Ezra 3 Study Notes

3:1-13 Neither Haggai nor Zechariah, who prophesied about the temple during this time, ever mentioned an early attempt to lay the foundation of the temple in the time of Cyrus as described in this chapter. They only recounted the laying of the foundation and the building of the temple during the time of Darius, with the completion of the temple in 515 BC. The chronological indicators in the passage (vv. 6,8; 4:5,24; 5:1-2) attest to a short-lived attempt to rebuild in the time of Cyrus (3:1-4:3) followed by a second, ultimately successful attempt during the time of Darius (chaps. 5-6).

3:1-2 The seventh month was September-October 538 BC. Taking the lead in reviving the proper sacrificial system was Jeshua son of Jozadak (see note at 2:2). In Haggai he is always referred to as “Joshua,” an alternative spelling, and nearly always called the “high priest,” though never in Ezra-Nehemiah. Just as Joshua built an altar to the Lord when the people entered the promised land “according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses” (Jos 8:30-31), so those returning to the promised land built theirs the same way, with uncut stones that no iron tool had touched (Dt 27:5-6).

3:3 The morning and evening burnt offerings, called the (Hb) Tamid, were the basic daily sacrifices in which the entire lamb was burned up. The burnt offerings were part of the consecration of the new altar. Twice before in Israel’s history the daily burnt offerings had ceased under godless kings and were reinstated, first by Joash (2Ch 24:14) and later by Hezekiah (2Ch 29:7,27-29). The term surrounding peoples (lit “the people of the lands”) often has a pejorative sense. Here it probably refers to those with no desire to see a reconstituted Jewish population in the land.

3:4 The seventh month was also the time for the celebration of the Festival of Shelters (also referred to as “Tabernacles,” or by its Hb name Succoth), a harvest festival in which Israel remembered their sojourn in the wilderness and God’s provision. The sacrifices during the seven-day festival were offered in accordance with the law of Moses as written in Nm 29:12-38. They included 71 bulls, 15 rams, 105 lambs as well as 7 goats—a major financial sacrifice for the small postexilic community.

3:5 The mention of regular burnt offering (Hb ‘olat tamid) is to show how the normal daily sacrificial schedule of offerings, as compared to the burnt offering at the dedication of the altar (v. 3), was reestablished. Offerings for the beginning of each month translates a single Hebrew word (chodashim) meaning “new moons.” New moon celebrations were prescribed in the Mosaic law (Nm 28:11-15). They included the blowing of trumpets (Nm 10:10) along with the sacrifice of two bulls, a ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, plus a male goat as a sin offering.

3:6 The first day of the seventh month would most likely have been September 17, 538 BC.

3:7 As soon as the sacrificial system was in place, the next order of business was the acquisition of building material. Payment was made to the people of Sidon and Tyre who cut down the famous cedars of Lebanon and floated the logs down the coast to Joppa, just south of present-day Tel-Aviv, for transit overland to Jerusalem. While stonecutters were also hired, they were not as numerous as Solomon’s 80,000 who worked on the first temple (2Ch 2:18) since some of the stones from the rubble of the first temple could be reused.

3:8-9 During the seven months preceding the second month of the second year, enough of the temple site had been cleared that work on the foundation could begin. Zerubbabel and Jeshua the priest led laymen as well as priests and Levites in the joint effort. In 5:16 Sheshbazzar is mentioned as laying the foundation of the temple. As the official governor, maybe he was credited with this event even though Zerubbabel carried on most of the work and would later succeed Sheshbazzar as governor.

3:10 The continuity of the people with their preexilic forefathers is again emphasized in the phrase as King David of Israel had instructed. When David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem (1Ch 16:4-6), the Levites were to “give thanks and praise” while the priests blew the trumpets and Asaph “sounded the cymbals.” Here the descendants of Asaph used the cymbals and the current priests blew their trumpets.

3:11 The Levites’ antiphonal refrain, “For he is good; his faithful love to Israel endures forever,” is found in slightly varying forms in the Psalms (100:4-5; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1; 136:1). The shout (Hb teru‘ah) was commonly used in battle but also for other significant events, such as the shout of the people when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem by King David (1Ch 15:28).

3:12-13 The episode described here is not the same event as described in Hg 2:1-5, which occurred almost twenty years later when the building of the temple finally resumed. Here the author prepares the way for Ezr 4 with the opposition of enemies. Not only did the Lord’s people hear the sound but so did their adversaries, who tried to thwart their plans.