seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezra 5:1 Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant 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 Joshua son of Jozadak set to work 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 Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates went to them and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and to finish it?” 4 They[a] also asked, “What are the names of those who are constructing this building?” 5 But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.
6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, the officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius. 7 The report they sent him read as follows:
To King Darius:
Cordial greetings.
8 The king should know that we went to the district of Judah, to the temple of the great God. The people are building it with large stones and placing the timbers in the walls. The work is being carried on with diligence and is making rapid progress under their direction.
9 We questioned the elders and asked them, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and to finish it?” 10 We also asked them their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.
11 This is the answer they gave us:
“We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished. 12 But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple 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 He even removed from the temple (b) of Babylon the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple[c] in Babylon.Then King Cyrus gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor, 15 and he told him, ‘Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem. And rebuild the house of God on its site.’
16 “So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished.”
17 Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.
I thought this was merely a labor dispute. That's what happens when you let an old gray haired lady, with an online Bible and some online commentary, run her mouth. Now in Chapter 4 I read the people wanted to help [put their husbands and sons to work] build the Temple in Jerusalem... but the Israelis weren't about to let that happen because then shiny little idols would start showing up on the property tempting them again. Nope... they had just spent 70 years in exile over shiny little idols and they didn't want to go down that path again.... that's what I was thinking Chapter 4 was telling me.
Now... in this chapter.... it's a national emergency. Those Israelis are building with "Large Stones".
This is from the enduringword.com site.
Let it be known to the king: In this letter, Tattenai seems to fairly recount the situation from his perspective. Without prejudice or malice, he explained the matter to King Darius.
“He seems to have been a mild and judicious man; and to have acted with great prudence and caution, and without any kind of prejudice. The manner in which he represented this to the king is a full proof of this disposition.” (Clarke)
Which is being built with heavy stones: The heavy stones perhaps aroused suspicion in Tattenai; they made him wonder if the Jews were building a temple or a fortress.
Timber is being laid in the walls: “Courses of timber at intervals, between those of stone or brick, were quite a common constructional feature over a long period in the ancient Near East, and may have originated as a means of strengthening buildings against earthquakes.” (Kidner)
Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation: This leads many to believe that Sheshbazzar is actually another name for Zerubbabel, and that Tattenai used this name because it would be more likely to appear in the records that were to be searched.
There are other ideas about the identity to Sheshbazzar. “Sheshbazzar may have been viewed as the official Persian ‘governor’ whereas Zerubbabel served as the popular leader. This may be whey the Jews mentioned Sheshbazzar here when speaking to the Persian authorities.” (Yamauchi)
Let a search be made… whether it is so that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem: Respectfully, Tattenai asked King Darius to research the matter, to determine if the rebuilding of temple and Jerusalem was royally sanctioned.
“Tattenai, who was now opposing them as they resumed the work, either did not believe that such a decree had ever been promulgated, or considered that it could not be found.” (Morgan)
I can imagine there was quite a bit of filing to be done.... clay plates and scrolls sitting everywhere. It's a good thing the governor let them continue working while they sent for a copy of the original plans. They could have been tied up in courts for years while the foundation and strong walls they were so proud of would have been open to the elements.... deteriorating.The cities back then had huge thick walls. Those walls were meant for defense. Back then they didn't have an arsenal of nuclear weapons and the means to deploy them. People had to hide behind block walls and hurl weapons at the enemy. One of the kings before the exile had perfected the construction of a wall that gave the hurler a better advantage.... stopping the wall crawls by the enemy. So it's pretty believable that this governor might question the use of such large stones.
This is from the easy English site.
Perhaps the other people in the country had complained to the officials. We have already seen that those people did not want the Jews to build the house of God (Ezra 4:1-5).
During the rule of Darius, many people plotted revolutions against him. So perhaps the officials were worried about what the Jews were building. The officials saw the large stones that they were using (Ezra 5:8). They might have thought that the Jews were building a castle and not a temple.
The Jews were building the temple in order to obey God. So God made sure that the work did not stop. The officials did not force the Jews to stop work. Instead, the officials sent a letter to the king and then they waited for his reply.
God uses large stones.