Ezra 5:18

hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of his obedience. It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin: and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. The promises of it, in like manner, show them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof: although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works. So as, a man's doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourageth to the one, and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law; and, not under grace. 11. Romans 6:14; 7:4; 8:1, 33; Galatians 2:16; 3:13; 4:4-5; Acts 13:38-39 12. Romans 7:12, 22, 25; Psalms 119:1-6; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:14-23 13. Romans 3:20; 7:7, 13 14. James 1:23-25; Romans 7:9, 14, 24 15. Galatians 3:24; Romans 7:24-25; 8:3-4 16. James 2:11-12; Psalms 119:101, 104, 128 17. Ezra 9:13-14; Psalms 89:30-34; Galatians 3:13 18. Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 5:33; Leviticus 18:5; 26:1-13; Matthew 5:5; 19:17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 6:2-3; Psalms 19:11; 37:11 19. Galatians 2:16; Luke 17:10 20. Romans 6:12-15; cf. 1 Peter 3:8-12 with Psalms 34:12-16; Hebrews 12:28- 29

Ezra 5:1 INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 5 This chapter relates, how that the people of the Jews were stirred up by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah to set about the building of the temple again, notwithstanding the orders to the contrary from the deputy governors of the king of Persia; nor could the present ones cause them to cease from it; though it must be owned they behaved towards them in a better manner than the former ones did, Ezra 5:1, and who, upon the answers received from the Jews, wrote a letter to Darius, to know the truth of things; and in which they seem to state fairly the case of the Jews, as they had it from them, so far as they understood it, Ezra 5:6. Ver. 1. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo,....

In answer to their questions; namely, Ezra and other Jews replied; for though Ezra is said after this to come from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, he might go thither on some business, and then return again at that time; some indeed think these are the words of Tatnai and those with him; so Ben Melech, which seems to be favoured by Ezra 4:10, and by reading the words with an interrogation, as we do; Aben Ezra says they are either the words of the builders, or of the scribes, the secretaries that came to question them; but they are the words of the former, as order requires, or otherwise no answer would be returned, at least as expressed; and the next clause may be read without an interrogation, and the sense be, that they told them not only that they acted according to an edict of Cyrus king of Persia, for this was said, as appears from Ezra 5:13, but they declared what were the names of the men that did make this building; or employed them in it, namely, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the chief men of the Jews; they made no scruple of telling them who they were; neither ashamed of their masters nor of their work, nor afraid of any ill consequences following hereafter. Ezra 5:5 Ver. 5. But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews,....

He is so called also in the letter of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:11), because he is said (Ezra 7:9) to have applied his heart to seek out and to do the law of the Lord, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgment, i.e., because he had made the investigation of the law, for the sake of introducing the practice of the same among the congregation, his life-task; and the king granted him all his desire, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. The peculiar expression עליו אלהיו יהוה כּיד which is found only here and in Ezra 7:9, Ezra 7:28, Ezra 8:18; Nehemiah 2:8, Nehemiah 2:18, and in a slightly altered guise in Ezra 8:22, Ezra 8:31, "according to the good hand of his God, which was over him," means: according to the divine favour or divine care arranging for him; for the hand of God is הטּובה, the good (Ezra 7:9, and Ezra 8:18), or לטובה, Ezra 8:22. בּקּשׁה, the desire, request, demand, occurs only here and in the book of Esther.

17 . if it seem good to the king ] A similar phrase in Ezra 7:18 ; Esther 1:19 . in the king’s treasure house ] which apparently was the repository of important documents as well as of treasure. The expression occurs again in Esther 3:9 ; Esther 4:7 . The word rendered ‘treasure’ (ginzayya) is rendered by ‘gaza’ ( γάζα ) in the LXX. Compare Ezra 1:8 ; (gizbar) ‘treasurer’; 1 Chronicles 28:11 (ganzak) ‘treasure’; chap. Ezra 6:1 gives the full explanation of the present phrase. The Vulgate too narrowly renders ‘bibliotheca’. at Babylon ] i.e. where would be kept the records of the Babylonian Empire. his pleasure ] Same word as that in Ezra 7:18 , ‘the will of God’. The LXX. by a mistake of similar letters renders ‘having learnt’ ( γνούς ). concerning this matter] Same phrase as in Ezra 5:5 (where see note). The word ‘matter’ added here in the English for the sake of explicitness. Tattenai asks for instructions as to how he should proceed generally in dealing with the Jews and their Temple-building.

The expression is well illustrated by Malachi 4:4 ‘the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and judgements’ and Nehemiah 8:14 ‘The law which the Lord had commanded by Moses’. all his request ] What the request was, which Ezra preferred to Artaxerxes, we are not told, but are left to gather it from the letter of Artaxerxes (12–26). The word ‘request’ in the Hebrew denotes an eager quest, and occurs elsewhere in the O.T. only in the book of Esther ( Ezra 5:3 ; Ezra 5:7-8 , Ezra 7:3 , Ezra 9:12 ). according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him ] This expression is characteristic of the writer. It occurs again Ezra 7:28 , with the adjective ‘good’, Ezra 7:9 , Ezra 8:18 ; Nehemiah 2:8 ; Nehemiah 2:18 , and in a slightly different form Ezra 8:22 ; Ezra 8:31 . ‘The hand of the Lord’ denotes the merciful favour, as may be seen from the context here and in Ezra 7:28 , even without the addition of the adjective good: cf. ‘the eye of the Lord’, chap. Ezra 5:5 . Similar is the phrase in 2 Chronicles 30:12 . From that ‘hand’ comes discipline as well as bounty, Job 2:10 ‘Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?’ Job 19:21 ‘the hand of God hath touched me’. In adversity ‘the hand of the Lord’ is described as ‘ against ’, not ‘upon’ a person. See Deuteronomy 2:15 ; Ruth 1:13 .