Discovery BoxEzra 4:2-3 
Context4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders 1 and said to them, “Let us help you build, 2 for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him 3 from the time 4 of King Esarhaddon 5 of Assyria, who brought us here.” 6 4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right 7 to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”
Ezra 5:8
Context5:8 Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the temple of the great God. It is being built with large stones, 8 and timbers are being placed in the walls. This work is being done with all diligence and is prospering in their hands.
Ezra 6:12
Context6:12 May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation 9 who reaches out 10 to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”
Ezra 9:1
Context9:1 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents 11 who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Ezra 9:7-8
Context9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and 12 priests, have been delivered over by the local kings 13 to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.
9:8 “But now briefly 14 we have received mercy from the Lord our God, in that he has left us a remnant and has given us a secure position 15 in his holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes 16 and has given us a little relief in our time of servitude.
Ezra 9:11
Context9:11 which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words: 17 ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! 18 With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness.
Ezra 10:14
Context10:14 Let our leaders take steps 19 on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”
1 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.
2 tn Heb “Let us build with you.”
3 tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran
4 tn Heb “days.”
5 sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669
6 sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.
7 tn Heb “not to you and to us.”
8 tn Aram “stones of rolling.” The reference is apparently to stones too large to carry.
9 tn Aram “people.”
10 tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”
11 tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.” So also in v. 2.
12 tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.
13 tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”
14 tn Heb “according to a little moment.”
15 tn Heb “a peg” or “tent peg.” The imagery behind this word is drawn from the experience of nomads who put down pegs as they pitched their tents and made camp after times of travel.
16 tn Heb “to cause our eyes to shine.” The expression is a figure of speech for “to revive.” See DCH 1:160 s.v. אור Hi.7.
17 tn Heb “through your servants the prophets, saying.”
18 tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”
19 tn Heb “stand.”
