Discovery BoxEzra 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, 1 and timbers are being placed in the walls. This work is being done with all diligence and is prospering in their hands.
Ezra 8:22
Context8:22 I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy 2 along the way, because we had said to the king, “The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger 3 is against everyone who forsakes him.”
Ezra 9:7
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 4 priests, have been delivered over by the local kings 5 to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.
1 tn Aram “stones of rolling.” The reference is apparently to stones too large to carry.
2 tn A number of modern translations regard this as a collective singular and translate “from enemies” (also in v. 31).
3 tn Heb “his strength and his anger.” The expression is a hendiadys (one concept expressed through two terms).
4 tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.
5 tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”
