Aramaic Document Cyrus to rebuild this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter. k of the by 6 1Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the Result archives where the official documents from Babylon had been deposited. inves 2And at Ecbatana,' the royal palacem in the province of Media, a roll" was tigation found and in it was thus written: A record:0 3In the first year of Cyrus the Darius king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, where they offer sacrifices and bring him offerings made by fire; its height shall be sixty cubits, and its breadth sixty cubits. 4It shall be constructed with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timber; and let the expenses be paid out of the king's treasury. 5Also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought to the temple which is at Jerusalem, each to its place; and you shall put them in the house of God.' com in the build ing of temple Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, His Shethar-bozenai, and the rulers of the province beyond the River, go away mand from there; let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the to aid Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God in its place. More- reover I make a decree in regard to what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: that out of the king's wealth the from the tribute of the province beyond the River the expenses be exactly paid to these men, and that without delay. 9And whatever is needed, both young bullocks and rams and lambs for burnt-offerings to the God of heaven, also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the direction of the priests at Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by day without fail, 10that they may regularly offer sacrifices of sweet savor to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. 11 Also I have made a decree, that whoever shall make this command invalid, a beam shall be pulled out from his house, and he shall be impaled upon it, and his house shall for this be made a refuse-heap. 12 And the God who hath caused his name to dwell there shall overthrow all kings and peoples who shall put forth their 61 Changing the order of the Aram., which reads, house of the official documents where the treasures have been deposited at Babylon, and following the parallel in I Esdr. Cf. 517 and note i. 162 Aram., Achmetha. The later equivalent of the old Persian, Hangmatana, the Ekbatana of the Greek writers. 62 The royal palace, lit., castle, is not found in the parallel in I Esdr. 623 and may be a later addition. 62 The Jewish point of view is here clearly revealed. The document would naturally be a cuneiform tablet. 62 This appears to have been the title which stood at the head of the memorandum which follows. P 66 I Esdr. 627, But he commanded Sisinnes (Tattenai). This introduction to the command of Darius, which is introduced abruptly at this point, may be original, but more probably the abruptness is due to the author's desire to present in briefest form the vital facts. 467 Governor of the Jews is probably a later addition from 52, for elsewhere simply the elders are mentioned as the builders, 55. 8. 9. 69 I Esdr. 627 further adds, the servant of Jehovah, Zerubbabel, the governor of the Jews. So also in 14. 68 I Esdr. 628, 29 has what appears to be a later expanded paraphrase of this passage. this form of punishment was characteristically Persian. Com of Aramaic Document hand to make invalid the command or to destroy the house of God at Jerusalem. Exactly will it be executed. 13Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and pletion Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did exactly as Darius the king had temple given command. 14 And the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the prophets" Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished the building according to the command of the God of Israel and according to the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 And this temple was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king." Dedication of the § 148. Dedication of the Temple and the Observation of the Passover, Ezra 616-22 (I Esdr. 70-15) Chronicler's Ecclesiastical History Ezra 6 16Then the Israelites, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. temple 17 And they offered at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve he-goats for a sin-offering for all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as is prescribed in the book of Moses. The great pass over feast 19 And the returned exiles kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20 For the priests and the Levites had every one of them purified themselves; all of them were ceremonially clean. And they killed the passover for all the returned exiles, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. 21 And the Israelites who had come back from the captivity, and all those who separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land,d to seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, ate 22and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; for Jehovah had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyriae to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. u 614 So 51 and I Esdr. 73. 