Ezra 4


Ezra 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or the book of Ezra–Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible, which treats the book of Ezra and book of Nehemiah as one book. Jewish tradition states that Ezra is the author of Ezra–Nehemiah as well as the Book of Chronicles, but modern scholars generally accept that a compiler from the 5th century BCE is the final author of these books. The section comprising chapter 1 to 6 describes the history before the arrival of Ezra in the land of Judah in 468 BCE. This chapter records the opposition of the non-Jews to the re-building of the temple and their correspondence with the kings of Persia which brought a stop to the project until the reign of Darius the Great.

Text

24 verses. The original language of 4:1–7 is Hebrew language, whereas of Ezra 4:8–24 is Aramaic.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew/Aramaic are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that is, 4Q117 with extant verses 2–6, 9–11. There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus.
An ancient Greek book called 1 Esdras containing some parts of 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah is included in most editions of the Septuagint and is placed before the single book of Ezra–Nehemiah. 1 Esdras 5:66–73 is an equivalent of Ezra 4:1–5. 1 Esdras 2:15–26 is the equivalent of Ezra 4:7–24.
The oldest Latin manuscript of 4 Esdras is the Codex Sangermanensis, which lacks 7:– and is parent of the vast majority of extant manuscripts. Other Latin manuscripts are:
The non-Jewish inhabitants of the land of Judah offered to help with the building, but regarding it as a 'proposal of compromise', the leaders of Judah rejected the offer. Due to the rejection, the surrounding inhabitants mounted opposition to the building project.

Verses 1–2

  • "Adversaries" or "enemies".
  • "Zerubbabel": is the leader of the group and of Davidic line, so he is associated with the messianic hope in the book of Zechariah, although none of it is mentioned in this book. His office is not named in this book, but he is identified as the "governor of Judah" in Haggai 1:1, ;.
The enemies of the exiles try to destroy that community by assimilation, pointing out important similarities among their peoples, wanting the exiles to be entirely like them, but the enemies don't have allegiance to Yahweh and assimilation for the exiles would have meant destruction of the covenant with God. The reference to the Assyrian king recalls the story in that after the fall of Samaria in 721 BC, the genuine Israel inhabitants of the northern kingdom were deported elsewhere and the Assyrians planted people from other places to the region of Samaria, initiated by Sargon, but from this verse apparently extended to the reign of Esarhaddon.

Verse 3

  • "Jeshua": or "Joshua". His office is not named in this book, but he is identified as the "high priest" in Haggai 1:1,, ; ;.
  • "House" refers to "Temple".
The rejection of Zerubbabel was based on "spiritual insight".

Verses 4–5

  • "To frustrate their purpose": in sense of 'to seek, "under the guise of advice and interest, to seduce the exiles from following the mind of God to follow a different mind"'.

    Historical divergence (4:6–23)

The story of Zerubbabel was interrupted by the list of some accounts of hostilities which happened in a long period of time to illustrate the continuous opposition by non-Jews of the area to the attempts of the Jews to establish a community under the law of God.

Verse 6

  • "Ahasuerus": from Hebrew: אֲחַשְׁוֵר֔וֹשׁ, , "Ahashverosh’"; Persian: "Khshyarsha", transliterated in Greek as "Xerxes", generally identified with the well-known Xerxes I, the son of Darius, who is also associated with Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. A view regards "Ahasuerus" to be an appellative, like Pharaoh and Caesar, so it could be applied to any Persian monarch, and thus identifies "Ahasuerus" with Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, but no well-attested evidence exists of this argument.

    Verse 7

  • "Artaxerxes": from Hebrew: ארתחששתא, , also mentioned in Ezra 7:1; Nehemiah 2:1, generally identified with Artaxerxes Longimanus, who succeeds his father Xerxes and reigned forty years. The name in the inscriptions appears as "Artakshathra", compounded of "Arta" meaning "great" and "Khsathra", "kingdom". The view which identifies this Artaxerxes with Pseudo-Smerdis or Gomates, the usurper of the Persian crown on the death of Cambyses, has no well-attested evidence.
  • "And the letter was written in Aramaic script, and translated into the Aramaic language": from Hebrew: וכתב הנשתון כתוב ארמית ומתרגם ארמית, ū- ha- ū- , MEV: "the writing of the letter was written in Aramaic, and interpreted in Aramaic", indicating that is in Aramaic.

    Verses 9–10

  • "Osnappar" is the last of the great Assyrian kings, considered by people in the imperial provinces simply as a predecessor of the Persian king Artaxerxes ; the mention of his name is a tactic to scare the king of the projection of less income from the population in that area if they are rebelling against him. Evidently troubled by the thought of losing revenue and with the Assyrian and Babylonians annals available for him, possibly containing records of the "chronically rebellious city" of Jerusalem, Artaxerxes was convinced and ordered the work to be stopped.

    The story resumed (4:24)

With the repetition of the essence in verse 5, the story of Zerubbabel and Jeshua resumes, continued in the next chapter.

Verse 24

  • "The second year" corresponds to 520 BC.