HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  Reign and Captivity of Jehoiakim

  5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. 6Against him King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up, and bound him with fetters to take him to Babylon. 7Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. 8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah; and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

  Reign and Captivity of Jehoiachin

  9Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. 10In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, along with the precious vessels of the house of the LORD, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

  Reign of Zedekiah

  11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah who spoke from the mouth of the LORD. 13He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel. 14All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the LORD that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

  The Fall of Jerusalem

  15The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; 16but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against his people became so great that there was no remedy.

  17Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their youths with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or young woman, the aged or the feeble; he gave them all into his hand. 18All the vessels of the house of God, large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, all these he brought to Babylon. 19They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

  Cyrus Proclaims Liberty for the Exiles

  22In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written edict: 23“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him! Let him go up.”

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  36.1–4 Cf. 2 Kings 23.30b–34.

  36.1 The people of the land. Cf. 33.25.

  36.3 The tribute is 6,700 pounds of silver and 67 pounds of gold.

  36.4 Josiah is succeeded by three sons (Jehoahaz, Eliakim, and Zedekiah) and one grandson (Jehoiachin). Eliakim/Jehoiakim is actually older than Jehoahaz, but we do not know why he is not the first to succeed his father (cf. 1 Chr 3.15). Each of the last four kings winds up in exile and each pays tribute.

  36.5–8 Cf. 2 Kings 23.36–24.7.

  36.6 Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from 605 to 562 BCE. Jehoiakim’s death is reported in 2 Kings 24.6; 2 Chronicles reports his (temporary or possibly his threatened) exile.

  36.7 On the temple vessels, see 1 Chr 28.14–17; 2 Chr 4.19–22; 36.18; Ezra 1.7–11.

  36.9–10 Cf. 2 Kings 24.8–17; 25.27–30.

  36.9 A child king for three months, Jehoiachin spends thirty-seven years in a Babylonian prison (2 Kings 25.27–30). According to 2 Kings 24.8, he is eighteen when he becomes king.

  36.10 Brother, perhaps a relative. 2 Kings 24.17 reads “uncle.” Cf. also 1 Chr 3.15–16.

  36.11–14 Cf. 2 Kings 24.18–25.7.

  36.12 Chronicles condemns Zedekiah by citing his disobedience toward the prophet Jeremiah (cf. Jer 37.2).

  36.13 Zedekiah breaks an oath by rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar.

  36.14 The author charges the leading priests and the people with being unfaithful, a favorite word for sin in Chronicles.

  36.15–16 Exile results from persistent despising of the prophets (cf. Jer 26.5; 29.19). No remedy. Cf. 7.14, where God promises to heal the people.

  36.17 Chaldeans, the peoples who ruled Mesopotamia during the Neo-Babylonian period.

  36.21 Jeremiah. Cf. Jer 25.11–12; 29.10. The Chronicler views Palestine as empty during the exilic period, but free to enjoy the sabbaths it had missed (perhaps since the beginning of the monarchy) and to get ready for the exiles who would return (Lev 26.34–35). Seventy years. The actual length of the exile was about fifty years.

  36.22–23 Cf. Ezra 1.1–3a. The last verses of Chronicles are virtually identical with the first verses of Ezra. This passage views Cyrus as the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy and implicitly accepts Persian rule in the postexilic period. The Persian king authorizes the rebuilding of the temple (cf. Ezra 6.3–5) and gives his blessing to all exiles who desire to return to Palestine.

  36.22 Cyrus ruled Babylonia from about 539 to 530 BCE.

  EZRA

  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

  THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH are our most important source of evidence for the history of the early postexilic period, from 539 to ca. 430 BCE. They bear the names of the two best-known leaders of the Jewish community of those years, Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor, both of whom were active in the middle of the fifth century BCE, though their activity in Jerusalem perhaps never overlapped.

  Connections with Other Books

  THE NARRATIVE OF EZRA-NEHEMIAH continues directly from the end of 2 Chronicles, and the style and interests of the author are so like those of the Chronicler that it has been customarily thought that the whole sequence of 1 Chronicles through Nehemiah was once a single work by one author. Even if the differences between 1 and 2 Chronicles, on the one hand, and Ezra-Nehemiah, on the other, point to different authorship, as is now the prevailing scholarly view, it seems that Ezra-Nehemiah was composed as a sequel to 1 and 2 Chronicles and that the authors of both works were Jerusalem clergy, perhaps Levites, of the fourth century BCE.

