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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 3:8 - 3:8
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The foundation of the temple laid. - Ezr 3:8 In the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, i.e., after their arrival at Jerusalem on their return from Babylon, in the second month, began Zerubbabel and Joshua to appoint the Levites from twenty years old and upwards to the oversight of the work (the building) of the house of the Lord. That is to say, the work of building was taken in hand. Whether this second year of the return coincides with the second year of the rule of Cyrus, so that the foundations of the temple were laid, as Theophil. Antioch. ad Autolic. lib. 3, according to Berosus, relates, in the second year of Cyrus, cannot be determined. For nothing more is said in this book than that Cyrus, in the first year of his reign, issued the decree concerning the return of the Jews from Babylon, whereupon those named in the list, Ezra 2, set out and returned, without any further notice as to whether this also took place in the first year of Cyrus, or whether the many necessary preparations delayed the departure of the first band till the following year. The former view is certainly a possible though not a very probable one, since it is obvious from Ezr 2:1 that they arrived at Jerusalem and betook themselves to their cities as early as the seventh month of the year. Now the period between the beginning of the year and the seventh month, i.e., at most six months, seems too short for the publication of the edict, the departure, and the arrival at Jerusalem, even supposing that the first year of Cyrus entirely coincided with a year of the Jewish calendar. The second view, however, would not make the difference between the year of the rule of Cyrus and the year of the return to Jerusalem a great one, since it would scarcely amount to half a year. וַיַּעֲמִידוּ...הֵחֵלּוּ, they began and appointed, etc., they began to appoint, i.e., they began the work of building the temple by appointing. Those enumerated are-1. Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two rulers: 2. The remnant of their brethren = their other brethren, viz., a, the priests and Levites as brethren of Joshua; b, all who had come out of captivity, i.e., the men of Israel, as brethren of Zerubbabel. These together formed the community who appointed the Levites to preside over, i.e., to conduct the building of the temple. For the expression, comp. 1 Chron 23:4-24.
Ezr 3:9
The Levites undertook this appointment, and executed the commission. The singular וַיַּעֲמֹד stands before a plural subject, as is frequently the case when the verb precedes its subject. Three classes or orders of Levites are named: 1. Jeshua with his sons and brethren; 2. Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah; 3. The sons of Henadad, their sons and brethren. Jeshua and Kadmiel are the two heads of orders of Levites already named (Ezr 2:40). From a comparison of these passages, we perceive that יְהוּדָה בְּנֵי is a clerical error for הֹודַוְיָה (or הֹודִיָּה) בְּנֵי. This more precise designation is not “a comprehensive appellation for all hitherto enumerated” (Bertheau), but, as is undoubtedly obvious from Ezr 2:40, only a more precise designation of the sons of Kadmiel. כְּאֶחָד, as one, i.e., all, without exception. The third class, the sons of Henadad, are not expressly named in Ezr 2:40 among those who returned from Babylon; but a son of Henadad appears, Neh 3:24 and Neh 10:10, as head of an order of Levites. The naming of this order after the predicate, in the form of a supplementary notice, and unconnected by a ו cop., is striking. Bertheau infers therefrom that the construction of the sentence is incorrect, and desires to alter it according to 1 Esdr. 5:56, where indeed this class is named immediately after the two first, but יְהוּדָה בְּנֵי is separated from what precedes; and of these בני יהודה is made a fourth class, υἱοὶ Ἰωδά τοῦ Ἡλιαδούδ. All this sufficiently shows that this text cannot be regarded as authoritative. The striking position or supplementary enumeration of the sons of Henadad may be explained by the fact to which the placing of כְּאֶחָד after בני יהודה points, viz., that the two classes, Jeshua with his sons and brethren, and Kadmiel with his sons, were more closely connected with each other than with the sons of Henadad, who formed a third class. The הַֽלְוִיִּם at the end of the enumeration offers no argument for the transposition of the words, though this addition pertains not only to the sons of Henadad, but also to the two first classes. hm' עֹשֵׂה is plural, and only an unusual reading for עֹשֵׁי; see on 1Ch 23:24.
