Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 5:1 - 5:1

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 5:1 - 5:1


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“The prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel upon them.” חִתְנַבִּי without א, which this word occasionally loses in Hebrew also, comp. 1Sa 10:6, 1Sa 10:13; Jer 26:9. The epithet נְבִיָּאה added to the name of Haggai serves to distinguish him from others of the same name, and as well as הַנָּבִיא, Hagg. Hag 1:1, Hag 1:3, Hag 1:12, and elsewhere, is used instead of the name of his father; hence, after Zechariah is named, the prophets, as designating the position of both, can follow. עַל־יְהוּדָיֵא, they prophesied to (not against) the Jews; עַל as in Eze 37:4, = אֶל, Eze 37:9; Eze 36:1. The Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, in contradistinction to Jews dwelling elsewhere, especially to those who had remained in Babylon. עֲלֵיהֹון belongs to אֱלָהּ בְּשֻׁם, in the name of God, who was upon them, who was come upon them, had manifested Himself to them. Comp. Jer 15:16.

Ezr 5:2

“Then rose up Zerubbabel ... and Joshua ... and began to build the house of God at Jerusalem, and with them the prophets of God helping them.” The beginning to build is (Ezr 3:6, etc.) the commencement of the building properly so called, upon the foundations laid, Ezr 3:10; for what was done after this foundation-laying till a stop was put to the work, was so unimportant that no further notice is taken of it. The “prophets of God” are those mentioned Ezr 5:1, viz., Haggai, and Zechariah the son, i.e., grandson, of Iddo, for his father's name was Berechiah (see Introd. to Zechariah). Haggai entered upon his work on the first day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius; and his first address made such an impression, that Zerubbabel and Joshua with the people set about the intermitted work of building as early as the twenty-fourth day of the same month (comp. Hag 1:1 and Hag 1:14.). Two months later, viz., in the eighth month of the same year, Zechariah began to exhort the people to turn sincerely to the Lord their God, and not to relapse into the sins of their fathers.