Ezra 1:6

1:6 All their neighbors assisted ¹  them with silver utensils, ²  gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention ³  all the voluntary offerings.

Ezra 1:11

1:11 All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. ⁴  Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 3:4

3:4 They observed the Festival of Temporary Shelters ⁵  as required ⁶  and offered the proper number of ⁷  daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day.

Ezra 4:8

4:8 Rehum the commander ⁸  and Shimshai the scribe ⁹  wrote a letter concerning ¹⁰  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

Ezra 5:5-6

5:5 But God was watching over ¹¹  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ¹²  until a report could be dispatched ¹³  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

5:6 This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and his colleagues who were the officials of Trans-Euphrates sent to King Darius.

Ezra 5:15

5:15 He said to him, “Take these vessels and go deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt in its proper location.” ¹⁴ 

Ezra 6:18

6:18 They appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their divisions over the worship of God at Jerusalem, ¹⁵  in accord with ¹⁶  the book of Moses.

Ezra 6:22

6:22 They observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had given them joy and had changed the opinion ¹⁷  of the king of Assyria ¹⁸  toward them, so that he assisted ¹⁹  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 7:23

7:23 Everything that the God of heaven has required should be precisely done for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath ²⁰  against the empire of the king and his sons?

Ezra 7:26

7:26 Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely ²¹  liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.”

Ezra 8:26

8:26 I weighed out to them ²²  650 talents of silver, silver vessels worth 100 talents, ²³  100 talents of gold,

Ezra 8:28

8:28 Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

Ezra 10:15

10:15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah were ²⁴  against this, assisted by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite.

[1:6]  ¹ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

[1:6]  ² tc The MT reads בִּכְלֵי־כֶסֶף (bikhley khesef, “with silver vessels”). However, part of the LXX manuscript tradition reads ἐν πᾶσιν ἀργυρίῳ (en pasin arguriw), which reflects an alternate Hebrew reading of בַּכֹּל־בַּכֶּסֶף (bakkol-bakkesef, “everywhere, with silver”). The textual variant involves (1) simple omission of yod (י) between two words, a common scribal mistake; (2) haplography of the preposition bet (בּ); and (3) an alternate vocalization tradition of the first term.

[1:6]  ³ tn Heb “besides” or “in addition to.”

[1:11]  ⁴ sn The total number as given in the MT does not match the numbers given for the various items in v. 9. It is not clear whether the difference is due to error in textual transmission or whether the constituent items mentioned are only a selection from a longer list, in which case the total from that longer list may have been retained. The numbers provided in 1 Esdras come much closer to agreeing with the number in Ezra 1:9-11, but this does not necessarily mean that 1 Esdras has been better preserved here than Ezra. 1 Esdras 2:13-15 (RSV) says, “The number of these was: a thousand gold cups, a thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censures, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred and ten silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, and they were carried back by Shesbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.”

[3:4]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew phrase אֶת חַג־הַסֻּכּוֹת (’et khag-hassukot, “festival of huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional “tabernacles” in light of the meaning of the term סֻכָּה (sukkah, “hut; booth”), but “booths” are frequently associated with trade shows and craft fairs in contemporary American English. The nature of the celebration during this feast as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to what is written.”

[3:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “by number.”

[4:8]  ⁸ tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

[4:8]  ⁹ sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.

[4:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “against.”

[5:5]  ¹¹ tn Aram “the eye of their God was on.” The idiom describes the attentive care that one exercises in behalf of the object of his concern.

[5:5]  ¹² tn Aram “they did not stop them.”

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Aram “[could] go.” On this form see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 58, §169.

[5:15]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “upon its place.”

[6:18]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:18]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “according to the writing of.”

[6:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heart.”

[6:22]  ¹⁸ sn The expression “king of Assyria” is anachronistic, since Assyria fell in 612 b.c., long before the events of this chapter. Perhaps the expression is intended subtly to contrast earlier kings of Assyria who were hostile toward Israel with this Persian king who showed them favor.

[6:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to strengthen their hands.”

[7:23]  ²⁰ tn The Aramaic word used here for “wrath” (קְצַף, qÿtsaf; cf. Heb קָצַף, qatsaf) is usually used in the Hebrew Bible for God’s anger as opposed to human anger (but contra Eccl 5:17 [MT 5:16]; Esth 1:18; 2 Kgs 3:27). The fact that this word is used in v. 23 may have theological significance, pointing to the possibility of divine judgment if the responsible parties should fail to make available these provisions for the temple.

[7:26]  ²¹ tn On the meaning of this word see HALOT 1820-21 s.v. אָסְפַּרְנָא; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 14.

[8:26]  ²² tn Heb “upon their hand.”

[8:26]  ²³ tn Possibly “100 silver vessels worth [?] talents” or “silver vessels weighing 100 talents.”

[10:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “stood.”