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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 4:4 - 4:4
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In consequence of this refusal, the adversaries of Judah sought to weaken the hands of the people, and to deter them from building. הָאָרֶץ עַם, the people of the land, i.e., the inhabitants of the country, the colonists dwelling in the land, the same who in Ezr 4:1 are called the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. וַיְהִי followed by the participle expresses the continuance of the inimical attempts. To weaken the hands of any one, means to deprive him of strength and courage for action; comp. Jer 38:4. יְהוּדָה עַם are the inhabitants of the realm of Judah, who, including the Benjamites, had returned from captivity, Judah being now used to designate the whole territory of the new community, as before the captivity the entire southern kingdom; comp. Ezr 4:6. Instead of the Chethiv מְבַלֲּהִים, the Keri offer מְבַהֲלִים, from בהל, Piel, to terrify, to alarm, 2Ch 32:18; Job 21:6, because the verb בלה nowhere else occurs; but the noun בַּלָּהָה, fear, being not uncommon, and presupposing the existence of a verb בָּלַהּ, the correctness of the Chethiv cannot be impugned.