  1Esdras, in the Protestant Apocrypha but not among the Catholic deuterocanonical books, is another work bearing the name of Ezra (Esdras is the Greek form of Ezra). Its narrative parallels the story from 2 Chr 35 to Neh 8, with only its last two chapters being concerned with Ezra. (See the table “The Relation of 1 Esdras to Other Biblical Books” in the Introduction to 1 Esdras.) 2 Esdras is found in the Apocrypha of Anglo-Saxon churches but is usually assigned to the Pseudepigrapha by the Lutheran tradition, and in Catholic Bibles it is either included among the NT Apocrypha or omitted altogether. It has nothing to do with the historical Ezra, though it purports to be his book; it is a collection of visions, and includes Christian material.

  Structure

  THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH are a narrative of the restoration of the Jewish people to their homeland after the exile. What drives that story are the decrees of two Persian kings, Cyrus and Artaxerxes, and what counts as restoration is the fulfillment of their demands. In Ezra 1 Cyrus commands the Jews to return to their land and resume temple worship; in accord with that, Ezra 1–6 narrates the return and the rebuilding of the temple. In Ezra 7 Arta
xerxes commands obedience to the law of Moses on the part of all the Jews; and in Neh 2 he authorizes the reestablishment of Jerusalem, which will be the focus of national identity. In accord with these initiatives, Ezra 7 through Neh 13 narrates the imposition of the Mosaic law and its effects; Ezra insists on obedience to the law’s demands for separation from non-Jews, and Nehemiah likewise creates a distinctive Jewish identity when he encloses Jerusalem with a wall and purges the community of all things foreign.

  Sources

  THE AUTHOR HAS DRAWN ON VARIOUS SOURCES for the narrative, at times editing them quite heavily and at other times simply copying them. Extensive sources were an Ezra “memoir,” which provided the material for Ezra 7–10 and Neh 8–9, and a Nehemiah memoir, lightly edited to form Neh 1–7; 11.1–2; 12.31–43; 13.4–31 (though it is disputed whether Neh 3 was ever part of such a memoir). Use of first-person language in some of the Ezra material and all of the Nehemiah narrative does not, of course, prove that the documents are authentic, but it is very probable that in the Nehemiah memoir at least we are reading the record of a leading statesman about events in which he was personally involved.

  The author has also perhaps drawn on an “Aramaic chronicle,” a collection of Persian documents in Aramaic purporting to be official correspondence about Jerusalem. That would explain why Ezra 4.7–6.18 is entirely in Aramaic, while the rest of Ezra-Nehemiah is mostly in Hebrew. The typical bureaucratic language of these documents suggests they are authentic, though there are evidences of editing by a Jewish author. Other purportedly Persian documents are quoted in Ezra 1.2–4 (the edict of Cyrus) and 7.12–28 (Artaxerxes’ authorization to Ezra in Aramaic).

  Other sources include various Jewish lists, e.g., of inhabitants of Judea (Ezra 2.3–58; Neh 7.8–60; 11.3–9) and of priests and Levites (Neh 11.10–23; 12.1–26), and the document recording the people’s pledge to keep the details of the law and the names of those who signed it (Neh 10).

  Historical Background

  THESE BOOKS HAVE THEIR HISTORICAL SETTING in two distinct periods, in the sixth and in the fifth centuries BCE.

  539–515 BCE

  THE PERSIAN EMPEROR CYRUS, having gained the Babylonian Empire in 539, gave permission to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia to return to the land of Israel and to rebuild the temple. Sacrifice is said to have been resumed immediately upon their return, but repairs on the temple apparently did not progress. Only in 520, when Zerubbabel was governor of the province of Judea, did temple building start in earnest, and it was finished in 515 (Ezra 6.15).

  458–430 BCE

  IT IS DEBATED WHETHER Ezra’s work is to be dated to 458 or 398, but on the assumption of the earlier date, the second period begins with the commissioning of the Jewish priest Ezra by Artaxerxes I to establish pentateuchal law as state law in the province of Judea and to regulate the temple worship (Ezra 7). Ezra read the law to the people at the Festival of Booths in September 458 (Neh 8), and his commission of enquiry into marriages of Jews with non-Jews sat from December of that year until the spring of 457 (Ezra 9–10).

  A decade later, in 445, Nehemiah, a Jewish official in the service of Artaxerxes, was appointed governor of Judea (Neh 2; 5.14) with responsibility to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and thus presumably to enhance the status of the city. Nehemiah, having completed that task (Neh 6.15), remained governor for twelve years and enlarged the city’s population by resettling villagers in the capital. At some time after 433, he returned for a second term of duty and carried out reforms of the religious life of the community (Neh 13.4–31). [DAVID J. A. CLINES]

  EZRA 1

  End of the Babylonian Captivity

  1In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written edict declared:

  2“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. 3Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; 4and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

  5The heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—got ready to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6All their neighbors aided them with silver vessels, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with valuable gifts, besides all that was freely offered. 7King Cyrus himself brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 8King Cyrus of Persia had them released into the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9And this was the inventory: gold basins, thirty; silver basins, one thousand; knives,a twenty-nine; 10gold bowls, thirty; other silver bowls, four hundred ten; other vessels, one thousand; 11the total of the gold and silver vessels was five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar brought up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

  next chapter

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  a Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain

  1.1–11 The Persian king Cyrus authorizes the Jews in exile in Babylonia to return to the land to rebuild the temple; the returning exiles carry with them treasures earlier plundered from the temple.

