Ezra 4:24 Commentary and Bible Study

It is now shortly after the foundation of the house of God, the temple of God, has been laid. That took place in 536 BC, and for about sixteen years after that the work of rebuilding ceased. The work ceased until the second year of Darius I (520 BC), and then Haggai and Zechariah were sent by God to encourage the people. The temple was then finished in 516 BC. We read the chapter as though verse 5 leads straight to verse 24. Everything in between is a parenthesis; it’s in bracket. So in verse 5, ‘He hired councillors even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. That period of 16 years is picked up in verse 24, ‘Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.’ That reading will help much better to understand the passage. So those verses belong later, not because some scholar says so, but because the reigns of the relevant kings are named and given. The work of the Lord can stop through demoralisation. These were the cream of Israel, pioneers, 42,000 plus of them and they began with such care to do everything according to the word of Moses. And yet in 16 years they need this tremendous admonition. The people were undermined and discouraged because of the adversaries, and it needed God to Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to restart, and actually the people responded very well to the ministry of Haggai. Haggai couldn’t say to them, Yes, you have been longing to get on with work, for they had no intention of resuming even though legal niceties have been cleared up. They had become comfortable and taken up with themselves. They had very nice, superior houses, and they weren’t ready to resume.