Ezra 4:8

Rehum the commander ¹  and Shimshai the scribe ²  wrote a letter concerning ³  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

2Sa 8:17; 2Sa 20:25; 2Ki 18:18; Ezr 4:9

¹ tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

² sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.

³ tn Or perhaps “against.”