Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_100_t.lzh/3_113.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-18 | 7KB | 127 lines

expressed; and the next clause may be read without an
interrogation, and the sense be, that they told them
not only that they acted according to an edict of Cyrus
king of Persia, for this was raid, as appears from
yet. l3. but they declared what were the names of the
men that did make this building; or employed them in
it, namely, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the chief men
of the Jews; they made no scruple of telling them who
they were; neither ashamed of their masters nor of
their work, nor afraid of any ill consequences following
hereon.
Ver. 5. But the e!le of tlteir God was upon the elders
of the Jews, &c.] He in Iris providence looked fayour-
ably at them, smiled upon them, encouraged them in
the work by his good spirit, and by the prophets, and
gave them success, and protected and defended them,
see o. Chron. xvi. 9. Zech. iii. 9. and iv. 10. that they
could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to
Darius; they were not intimidated by what the go-
vernor and those with him said to them, but went on
in their work; nor did the governor attempt to inter-
rupt them, they having referred him and their cause to
Darius for the truth of what they had said, and for
further information from him: and then they returned
answer by letter concerning this matter; that is, Tatnai
and those with him sent a letter to Darius about this
affair, to which they had an answer, which are both
related in this and the following chapters.
Ver. 6. The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor
on this side the river, and Shethar-boznai, and his com-
panions the Apharsachites, which were on this side the
river, &c.] Which is thought by some to be one of
the nations mentioned, oh. iv. 9. the name being pretty
near alike to two of them; but perhaps might be a
distinct colony in those parts Tatnai was governor of:
these sent unto Darius the king; and is as follows.
Ver. 7. They sent a letter unto him, wherein was
written thus, &c.] Or this was the inscription of it:
unto Darius the king, all peace; wishing him all kind
of happiness and prosperity.
Ver. 8. Be it lcnown unto the king, &c.] This seems
to have been the usual form of beginning a letter to a
king in those days, ch. iv. l2. that we went into the
province of Judea; which from a kingdom was reduced
to a province, and was become a part of the Baby-
lonfan, now Persian, monarchy, see ch. if. 1. to the
house of the great God; as the Jews called the Lord
their God; and even the Heathens had a notion that
there was one supreme God, though they worshipped
inferior ones; and some had a notion that Jehovah the
God of the Jews was he: which is builded with great
stones; marble stones; as Jarchi {q}, stones of rolling,
as it may be rendered; which, according to Aben Ezra,
were so large and heavy, that they could not be car-
ried, but were obliged to roll them: and timber is laid
in the walls, cedar-wood, as Aben Ezra interprets it,
for beams, for flooring and raftering; or rather, is put
upon the walls, for the lining and wainscoting of
them, which was done with cedar-wood: and this work
goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands; and, unless
timely prevented, will soon be finished.
Ver. 9. Then asked we those elders, &c.] The elders
of the province of Judea; the chief men of it: who
commanded you to build this house, and to make up these
walls ? see vet. 3.
Vet. 10. We asked their names also, &c.] The names
of the elders, those that set men about this work: to
certify tltat we might write the names of the men that
were the chief of them; take the names of them in.
writing, that they might with certainty acquaint the .
king who they were, and that if it was necessary they
might be called to an account for what they were
doing.
Ver. 11. And thus they returneel us answer, &c.] To
the purpose and in the manner following: saying, we
are the servants of the God of heaven and earth; signi-
fying that they were doing his work, in obedience to
his will, and to whom they were accountable: and
build the house that was builded these man.,./years ago;
even 500 years ago, or thereabout; so that they were
not erecting a building where there was none before,
but were rebuilding what was in ruins: which a great
Icing of Israel builded and set up; King Solomon, who
was a g. reat king for wisdom, honour, riches, peace,
prosperity, and extent of his kingdom.
Vet. le. But after that our fathers had provoked the
of heaven unto wrath, &c.] By their idolatries;
ch accounts tbr it how it was that they who were
the servants of the great God of heaven and earth, and
this temple built for the honour of his name, were not
preserved by him; but they were carried captive, and
this house left desolate: it was for their sins for which
he (God) gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon the Chaldean, who destroyed this
house, and carried the people away into Babylon; see
2 Chron. xxxvi. 19, o-0.
Ver. 13. But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Ba-
bylon, &c.] That is, the first year he was king tSf Ba-
bylon, having taken it, otherwise he was king of Persia
many years before: the same King Cyrus made a de-
cree to build this house of God; see ch. i. 1, 2., 3, 4.
Vet, 14, 15. And the vessels also of gold and silver of
the house of God, &c.] Of which, and of what is said
concerning them, and particularly of the delivery of
them to Sheshbazzar, whom Cyrus made governor of
Judah, and ordered him to carry them to Jerusalem,
and build the temple there, and put them in it, see ch.
i. 7--11.
Ver. 16. Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid
the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusa--
lem, &c.] Which makes it clear, that by Sheshbazzar
is meant Zerubbabel; for he it was that laid the foun-
dation of the temple, or at least by whose order it was!
laid, see Zech. iv. 9. and since that time event until now;
from the 1st of Cyrus to the o.d of Darius, a space of
about 18 years, and just 70 from the destruction of the
temple: hath it been z'n building, and yet it is not
; the work going on slowly, not without inter-
ruption and intermission, through the enmity of the
Samaritans unto them, who had made false represen-
tations of them; but these men, Tatnai and those with
him, as the Jews gave them a very particular account
of things, as above, so they fairly and fully related
them in this their letter to the king.

{q} So David de Pomis, Tzemach David, fol. 15. 3.