Ezra 5:11-12

5:11 They responded to us in the following way: ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the temple which was previously built many years ago. A great king ¹  of Israel built it and completed it. 5:12 But after our ancestors ²  angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands ³  of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon. ⁴ 

Ezra 8:17

8:17 I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them ⁵  what to say to Iddo and his relatives, ⁶  who were the temple servants in ⁷  Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God.

[5:11]  ¹ sn This great king of Israel would, of course, be Solomon.

[5:12]  ² tn Aram “fathers.”

[5:12]  ³ tn Aram “hand” (singular).

[5:12]  ⁴ sn A reference to the catastrophic events of 586 b.c.

[8:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “I placed in their mouth words.”

[8:17]  ⁶ tc The translation reads with the LXX and Vulgate וְאֶחָיו (vÿ’ekhayv, “and his brethren” = “relatives”; so NCV, NLT) rather than the reading אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”) of the MT.

[8:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the place called.” This phrase has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.