  1.1–2 Mostly the same wording as 2 Chr 36.22, perhaps copied into 2 Chronicles as a link to Ezra.

  1.1 The first year of King Cyrus of Persia. The first year of the reign of Cyrus II (the Great) over the Babylonian Empire, 539–537 BCE. Cyrus had been king over Anshan (Elam) since 559 BCE; he then conquered Persia, Media, Lydia, Assyria, and finally Babylonia. The word of the LORD by…Jeremiah. Jer 25.11 predicts subjection to Babylon for seventy years, and Jer 29.10 tells Jewish exiles in Babylon that after seventy years God will bring them back to Jerusalem. The first deportation was in 597 BCE (2 Kings 24.12–16), only sixty years previously. Perhaps seventy is understood as a round number, or perhaps the reference in Dan 1.1 to a deportation in 606 BCE is a genuine historical reminiscence. Herald…written edict. After the public announcement of the royal edict, the herald would post a copy of it on an official notice board.

  1.2–4 Another edict of Cyrus concerning the rebuilding of the temple is in 6.3–5.

  1.2 A temple is often called the house of the deity who dwells in it. Judah, the Persian province of Judea, Yehud in Aramaic, the official language of the Persian Empire.

  1.3 Permitted may mean “commanded,” since this is the edict of an autocrat. Rebuild implies knowledge of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple (587/6 BCE).

  1.4 Survivors, from the destruction of Jerusalem, i.e., those exiled to Babylon. People of their place, apparently gentile neighbors.

  1.5 Families, lit. “fathers’ houses” a “father’s house” was the extended family consisting of all descendants of a living patriarch (except women married into other families) and the family’s slaves or servants. Judah and Benjamin, the tribes (contrast Judah the province in 1.2). Priests traced their ancestry to Aaron, son of Levi; Levites were other members of the tribe of Levi who undertook more menial duties in temple worship (Num 3.5–9).

  1.7 Nebuchadnezzar had carried away, a reference either to pillaging during the capture of Jerusalem in 597 BCE (2 Kings 24.13) or to the final plundering of the temple in 587 BCE (25.13–15; see also 2 Chr 36.10, 18; Jer 52.17–19). The house of his gods, or rather “the house of his god,” the temple, called Esagila, of Nebuchadnezzar’s preferred deity, Marduk of Babylon.

  1.8 Sheshbazzar, perhaps Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiachin, the exiled king of Judah (1 Chr 3.18). See also note on 5.1
4.

  1.9–11 The number of items in the inventory comes to 2,499, which differs from the total given as 5,400. The RSV translation emended the 30 gold basins to 1,000 (as in the parallel 1 Esd 2.13), the 410 silver bowls to 2,410 (as in 1 Esd 2.13), and the total to 5,469 (as in 1 Esd 2.14).

  EZRA 2

  List of the Returned Exiles

  1Now these were the people of the province who came from those captive exiles whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia; they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, all to their own towns. 2They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

  The number of the Israelite people: 3the descendants of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two. 4Of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two. 5Of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five. 6Of Pahath-moab, namely the descendants of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred twelve. 7Of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four. 8Of Zattu, nine hundred forty-five. 9Of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty. 10Of Bani, six hundred forty-two. 11Of Bebai, six hundred twenty-three. 12Of Azgad, one thousand two hundred twenty-two. 13Of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-six. 14Of Bigvai, two thousand fifty-six. 15Of Adin, four hundred fifty-four. 16Of Ater, namely of Hezekiah, ninety-eight. 17Of Bezai, three hundred twenty-three. 18Of Jorah, one hundred twelve. 19Of Hashum, two hundred twenty-three. 20Of Gibbar, ninety-five. 21Of Bethlehem, one hundred twenty-three. 22The people of Netophah, fifty-six. 23Of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight. 24The descendants of Azmaveth, forty-two. 25Of Kiriatharim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three. 26Of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one. 27The people of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two. 28Of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three. 29The descendants of Nebo, fifty-two. 30Of Magbish, one hundred fifty-six. 31Of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four. 32Of Harim, three hundred twenty. 33Of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-five. 34Of Jericho, three hundred forty-five. 35Of Senaah, three thousand six hundred thirty.