Ezra 6

• The fortress at Ecbatana, the king’s summer home, was about 300 miles northeast of Babylon. This suggests Cyrus wrote the scroll in the summer of 538 BC.

• Media was a mountainous area north of Persia and east of Assyria. The Kurds, descendants of the Medes, now inhabit this area.

• Texts introduced by the term Memorandum were usually summaries listing the main facts of an event for the royal archives (compare Ezra 1:9–10).

• This decree is recorded in Ezra 1:2–4.

• The temple will be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide. The changes suggested in the New Living Translation note would align these measurements with Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:2, 17, 20). However, the larger measurements here might show the maximum size the Persians would finance.

The royal treasury will cover all expenses. It may seem surprising that the Persians would do this, but it was their usual practice. They did the same at Sais and Elephantine in Egypt, and at Ur in Mesopotamia. This generosity aimed to ensure loyalty to Persia.

The cost is to be paid in full: This action fulfilled God's promise through Haggai (Haggai 2:7).

pray for the lives of the king and his sons: In the Cyrus Cylinder, a Persian account of Cyrus's defeat of Babylon, King Cyrus asks, “May all the gods whom I have returned to their sacred cities ask the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo daily for a long life for me” (see Ezra 1:1–4).

if any man interferes with this directive: Inscriptions and official decrees often included curses on those who went against the king's wishes (see Daniel 2:5).

Israel's second temple was completed about seventy years after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it in 586 BC. Herod the Great remodeled and expanded this temple during the time of Christ. The temple stood for about 585 years until the Roman army, led by Titus, destroyed it in AD 70.

• a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats: This blood sacrifice brought God's forgiveness for unintentional sins, ceremonial uncleanness, or thoughtless wrong acts (Leviticus 4–5). Similar sacrifices were made when Moses dedicated the tabernacle (Numbers 7) and when Solomon dedicated the first temple (2 Chronicles 7:1, 4).

• one for each tribe of Israel: Although most returnees were from Judah and Benjamin (Ezra 1:5; 4:1), people from the priestly tribe of Levi are also mentioned (1:5; 2:40, 70). It is also likely that there were returnees from some of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Even if all tribes were not physically represented, the twelve sacrifices emphasized the desire for God to maintain his covenant relationship with all Israel.

• according to what is written in the Book of Moses: See Exodus 29, Leviticus 8, and Numbers 3. The temple staff followed the organization set by David (1 Chronicles 23–27).

• This verse ends the Aramaic section that started in Ezra 4:8.

The Passover celebration remembers when God spared the firstborn of families who marked their doorposts with blood (Exodus 12–13). This was the first joyous national festival for these people.

purified themselves: They acted according to the law of Moses (see Leviticus 9; Numbers 8; 2 Chronicles 29).

together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land: The exclusion of foreigners in Ezra 4:1–5 was due to their pagan religious practices, not their ethnicity (see also 9:1–2).

• Passover marked the start of the seven-day Festival of Unleavened Bread (see Exodus 12:15–20; Leviticus 23:6–8). This festival celebrated the unleavened bread eaten when Israel left Egypt.

• the LORD had made: Although Darius I ruled a large empire, God guided him to help rebuild the temple of God.