614 Evidently added by the Chronicler or a later scribe. Cf. 51. The entire verse may be from the same hand. 614 This error is also probably due to the Chronicler who appears to have regarded Artaxerxes as the predecessor of Darius I, under whom the temple was completed. Cf. § 144. 614 March-April, 516 B.C. a615 This chronological note was probably added by the Chronicler, but he may well have had authentic data at his command. It is not improbable that he derived it from the Aramaic document itself. Four years was an ample allowance of time for the rebuilding of the temple. § 148 Although the Aram. continues to be used through 18, it is clear that this section is from the Chronicler. The elders suddenly vanish from the story, and the priests and Levites and a great assembly made up, as alone seemed to the Chronicler fitting, of the children of the captivity, 16, 19, 21, take their place. In addition to the animal offerings in 9, twelve he-goats are offered as a sin-offering in accordance with the very late law in Lev. 413-21. The Chronicler's peculiar ideas and expressions also abound. Cf. 18 and I Chr. 231-272, II Chr. 354, 5. As in II Chr. 351-19, he introduces in conclusion a solemn passover feast, observed in accordance with the ritualistic ideals of his own day. 616, 19 Aram., children of the captivity. 618 I Esdr. 79 adds, likewise the porter at each door. This may possibly be original. d 621 Here the Chronicler projects back the work and standards of a later age. These included not proselytes but Jews who had remained in Judah. Cf. § 162. 622 This historical slip is doubtless due to the fact that to students of the earlier prophecies Assyria figured still as the ancient foe and master of Israel-of course, the Chronicler meant to say, king of Persia. II THE WORK OF NEHEMIAH IN RESTORING THE WALLS OF § 149. Nehemiah's Interest in the Afflicted Judean Community, Neh. 11-116 Nehemiah's Memoirs bad news Jeru Neh. 1 1Now it transpired in the month of Chislev,a in the twentieth year The [of Artaxerxes], as I was in Shushan the royal palace, 2that Hanani,d one of my kinsmen came, together with certain men from Judah, and I asked from them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who were left from the cap- salem tivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity there in the provinces are in great misfortune and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been destroyed by fire. miah's S race tition 4Now when I heard these statements I sat down and wept and mourned Nehecertain days; and I fasted and made supplication before the God of heaven, prayer 5and I said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and for his terrible God, who keepeth the covenant and showeth kindness to them and pewho love and keep his commands; let thine ears now be attentive and for thine eyes open, to hear the supplication of thy servant, which I am now help making before thee, day and night, for the Israelites thy servants, while I confess the sins of the Israelites, which we have sinned against thee, as I also and my father's house have sinned. 7We have dealt very wickedly The Work of Nehemiah.-For the first time in Israel's history, it is possible to study an important epoch in the light of a contemporary record written by the most prominent man in the life of his age. Cf. Introd., pp. 30, 31. With the first chapter of Neh. the peculiar expression and conceptions of the later Jewish traditions found in Ezra disappear and a straightforward narrative, abounding in exact details, takes their place. That Nehemiah was the pioneer who prepared the way for a general return of the Jews from Babylon and for the institution of the new priestly law in Judah, which is by tradition associated with Ezra, is demonstrated by a great variety of evidence. With Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the author of Isa. 40-55 he ranks as one of the chief makers of Judaism. Patriotic, energetic, and practical, he was supremely fitted to lift the Judean community out of the slough of corruption and despondency into which it had fallen and to prepare the way for that close union between the religious leaders in Babylon and the Jews of Palestine, which was necessary before there could be any general return, and to blaze the way for those fundamental reforms which transformed the life and religion of the race. $149 The superscription was either added by the Chronicler (cf. 102), or else originally stood at the head of Nehemiah's memoirs which are here quoted verbatim, as the vocabulary and literary style, very different from those of the Chronicler, clearly testify. Cf. Introd., p. 30. The chapter well illustrates that rare union of piety and patriotism which was the dominant influence in Nehemiah's life. a 11 November-December. b11 Probably thoughtlessly added by a scribe from 21, for Nisan precedes instead of follows Chislev. 11 Lit., castle. Cf. Dan. 82, Esth. 11. Susa was the winter residence of the Persian kings. d 12 Cf. 72. Probably Hanani was an own brother whose house was in Jerusalem. If so this would explain in part Nehemiah's interest in the Judean community and why the deputation appealed directly to him. 15 Cf. Dt. 721, 9, 12. 116 Luc. reads consistently with the context, ears. But cf. ". |