Ezra 6:1-12 English Standard Version The Decree of Darius 6 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. 2 And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. 3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, 4 with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5 And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.” 6 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. 7 Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. 8 Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. 9 And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, 10 that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. 12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” We talked last time about how the Trans-Euphrates peoples (those of the province Beyond the River) wrote a letter to King Darius to inform him that the Jewish people had resumed construction of the Temple and Jerusalem. While King Artaxerxes had definitely issued a stop-work order, that never should have happened, given that they were operating under the authority of the order of King Cyrus, and the decrees and laws of the Medes and Persians were unbreakable and could not be changed or altered. So, when the Jews were asked under what authority they had resumed work (after Artaxerxes had died), they cited the original authorization and told those questioning them that it should be a matter of public record and they should go make a thorough search of the records for themselves. The Trans-Euphrates people started to tread more carefully at this, and they worded their letter in such a way where they requested the king make a careful search of the historical archives to see if what the Jews were saying was true, and to give them advice on how he wanted them to proceed. This letter that Darius writes back to them is his response to their inquiry.
In his response, Darius said that he indeed did make a careful search of the archives and found a reference to the decree of Cyrus in Ecbatana, the citadel that is the capital city of Media, where the following was written: “A record. In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.” So, this puts the Trans-Euphrates people on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history. The Jews are acting in good faith with the full support of the orders of the Medo-Persian Empire which cannot be broken, even by a later king (because the kings spoke for the gods and the gods did not change their minds). Now then, it became an issue of how Darius was going to come into compliance with Cyrus's decree and make sure that the Trans-Euphrates people honored that decree. They did not get the response they were expecting from Darius. They wanted him to issue another stop-work order and perhaps send the army to enforce it and make some arrests and put the people who had been captives back into captivity so they could have the Land again. Instead, they find that Darius orders them to stay away, into interfere, and to pay for all the expenses of rebuilding the Temple out of their own royal treasuries from the province of Beyond the River. It became their duty to make sure that Jews had everything they needed on a daily basis to make the required sacrifices to the LORD--whether that be lambs, bulls, goats, wine, oil, salt, or wheat. All the items used in the various sacrifices and offerings have been included and the government was to people of the province Beyond the River were to provide all of it for them and it was to be paid for out of the royal treasuries. It was the king's hope that the Jews would make sacrifices to the LORD and pray for Darius and his people as they worshiped the LORD. Moreover, anyone from the province Beyond the River who defied this order would have a beam from their houses removed and they would be impaled on said beam and their house would be torn town and turned into a dung heap (a place where people would throw trash and human waste making it unclean). What a reversal from what the Trans-Euphrates people expected! "May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” He's speaking of the LORD here as he recognizes that the LORD has been working to bring His people back to the Land of Promise, and they had better not get in the way of that. Is this going to stop the naysayers and those who oppose the LORD, His people and His work? Certainly not! However, they are now going to have to switch tactics (we'll see more of that in the book of Nehemiah which is kind of like a second volume to the book of Ezra). Next time we'll come back to a passage that describes the completion of the work on the Temple (certainly many years passed between this passage and the next), and then we'll see the people start to worship together at the Temple by celebrating the LORD's Passover together. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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