Ezr 3:10-11
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they (Zerubbabel and Joshua, the heads of the community) set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David. The perf. וְיִסְּדוּ, followed by an imperf. connected by a Vav consecutive, must be construed: When they laid the foundations, then. מְלֻבָּשִׁים, clothed, sc. in their robes of office; comp. 2Ch 5:12; 2Ch 20:21. יְדֵי עַל as 1Ch 25:2. On Ezr 3:11, comp. remarks on 1Ch 16:34, 1Ch 16:41; 2Ch 5:13; 2Ch 7:3, and elsewhere. Older expositors (Clericus, J. H. Mich.), referring to Exo 15:21, understand בְהַלֵּל וַיַּעֲנוּ of the alternative singing of two choirs, one of which sang, “Praise the Lord, for He is good;” and the other responded, “And His mercy endureth for ever.” In the present passage, however, there is no decided allusion to responsive singing; hence (with Bertheau) we take יַעֲנוּ in the sense of, “They sang to the Lord with hymns of thanksgiving.” Probably they sang such songs as Ps 106-107, or Ps 118, which commence with an invitation to praise the Lord because He is good, etc. All the people, moreover, raised a loud shout of joy. גְּדֹולָה תְּרוּעָה is repeated in Ezr 3:13 by הַשִּׂמְחָה תְּרוּעַת. הוּסַד עַל, on account of the founding, of the foundation-laying, of the house of the Lord. הוּסַד as in 2Ch 3:3.
Ezr 3:12
But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the people, the old men who had seen (also) the former temple, at the foundation of this house before their eyes (i.e., when they saw the foundation of this house laid), wept with a loud voice. Solomon's temple was destroyed b.c. 588, and the foundation of the subsequent temple laid b.c. 535 or 534: hence the older men among those present at the latter event might possibly have seen the former house; indeed, some (according to Hagg. Ezr 2:2) were still living in the second year of Darius Hystaspis who had beheld the glory of the earlier building. Upon these aged men, the miserable circumstances under which the foundations of the new temple were laid produced so overwhelming an impression, that they broke into loud weeping. בְּיָסְדֹו is connected by its accents with the words preceding: the former temple in its foundation, i.e., in its stability. But this can scarcely be correct. For not only does no noun יֹסֶד, foundation, occur further on; but even the following words, “of this house before their eyes,” if severed from בְּיָסְדֹו, have no meaning. Hence (with Aben Ezra, Cler., Berth., and others) we connect בְּיָסְדֹו with the parenthetical sentence following, “when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes;” and then the suffix of the infinitive יָסְדֹו expressly refers to the object following, as is sometimes the case in Hebrew, e.g., 2Ch 26:14; Ezr 9:1, and mostly in Chaldee; comp. Ew. §209, c, “But many were in rejoicing and joy to raise their voice,” i.e., many so joyed and rejoiced that they shouted aloud.
Ezr 3:13
And the people could not discern (distinguish) the loud cry of joy in the midst of (beside) the loud weeping of the people; for the people rejoiced with loud rejoicings, and the sound was heard afar off. The meaning is not, that the people could not hear the loud weeping of the older priests, Levites, and heads of the people, because it was overpowered by the loud rejoicings of the multitude. The verse, on the contrary, contains a statement that among the people also (the assembly exclusive of priests, Levites, and chiefs) a shout of joy and a voice of weeping arose; but that the shouting for joy of the multitude was so loud, that the sounds of rejoicing and weeping could not be distinguished from each other. הִכִּיר, with the acc. and לְ, to perceive something in the presence of (along with) another, i.e., to distinguish one thing from another. “The people could not discern” means: Among the multitude the cry of joy could not be distinguished from the noise of weeping. לְמֵרָחֹוק עַד as 2Ch 26:15.