Ezra 6

Ezr 6:1-12.

DARIUS'

DECREE FOR

ADVANCING THE

BUILDING.

1. Darius the king--This was Darius Hystaspes. Great and interesting

light has been thrown on the history of this monarch and the

transaction of his reign, by the decipherment of the cuneatic

inscriptions on the rocks at Behistun.

in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in

Babylon--An idea of the form of this Babylonian register house, as well

as the manner of preserving public records within its repositories, can

be obtained from the discoveries at Nineveh. Two small chambers were

discovered in the palace of Koyunjik, which, from the fragments found

in them, MR.

LAYARD considers "as a house of the rolls." After

reminding his readers that the historical records and public documents

of the Assyrians were kept on tablets and cylinders of baked clay, many

specimens of which have been found, he goes on to say, "The chambers I

am describing appear to have been a depository in the palace of Nineveh

for such documents. To the height of a foot or more from the floor they

were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part

broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper

part of the building. They were of different sizes; the largest tablets

were flat, and measured about nine inches by six and a half inches; the

smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long,

with but one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most

of them were singularly sharp and well-defined, but so minute in some

instances as to be almost illegible without a magnifying glass. These

documents appear to be of various kinds. The documents that have thus

been discovered in the house of rolls' at Nineveh probably exceed all

that have yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt, and when the

innumerable fragments are put together and transcribed, the publication

of these records will be of the greatest importance to the history of

the ancient world" [Nineveh and Babylon].

2. Achmetha--long supposed to be the capital of Greater Media (the

Ecbatana of classical, the Hamadan of modern times), [is] at the foot

of the Elwund range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity,

Cyrus and his successors on the Persian throne established their summer

residence. There was another city, however, of this name, the Ecbatana

of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media, and

recently identified by COLONEL

RAWLINSON in the remarkable ruins of

Takht-i-Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of

Cyrus to his native city, the Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the

stronger capital of Greater Media, COLONEL

RAWLINSON is inclined to

think that he deposited there, in his fortress, the famous decree

relating to the Jews, along with the other records and treasures of his

empire [Nineveh and Persepolis].

8-10. of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the river . . .

expenses be given unto these men--The decree granted them the privilege

of drawing from his provincial treasury of Syria, to the amount of

whatever they required for the furthering of the work and providing

sacrifice for the service of the temple, that the priests might daily

pray for the health of the king and the prosperity of the empire.

11, 12. whosoever shall alter this word--The warning was specially

directed against the turbulent and fanatical Samaritans. The extremely

favorable purport of this edict was no doubt owing in some measure to

the influence of Cyrus, of whom Darius entertained a high admiration,

and whose two daughters he had married. But it proceeded still more

from the deep impressions made even on the idolatrous people of that

country and that age, as to the being and providence of the God of

Israel.

Ezr 6:13-15.

THE

TEMPLE

FINISHED.

13-15. Then Tatnai . . . did speedily--A concurrence of favorable

events is mentioned as accelerating the restoration of the temple and

infusing a new spirit and energy into the workmen, who now labored with

unabating assiduity till it was brought to a completion. Its foundation

was laid in April, 536 B.C.

(Ezr 3:8-10),

and it was completed on February 21, 515 B.C.,

being twenty-one years after it was begun [LIGHTFOOT].

Ezr 6:16-18.

FEASTS OF THE

DEDICATION.

16. the children of Israel . . . kept the dedication

. . . with joy--The ceremonial was gone through with

demonstrations of the liveliest joy. The aged who had wept at the

laying of the foundation

[Ezr 3:12]

were most, if not all of them, now dead; and all rejoiced at the

completion of this national undertaking.

17. twelve he-goats--as at the dedication of the tabernacle

(Nu 7:87; 8:17).

18. they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their

courses . . . as it is written in the book of Moses--Although David

arranged the priests and Levites in courses according to their families,

it was Moses who assigned to the priests and Levites their rights and

privileges, their stations and several duties.

Ezr 6:19-22.

AND OF THE

PASSOVER.

21. all such as had separated themselves . . . from the filthiness of

the heathen of the land--that is, who had given satisfactory evidence

of being true proselytes by not only renouncing the impure worship of

idolatry, but by undergoing the rite of circumcision, a condition

indispensable to a participation of the passover.

22. kept the feast . . . with joy: for the Lord . . . turned the heart

of the king of Assyria unto them--that is, king of the Persian

empire, which now included the possessions, and had surpassed the

glory, of Assyria. The favorable disposition which Darius had evinced

towards the Jews secured them peace and prosperity and the privileges

of their own religion during the rest of his reign. The religious joy

that so remarkably characterized the celebration of this feast, was

testified by expressions of lively gratitude to God, whose overruling

power and converting grace had produced so marvellous a change in the

hearts of the mighty potentates, and disposed them, pagans though they

were, to aid the cause and provide for the worship of the true God.