Ezra 4:6 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Ezra 4:6

Comments

We are now surprised to find Ezra writing about letters sent to Ahasuerus and, in the next verse, to Artaxerxes. Ezra 4 begins by describing the offer of the Samaritans to build the house of God together with the Jews who have returned from Babylon. That work began when the first group of Jews returned under Zerubbabel following the Cyrus decree issued soon after the start of the reign of Cyrus in 539 BC. The Samaritan offer is rightly rejected, but it is the rebuilding of the temple, not of the city of Jerusalem, that is in view. The rebuilding of the temple is still the subject in verse 24 of the chapter, where we are told that the work resumed in the second year of Darius I, and the temple was finished in 516 BC. But Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) and Artaxerxes, to whom the letters in verses 6 to 23 of this chapter were written, lived well after this time, so that these verses must be out of place chronologically (see relevant dates in the question section on this verse). Some have tried to explain this by saying that the names Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes (verse 7) actually refer to Cambyses and so try to put the letter back into the time of the building of the temple, but this is not a convincing explanation. The same Persian king (Artaxerxes) is referred to later in the book when Ezra asks permission to make his own journey to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:1-7) so why should a different king be meant by that name in chapter 4? We are therefore forced to see verses 6-23 as out of historical sequence, because what the writer does here is pursue the subject of hostility by letters to the emperor, and so he fast forwards to a letter that was written in the time of Esther, and then a letter that was written so many years subsequently in the time of Nehemiah. Verses 6 to 23 are about future letters, not what was happening to the first generation in Jerusalem. In particular we have to be careful about how we read the transition from verse 23 to verse 24 of this chapter. It might be read as if some came up from Artaxerxes in haste to Jerusalem and caused the work to ‘cease by force and power’ (verse 23), so that ‘it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia’ (Ezra 4:24). But verse 24 is not the consequence of verse 23. This is clear when we consider that verse 24 is about the ceasing of the building of the temple until the second year of Darius I, but verse 6-23 are about opposition brought against the building of the walls of the city of Jerusalem – a very different project, which took place only after the temple was finished.

Application

Questions

The dates of periods covered by the relevant prophets during the post exilic period are as follows: Ezra (538-458) BC); Haggai (520-520 BC); Zechariah (520-480? BC); Esther (483-471 BC); Nehemiah (444-c430 BC), and Malachi (c430 BC). The order and dates of the Persian rulers during these years are: Cyrus (539-530 BC); Cambyses (530-522 BC); Darius I (522-486 BC); Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) (486-465 BC); and Artaxerxes I (Longimanus) (486-423 BC). The key events during this time are the decree of Cyrus issued soon after he began to rule, and the 1^st return under Zerubbabel (Ezra 1:1), which took place in 538 BC. The second temple began to be built in 537 BC and its foundation stone was laid in 536 BC. After a period of inactivity lasting 16 years Haggai was called to encourage the rebuilding work in the 2^nd year of Darius I (Ezra 4:24) (520 BC) and the temple was completed in 516 BC. Zechariah had also been called as a prophet to work alongside Haggai in 520 BC. The events of the Book of Esther take place during the reign of Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) (Esther 1:3; 3:7) from 483 to 471 BC and it was Ahasuerus to whom Esther was married. This is the king named in Ezra 4:6 to whom the Samaritans wrote and in Ezra 4:7 they also wrote to Artaxerxes, his successor. But these kings did not reign until many years after the temple had been completed. The Book of Ezra spans a period of 80 years. It starts in the reign of Cyrus, and finishes in the reign of Artaxerxes. Ezra does not personally feature in the book until chapter 7. It is at this time that he asks permission from Artaxerxes I to lead a 2^nd group of Jews back to Jerusalem in 458 BC. The Book of Ezra then ends within 8 months of his arrival (Ezra 7:9; 10:17). Further interference from the Samaritans takes place and there is a second suspension of the work until about 445 BC. It is at the time of this further interference that the letter recorded in Ezra 4:6-23 is probably sent. It is chronologically out of order in Ezra 4, but Ezra’s purpose seems to be to group together different examples of the tactics of the adversaries collected from different periods. There is a 3^rd return under Nehemiah who joins an aged Ezra in Jerusalem (445 BC). Nehemiah serves as governor in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1; 5:14 13:6-7) from 445 to 433 BC. Nehemiah returns to Susa as per the original agreement with Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:6), comes back a second time to Jerusalem around 430 BC, where he encounters the same problem faced earlier by Ezra – the problem of mixed marriages.

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Ezra 4:6 Commentary and Bible Study