Ezra 4:5

4:5 They were hiring advisers to oppose them, so as to frustrate their plans, throughout the time ¹  of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius ²  of Persia. ³ 

Ezra 4:7

4:7 And during the reign ⁴  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ⁵  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ⁶  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁷  of Persia. This letter ⁸  was first written in Aramaic but then translated.

[Aramaic:] ⁹ 

Ezra 4:9

4:9 From ¹⁰  Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues – the judges, the rulers, the officials, the secretaries, the Erechites, the Babylonians, the people of Susa (that is, ¹¹  the Elamites),

Ezra 4:17

4:17 The king sent the following response:

“To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! ¹² 

Ezra 5:3

5:3 At that time Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues came to them and asked, “Who gave you authority ¹³  to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?” ¹⁴ 

Ezra 6:20

6:20 The priests and the Levites had purified themselves, every last one, ¹⁵  and they all were ceremonially pure. They sacrificed the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their colleagues ¹⁶  the priests, and for themselves.

Ezra 7:16

7:16 along with all the silver and gold that you may collect ¹⁷  throughout all the province of Babylon and the contributions of the people and the priests for the temple of their God which is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 10:16

10:16 So the exiles proceeded accordingly. Ezra the priest separated out ¹⁸  by name men who were leaders in their family groups. ¹⁹  They sat down to consider this matter on the first day of the tenth month,

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¹ tn Heb “all the days of.”

² sn Darius ruled Persia ca. 522-486 B.C.

³ sn The purpose of the opening verses of this chapter is to summarize why the Jews returning from the exile were unable to complete the rebuilding of the temple more quickly than they did. The delay was due not to disinterest on their part but to the repeated obstacles that had been placed in their path by determined foes.

⁴ tn Heb “And in the days.”

⁵ tn The LXX understands this word as a prepositional phrase (“in peace”) rather than as a proper name (“Bishlam”). Taken this way it would suggest that Mithredath was “in agreement with” the contents of Tabeel’s letter. Some scholars regard the word in the MT to be a corruption of either “in Jerusalem” (i.e., “in the matter of Jerusalem”) or “in the name of Jerusalem.” The translation adopted above follows the traditional understanding of the word as a name.

⁶ tc The translation reads the plural with the Qere rather than the singular found in the MT Kethib.

⁷ sn Artaxerxes I ruled in Persia from ca. 465–425 b.c.

⁸ tc It is preferable to delete the MT’s וּכְתָב (ukhÿtav) here.

⁹ sn The double reference in v. 7 to the Aramaic language is difficult. It would not make sense to say that the letter was written in Aramaic and then translated into Aramaic. Some interpreters understand the verse to mean that the letter was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language, but this does not seem to give sufficient attention to the participle “translated” at the end of the verse. The second reference to Aramaic in the verse is more probably a gloss that calls attention to the fact that the following verses retain the Aramaic language of the letter in its original linguistic form. A similar reference to Aramaic occurs in Dan 2:4b, where the language of that book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12-26 are written in Aramaic, whereas the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

¹⁰ tn Aram “then.” What follows in v. 9 seems to be the preface of the letter, serving to identify the senders of the letter. The word “from” is not in the Aramaic text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn For the qere of the MT (דֶּהָיֵא, dehaye’, a proper name) it seems better to retain the Kethib דִּהוּא (dihu’, “that is”). See F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 25, §35; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 36.

¹² tn Aram “peace.”

¹³ tn Aram “who placed to you a command?” So also v. 9.

¹⁴ tn The exact meaning of the Aramaic word אֻשַּׁרְנָא (’ussarna’) here and in v. 9 is uncertain (BDB 1083 s.v.). The LXX and Vulgate understand it to mean “wall.” Here it is used in collocation with בַּיְתָא (bayta’, “house” as the temple of God), while in 5:3, 9 it is used in parallelism with this term. It might be related to the Assyrian noun ashurru (“wall”) or ashru (“sanctuary”; so BDB). F. Rosenthal, who translates the word “furnishings,” thinks that it probably enters Aramaic from Persian (Grammar, 62-63, §189).

¹⁵ tn Heb “as one.” The expression is best understood as referring to the unity shown by the religious leaders in preparing themselves for the observance of Passover. On the meaning of the Hebrew phrase see DCH 1:182 s.v. אֶחָד 3b. See also HALOT 30 s.v. אֶחָד 5.

¹⁶ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁷ tn Aram “find.”

¹⁸ tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּבְדֵּל לוֹ (vayyavdel lo, “separated for himself”) rather than the Niphal plural וַיִּבָּדְלוּ (vayyibbadÿlu, “were separated”) of the MT.

¹⁹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”