Ezra 4

After resettling in various towns in Judah, the community focused on restoring the worship of God in Jerusalem. They quickly rebuilt the altar and began regular sacrifices in time to celebrate the Jewish festivals (Ezra 3:4). Then, they started the more challenging task of rebuilding the temple itself (Ezra 3:8). Soon, they faced opposition from local foreigners (Ezra 4:1–5).

Judah and Benjamin: Most of the people who returned from exile were from these two tribes of Israel (Ezra 1:5).

King Esarhaddon of Assyria, who ruled from 680 to 669 BC, deported the people of Israel to foreign lands. He relocated other conquered peoples to Israel during King Manasseh's reign in Judah. These foreigners learned about the Lord when they arrived in Israel, but they also continued to worship their old gods (2 Kings 17:27–34, 40–41).

• The main political, religious, and tribal leaders united against the foreigners' proposal. They believed it would introduce idolatrous beliefs. The Jews wanted to avoid repeating their ancestors' mistake of worshiping Canaanite false gods, which led to exile.

• as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us: See Ezra 1:2–4.

Realizing they could not influence the established Jewish community (Ezra 4:1–3), the foreigners took hostile actions to weaken the Israelites' growing political power.

• The people faced severe consequences for their strict dedication to holiness.

• King Cyrus ruled until 530 BC. Darius (Darius I) became the king of Persia in 521 BC. Construction on the temple restarted in 520 BC and concluded in 515 BC (see Ezra 6:15).

These verses discuss later opposition to Jewish rebuilding efforts. They actually relate to events during the reign of:

• Xerxes in 486 to 465 BC

• Artaxerxes I in 465 to 424 BC

However, they are included here because they match the theme of opposition. Chronologically, Ezra 4:6 fits between chapters 6 and 7, while 4:7–23 fits before Nehemiah 1.

• The exact date of these events is unknown. They might have happened around the same time as an Egyptian revolt in 448 BC. This was a few years before Artaxerxes I sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem in 445 BC. If this is true, the enemies of Judah and Artaxerxes likely believed the Jews would revolt like the Egyptians did.

• Aramaic was the international diplomatic language of the Persian Empire.

• Including greetings from important political figures and local ethnic leaders would strengthen the letter's accusations and give it more political impact.

• Judges were trusted court officials familiar with Persian laws.

• Support from people in the Mesopotamian cities of Babylon and Erech, as well as the Persian city of Susa, would make the case against the Jews more convincing.

• Ashurbanipal moved people from other conquered lands into Israel and Aram (see 2 Kings 17:24–41).

• Samaria was once the capital of Israel's northern kingdom.

• The province west of the Euphrates River included Syria, Israel, and Judah.

Ezra contains a copy in Aramaic of the letter sent to Artaxerxes and his response.

A tribute was a yearly set tax. Customs were likely sales taxes, and tolls were probably fees for using roads. Earlier rulers had gathered significant revenue from the region (Ezra 4:20; compare 1 Kings 10:14–15).

• because we are in the service of the palace: the Aramaic phrase we eat the salt of the palace meant taking an oath of loyalty to the king.

• The letter's authors said they only wanted to protect the king's honor. However, they actually sought power and political advantage over the Jews.

• The Persians had access to Babylonian records, which described Jerusalem’s revolts against Nebuchadnezzar (see 2 Kings 24:1–7).

• The claim that the Persians would lose the entire province west of the Euphrates was an exaggeration. The Jews were actually a small minority in that province.

The letter was translated from Aramaic into Persian, which was the king's native language.

King Jehoiakim, who ruled from 609 to 598 BC, rebelled against Babylon around 601 BC. King Zedekiah, ruling from 597 to 586 BC, rebelled around 588 BC (see 2 Kings 25:2).

Work on the walls stopped until 445 BC. Nehemiah, who served as Artaxerxes’ cup-bearer, received permission to restart the reconstruction (see Nehemiah 2:1–6).

• A military unit likely forced the Jews to stop building and enforced the king’s orders. They might have torn down part of the rebuilt wall at this time (see Nehemiah 1:3).

• This verse concludes the parenthetical section that began in Ezra 4:6.

The events in the following verses happened about sixteen years after those in Ezra 4:5.

Ezra now continues the story of building the temple from 520 to 515 BC.