Ezra 6:4

6:1-12 When God's time is come for fulfilling his gracious purposes concerning his church, he will raise up instruments to do it, from whom such good service was not expected. While our thoughts are directed to this event, we are led by Zechariah to fix our regard on a nobler, a spiritual building. The Lord Jesus Christ continues to lay one stone upon another: let us assist the great design. Difficulties delay the progress of this sacred edifice. Yet let not opposition discourage us, for in due season it will be completed to his abundant praise. He shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

With three rows of great stones,.... Which Jarchi interprets of the walls of it, and these stones of marble; and so Ben Melech: and a row of new timber; of cedar wood upon the rows of stone, see 1 Kings 6:36 or for the lining and wainscoting the walls: and let the expenses be given out of the king's house; treasury, or exchequer; but it does not appear that this part of the decree was observed, at least hitherto; but the Jews built at their own expense, and perhaps did not exactly observe the directions given as to the dimensions of the house.

Verse 4. - With three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber. The Septuagint interpreter understood by this that the new temple was to be four storeys high, three storeys being built of stone, and one of timber. The two wings of the temple of Solomon were undoubtedly three storeys high ( 1 Kings 6:6 ). But it is perhaps doubtful whether the word nidbak ever means "storey." Most commentators suppose three courses of stone, and then a course of timber, repeated from foundation to summit; but there is no known example of such a mode of building. The expences were to be given out of the king's house, defrayed, i.e. , out of the royal revenue; but either this intention of Cyrus was not carried out, or it was understood to apply only to the materials. Large sums were subscribed by the Jews themselves towards the building ( Ezra 2:69 ), and large payments were made by them to the persons employed upon the work ( Ezra 3:7 ). Ezra 6:4

The word translated "row" occurs only in this passage. Some regard it as a "course," and suppose that after every three courses of stone there followed a course of timber. Others understand three "storeys" of stone, with a fourth "storey" of woodwork on the summit (compare 1 Kings 6:5-6 ). Others consider that Cyrus intended to limit the thickness of the walls, which were not to exceed a breadth of three rows of stone, with an inner wooden wainscotting. Let the expenses be given out of the king's house - i. e., "out of the Persian revenue," a portion of the decree which was probably not observed during the later years of Cyrus and during the reign of Cambyses, and hence the burthen fell upon the Jews themselves Ezra 2:68-69.

2. Achmetha—long supposed to be the capital of Greater Media (the Ecbatana of classical, the Hamadan of modern times), [is] at the foot of the Elwund range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity, Cyrus and his successors on the Persian throne established their summer residence. There was another city, however, of this name, the Ecbatana of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media, and recently identified by Colonel Rawlinson in the remarkable ruins of Takht-i-Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of Cyrus to his native city, the Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the stronger capital of Greater Media, Colonel Rawlinson is inclined to think that he deposited there, in his fortress, the famous decree relating to the Jews, along with the other records and treasures of his empire [Nineveh and Persepolis].

4 . a row of new timber ] R.V. marg. ‘According to the Sept. one row of timber .’ It has been much disputed what ‘the three rows of great stones and the row of timber’ can mean. (1) Some explain by three storeys of stones surmounted by one of wood, the elevation of the Temple. (2) Others by ‘three layers of stone followed by one of wood’, the material of the walls. (3) Others by ‘three courses of stone backed by a wainscote of wood’, the thickness of the walls. (4) But in all probability the verse should be explained by reference to 1 Kings 6:36 , where ‘three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams’ are the construction of the walls of the inner court. expences ] R.V. expenses . out of the king’s house ] i.e. from the royal revenue. To be defrayed probably from the purse of the ‘Abhar Nahara’ satrapy. This payment had obviously ceased, or its existence would have been known to Tattenai and the other officials. During the disturbances which took place at the close of Cyrus’s reign, the officers of the provincial treasury probably found it convenient to stop this annual contribution. The voluntary subscriptions mentioned in Ezra 2:68-69 would therefore have been rendered necessary. Some have suspected that this part of the decree was never really carried out.

"And there was found at Achmetha, in the fortress that is in the land of Media, a roll; and thus was it recorded therein." In Babylon itself the document sought for was not found; though, probably the search there made, led to the discovery of a statement that documents pertaining to the time of Cyrus were preserved in the fortress of Achmetha, where the record in question was subsequently discovered. אחמתא, the capital of Great Media - τὰ Εκβάτανα, Judith 1:1, 14, or Ἀγβάτανα (Herod. i. 98) - built by Dejokes, was the summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings, and situate in the neighbourhood of the modern Hamadan. Achmetha is probably the Old-Median or Old-Persian pronunciation of the name, the letters אחם on Sassanidian coins being explained as denoting this city (Mordtmann in the Zeitschrift der deutsch morgenl. Gesellschaft, viii. p. 14). The citadel of Ecbatana probably contained also the royal palace and the official buildings. For בּגוּהּ is found in some MSS and editions בּגוּהּ; but Norzi and J. H. Mich. have Pathach under ו as the better authorized reading. דּכרונה, stat. emph. of דּכרון, memorandum, ὑπόμνημα, a record of anything memorable. The contents of this document follow, Ezra 6:3-5 . First, the proclamation of King Cyrus in the first year of his reign: "The house of God at Jerusalem, let this house be built as a place where sacrifices are offered." The meaning of the words following is doubtful.

We translate מסובלין ואשּׁוחי: and let them raise up its foundations, i.e., its foundations are to be again raised up, restored. אשּׁין, foundations ( Ezra 4:12 ); מסובלין, part. Poel of סבל, to carry, to raise (not to be raised). סבל often stands for the Hebrew נשׂא, to carry, to raise up, to erect; compare the Samaritan translation of Genesis 13:10 : וסבל את עגין, he lifted up his eyes. סובל אשּׁין analogous with מוסדי ד קומם, Isaiah 58:12 , and signifies to erect buildings upon the foundations. (Note: The Vulgate, following a rabbinical explanation, has ponant fundamenta supportantia, which is here unsuitable. The conjecture of Bertheau, who labours, by all sorts of critical combinations of the letters in the words מסובלין ואשּׁוחי, to produce the text תמנים מאה אמין אשוהי, "its foundation length 180 cubits," is as needless as it is mistaken. The interpretation of the words in the lxx, καὶ ἔθηκεν ἔπαρμα, and Pseudo-Ezra 6, διὰ πυρός ἐνδελεχους, are nothing else than unmeaning suppositions.) Expositors are divided as to the dimensions of the new temple, "its height 60 cubits, and its breadth 60 cubits," Antiq. xi. 4. 6; while Solomon's temple was but 30 cubits high, and, without the side-buildings, only 20 cubits broad. We nevertheless consider the statements correct, and the text incorrupt, and explain the absence of the measure of length simply by the fact that, as far as length was concerned, the old and new temples were of equal dimensions.