Ezra 6

The Persian capital was in Susa, in what is now Iran. But Babylon is where King Cyrus conquered the Babylonians. And that’s where he freed the captives Babylon had taken over the years. Babylon is in Iraq, near the capital city of Baghdad.

Media had once been an empire of its own in what is now northern Iran. Ecbatana, now Hamadan, Iran, was an important city in the Persian Empire, as the discovery of Cyrus’ scroll suggests. The city was about 280 miles northeast of Babylon as the raven flies, or 450 kilometers.

Literally 60 cubits. A cubit was considered the distance of a man’s forearm, from elbow to fingertips. That’s roughly 18 inches or 44 centimeters. This translates to roughly 90 feet or 27 meters. Cyrus didn’t dictate the length of the building. The first Temple, built by King Solomon was 30 yards long, 10 yards wide, and 15 yards high (27 by 9 by 14 meters).

More literally (and vaguely), “with three courses of cut stone and one course of timber.” Some translate that as “three layers of cut stone and one layer of timber.” But that might seem like a lot of layers. Cut stones in Herod’s Temple of Jesus’ time weighed at least a few tons. One weighed in at 160,000 pounds (72,574 kg). That’s 80 tons, which is about the size of an Orca Killer Whale. It’s also about the weight of four of London’s double-decker buses, fully loaded with American tourists.

This might explain why the king bothered to limit the size of the temple. He was paying the bill. He didn’t want it too small or too big. Just right.

This is a guess about what officials are supposed to do with the house. The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain. Some translate it as “destroy,” “confiscate,” or “turn into a dung heap.” Whatever it means, it doesn’t sound good for the family left behind.

Artaxerxes didn’t order or even encourage the Jews to build the Temple. He didn’t become king until 50 years after Jews finished building the Temple in 515 BC. He reigned from 465-424 BC. But he did later express his support for the Temple, in a letter he wrote that’s preserved in 7:11-26.

Some date the event to March 12, based on the dates identified in this verse, cross-checked with related dates found in Persian records. This reveals that Jews rebuilt the Temple 70 years after Babylonians destroyed the first Temple. Some scholars say this is the “70 years in Babylon” that the prophet Jeremiah was talking about in Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10.

Adar goes from mid-February to mid-March. Jews followed a lunar calendar.

Why not, the Persians were paying for it (6:9).

A sin offering can refer to something the people of Israel brought to God after they realized they had accidentally broken one of God’s laws earlier. Some scholars say a better translation is the opposite of “sin” because the sacrifice is intended to “un-sin” people, to purify them. So those scholars call it a “purification offering.”

Job descriptions for priests and Levites: Numbers 3 and 18.

The Hebrew word is pesach (PAY sock). It refers to the annual Passover meal today called a seder (SAY dur), which means “order.” That’s a reference to the fact that the Passover meal is eaten as a meticulously detailed ritual of reading, remembering, and prayer. The word “Passover” comes from the story of God or one of his angels killing the Egyptian firstborn, but “passing over” Hebrew homes with animal blood on the doorframes (Exodus 12).

Some date this to April 21, 515 BC. See related footnote for 6:17. The Hebrew text reports the date as the first month on the Jewish calendar, Nisan, and the fourteenth day. The month of Adar, in 6:17, is the twelfth month.

Ritual purification included washing clothes, abstinence from sex, a ritual bath, and a waiting period (Exodus 19:15; Leviticus 15).

More often called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days leading up to the Passover seder meal, Jews were not to eat anything with yeast in it. Instead, observant Jews eat a large cracker-like bread called matzo. This was to remind them that when God freed their Hebrew ancestors from Egypt, they left in such a rush that they didn’t have time to wait for bread dough to rise. They quickly made flat bread for the trip, and then hit the road in a hurry (Exodus 12).