Ezra 5
The full text of Ezra 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew and Aramaic. Free to read.
1 Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.
2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
3 At that time Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates came to them and said, "Who issued you a decree to rebuild this house and finish this structure?"
4 They also asked them, "What are the names of the men who are constructing this building?"
5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could reach Darius and a written reply be returned concerning this.
6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-Bozenai and his associates, the officials in the province Beyond the River, sent to King Darius.
7 They sent him a report in which was written: "To King Darius: All peace!
8 Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with large stones, and timber is being set in the walls. This work is being done diligently and is prospering in their hands.
9 Then we questioned those elders and said to them, "Who issued you a decree to rebuild this house and to finish this structure?"
10 We also asked them their names, to inform you, so that we could write down the names of the men who are their leaders.
11 And this is the answer they gave us: "We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.
12 But because our fathers angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and deported the people to Babylon.
13 However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.
14 Moreover, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon—these King Cyrus took out of the temple in Babylon, and they were given to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor.
15 He said to him, "Take these articles. Go, deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site."
16 Then that Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that time until now it has been under construction and is not yet finished."
17 Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see if a decree was issued by King Cyrus to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send us his decision in this matter.
Translation notes (4)
- Ezra 5:3a Beyond the River translates the Aramaic avar-nahara, the official Persian name of the satrapy west of the Euphrates, so named from the perspective of the imperial heartland; it designates an administrative unit, not a mere geographic region. Tattenai is attested outside the Bible: a Babylonian cuneiform tablet from the reign of Darius I names Tattannu as governor of this same province.
- Ezra 5:13a Cyrus was king of Persia, but the title 'king of Babylon' is historically accurate: after conquering the city in 539 BC he assumed the traditional Babylonian royal titles, as the Cyrus Cylinder attests. The Jewish elders, speaking from within the former Babylonian empire, naturally designate him by the crown under which his decree affected them.
- Ezra 5:14a This portion of Ezra is written in Aramaic, and Sheshbazzar bears the Persian-era title pechah, 'governor', the same title later applied to Zerubbabel in Haggai 1:1. Some interpreters since antiquity have identified Sheshbazzar with Zerubbabel; others regard him as a distinct official, possibly the Shenazzar of 1 Chronicles 3:18. The question remains unresolved.
- Ezra 5:16a This verse belongs to the Aramaic section of Ezra. Whereas Ezra 3:8-10 attributes the temple's founding to Zerubbabel and Jeshua, here it is credited to Sheshbazzar, the official of Ezra 1:8; some interpreters identify the two men, others distinguish them. The Aramaic participle mitbene, 'being built', presents the work as continuous, passing over the interruption recorded in Ezra 4:24.
About this translation
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