Ezra 5:11-13
New English Translation
11 They responded to us in the following way: ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the temple which was previously built many years ago. A great king[a] of Israel built it and completed it. 12 But after our ancestors[b] angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands[c] of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon.[d] 13 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon,[e] King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ezra 5:11 sn This great king of Israel would, of course, be Solomon.
- Ezra 5:12 tn Aram “fathers.”
- Ezra 5:12 tn Aram “hand” (singular).
- Ezra 5:12 sn A reference to the catastrophic events of 586 b.c.
- Ezra 5:13 sn Cyrus was actually a Persian king, but when he conquered Babylon in 539 b.c. he apparently appropriated to himself the additional title “king of Babylon.” The Syriac Peshitta substitutes “Persia” for “Babylon” here, but this is probably a hyper-correction.
Ezra 5:11-13
New International Version
11 This is the answer they gave us:
“We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple(A) that was built many years ago, one that a great king of Israel built and finished. 12 But because our ancestors angered(B) the God of heaven, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.(C)
13 “However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree(D) to rebuild this house of God.
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