1 Esdras 7

Then Sisinnes, the governor of Celosyria and Phenice, and Sathrabuzanes, along with their companions, followed the orders of King Darius.

1Then Sisinnes the governor of Celosyria and Phenice, and Sathrabuzanes, with their companions following the commandments of king Darius,

NoteCelosyria and Phenice are the Greek names for a single Persian administrative region west of the Euphrates: Coele-Syria ("hollow Syria," the inland valley country) together with Phoenicia, the coastal strip of what is now Lebanon. Sisinnes governed it on the Persian king's behalf; in the parallel account in the Hebrew book of Ezra the same official is called Tattenai. Darius is Darius I, who ruled the Persian empire from 522 to 486 BC.

2They watched over the work on the holy house very carefully, and they helped the elders of the Jews and the leaders of the temple.

2Did very carefully oversee the holy works, assisting the ancients of the Jews and governors of the temple.

NoteThe King James "the ancients of the Jews" does not mean people of long ago. "Ancients" here translates a word for elders, the senior men who governed a community, and the rendering says elders for that reason.

3And so the work on the holy house went well, while the prophets Aggeus and Zacharias were prophesying.

3And so the holy works prospered, when Aggeus and Zacharias the prophets prophesied.

NoteAggeus and Zacharias are the Greek spellings of the prophets known in English Bibles as Haggai and Zechariah; 1 Esdras comes down to us in Greek, which is why many familiar names look unfamiliar here.

4They finished this work at the command of the Lord, the God of Israel, and with the approval of Cyrus, Darius, and Artexerxes, kings of Persia.

4And they finished these things by the commandment of the Lord God of Israel, and with the consent of Cyrus, Darius, and Artexerxes, kings of Persia.

NoteArtexerxes is Artaxerxes, who ruled Persia after Darius, so the three kings are not in the order of the building work but form a summary list of the Persian rulers under whom the Jewish community operated. Cyrus authorized the return and the rebuilding, Darius confirmed it, and Artaxerxes belongs to a later stage of the story.

5So the holy house was finished on the twenty-third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius, king of the Persians.

5And thus was the holy house finished in the three and twentieth day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius king of the Persians

NoteAdar was the twelfth and last month of the Jewish year, falling in late winter, roughly February to March. The sixth year of Darius I puts the completion of the temple around 516 or 515 BC, some seventy years after the first temple was destroyed.

6The people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the others who had come back from captivity and joined them, did what was written in the book of Moses.

6And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and others that were of the captivity, that were added unto them, did according to the things written in the book of Moses.

Note"The book of Moses" means the law contained in the first five books of the Bible, which set out how the sacrifices, the priesthood and the festivals described in this chapter were to be carried out.

7For the dedication of the temple of the Lord they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs,

7And to the dedication of the temple of the Lord they offered an hundred bullocks two hundred rams, four hundred lambs;

NoteThese animals were burnt offerings, killed and burned whole on the altar. The numbers are deliberately large: an offering on this scale was an act of public celebration, marking the temple's formal opening for use.

8and twelve goats for the sin of all Israel, matching the number of the chief men of the tribes of Israel.

8And twelve goats for the sin of all Israel, according to the number of the chief of the tribes of Israel.

NoteA sin offering was a sacrifice made to remove ritual impurity and guilt. Twelve goats, one for each of the twelve tribes descended from Jacob's sons, stood for the whole nation, including the tribes that no longer had a community in the land.

9The priests and the Levites also stood dressed in their special robes, grouped by their families, for the service of the Lord, the God of Israel, as the book of Moses directs. The gatekeepers were at every gate.

9The priests also and the Levites stood arrayed in their vestments, according to their kindreds, in the service of the Lord God of Israel, according to the book of Moses: and the porters at every gate.

NoteThe vestments were the prescribed garments of the priesthood, not ordinary clothing; wearing them was part of being fit to serve. "Kindreds" means family groups, since priests and Levites served in divisions organized by descent. The King James "porters" means gatekeepers, men posted to control who entered the temple courts, not carriers of luggage.

10The people of Israel who had come back from captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, after the priests and the Levites had been made ready for holy service.

10And the children of Israel that were of the captivity held the passover the fourteenth day of the first month, after that the priests and the Levites were sanctified.

NotePassover was kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, Nisan, in spring, roughly March or April. It commemorated Israel's escape from Egypt, when the people were told to kill a lamb and eat it in haste. To be "sanctified" was to go through washings and abstentions that made a person ritually clean and so fit to take part.

11Not all those who had come back from captivity had been made ready at the same time, but the Levites had all been made ready together.

11They that were of the captivity were not all sanctified together: but the Levites were all sanctified together.

12And so they offered the Passover sacrifice for everyone who had come back from captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.

12And so they offered the passover for all them of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves.

Note"They offered the passover" means the priests and Levites killed the Passover lambs on behalf of others, rather than each household doing its own slaughtering as in the older practice.

13The people of Israel who had come out of captivity ate the meal, that is, all those who had kept themselves apart from the detestable practices of the people of the land and had sought the Lord.

13And the children of Israel that came out of the captivity did eat, even all they that had separated themselves from the abominations of the people of the land, and sought the Lord.

Note"The people of the land" is a set phrase for the population already living in the region, those who had not been deported and those of other nations who had settled there. "Abominations" refers to their religious practices, which returning exiles regarded as ruled out for themselves. To "seek the Lord" meant to attach oneself to the worship of Israel's God rather than to those practices.

14They kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days, rejoicing before the Lord,

14And they kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days, making merry before the Lord,

NoteThe feast of unleavened bread ran for the seven days immediately after Passover, and during it no yeast was used or even kept in the house, in memory of bread baked in haste at the departure from Egypt.

15because he had turned the thinking of the king of Assyria toward them, so that their hands were made strong for the work of the Lord, the God of Israel.

15For that he had turned the counsel of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the works of the Lord God of Israel.

Note"The king of Assyria" is surprising, since the ruler in question is the Persian Darius. The Assyrian empire had been gone for a century, but its name clung to the region and to whoever governed it, so the phrase means simply the great king ruling from the east. "To strengthen their hands" is an idiom for giving someone the resources and backing to finish a job.