguing and
troublesome to their wives and children; and Judea and Jerusalem desolate and
in ruins
and in the hands of enemies
from whom they had reason to expect
trouble.
Ezra
1:6 And
all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver
and gold
with goods and livestock
and with precious things
besides all that
was willingly offered.
YLT and all those round
about them have strengthened [them] with their hands
with vessels of silver
with gold
with goods
and with beasts
and with precious things
apart from
all that hath been offered willingly.
And all they that were about them
Their neighbours
the Chaldeans:
strengthened their hands with vessels of silver
with gold
with
goods
and with beasts
and with precious things;
which they either did of themselves at their own motion
or by the direction
and example of Cyrus
( Ezra 1:4 ) and perhaps many of them to
ingratiate themselves into the favour of their new monarch:
besides all that was willingly offered:
by the rich Jews
who thought fit
at least for the present
to remain in
Babylon.
Ezra
1:7 King
Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord
which
Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods;
YLT And the king Cyrus hath
brought out the vessels of the house of Jehovah that Nebuchadnezzar hath
brought out of Jerusalem
and putteth them in the house of his gods;
And Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord
&c.] Or ordered them to be brought forth:
which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem;
out of the temple there
when he took it and burnt it:
and had put them in the house of his gods;
in the temple of Belus at Babylon
see ( 2 Chronicles 36:7 ) ( Daniel
1:2 ) ( Daniel 5:2 Daniel
5:3 )
by which means they were providentially preserved.
Ezra
1:8 and
Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer
and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
YLT yea
Cyrus king of
Persia bringeth them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer
and numbereth
them to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
Even these did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of
Mithredath the treasurer
Or Mithridates
a name common with the Persians
from their god Mithras
the
sun they worshipped:
and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar prince of Judah;
delivered them by tale to him; who
according to the Jewish rabbins
as Jarchi
says
was Daniel
who was so called
because he stood in six tribulations; but
it does not appear that Daniel went up to Jerusalem with the captivity
as this
man did
but remained at Babylon; rather
with Aben Ezra
it is best by him to
understand Zerubbabel
who did go up
and was the prince of Judah; and Cyrus
in his letter F17
to the governors of Syria
expressly says
that he delivered the vessels to
Zerubbabel
the prince of the Jews. He had two names
Sheshbazzar
which
signifies he rejoiced in tribulation
and Zerubbabel
which signifies either
the seed of Babylon
being born there
or dispersed
or a stranger there
as
others.
FOOTNOTES:
F17 Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 11. c. 1. sect. 3.
Ezra
1:9 This
is the number of them: thirty gold platters
one thousand silver
platters
twenty-nine knives
YLT And this [is] their
number: dishes of gold thirty
dishes of silver a thousand
knives nine and
twenty
And this is the number of them
Of the vessels delivered
as follows:
thirty chargers of gold
a thousand chargers of silver;
these
according to Ben Melech
were vessels in which water was put to wash
hands in; but rather they were
as Aben Ezra observes from the Jerusalem Talmud
F18
vessels in which they gathered the blood of lambs and bullocks slain for
sacrifices:
nine and twenty knives;
which
because the handles of them were of gold or silver
were valuable
and
might be very large knives
and what the priests used in slaying and cutting up
the sacrifices.
FOOTNOTES:
F18 T. Hieros. Yoma
fol. 41. 1.
Ezra
1:10 thirty
gold basins
four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind
and
one thousand other articles.
YLT basins of gold thirty
basins of silver (seconds) four hundred and ten
other vessels a thousand.
Thirty basins of gold
Cups or dishes with covers
as the word seems to signify; but
according to
Jarchi and Aben Ezra
they were vessels in which the blood of sacrifices was
received
and out of which it was sprinkled on the altar:
silver basins of a second sort four hundred and ten;
perhaps lesser than the other
however not so valuable
being of silver; in the
Apocrypha:
``And this was
the number of them; A thousand golden cups
and a thousand of silver
censers
of silver twenty nine
vials of gold thirty
and of silver two thousand four
hundred and ten
and a thousand other vessels.'' (1 Esdras 2:13)
the number is
2410; and in the letter of Cyrus
before referred to
it is 2400:
and other vessels a thousand;
which are not particularly mentioned; Junius and Tremellius render the words
other vessels by thousands
there being near 3000 that are not described.
Ezra
1:11 All
the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these
Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.
YLT All the vessels of gold and
of silver [are] five thousand and four hundred; the whole hath Sheshbazzar
brought up with the going up of the removal from Babylon to Jerusalem.
All the vessels of gold
and of silver
were five thousand and
four hundred
Those that are mentioned make no more than 2499
which Aben Ezra thinks were
the larger vessels; but this general sum takes in great and small
as in ( 2 Chronicles 36:18 ) in the letter of Cyrus
before mentioned
these vessels are more particularly described
and their
several numbers given
which together amount to the exact number in the text
5400; the apocryphal Ezra makes them 5469:
all these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity
that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem:
of whom there is a large and particular account in the following chapter.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》