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Ezra 6 Bible study: Built and finished
Ezra 6 says the house was finished "according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia" (6:14). In the Aramaic, God's commandment and the kings' decree are two words Brown-Driver-Briggs lists under one entry, and the verse names God's first.
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“The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.”
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“In Ezra 6, the scroll with Cyrus's decree is found at Achmetha, in the province of Media.”
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What's really going on
The decree in the archives
Chapter 5 ended with a request. Tattenai's letter asked Darius, "let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was made by Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem" (Ezra 5:17). Chapter 6 opens with the answer: "Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched" (6:1) (tap decree). But the scroll isn't found in Babylon: "A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record" (6:2). The chapter doesn't say how it came to be there. The record says what the elders' answer in the letter had said (Ezra 5:13): "In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices" (6:3). It gives the house's size, "with its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits" (6:3), and how it is to be built, "with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber" (6:4). It says who pays: "Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house" (6:4). And it sends back the vessels Nebuchadnezzar took, "everything to its place" (6:5).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Ezra 6
That was a taste
The rest of Ezra 6 is waiting in Favor
- Leave the work alone
- The commandment and the decree
- Kept with joy
- The God who caused his name to dwell there
- Three Passovers side by side
- Through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah
- 8 questions as you read
- 13 more Aramaic words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Aramaic word behind it
טַעַםta'amsay TA-am
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "taste, judgment, command", one entry for this word and te'em (tap decree). Strong's marks it "(Aramaic)" and gives "properly, a taste, i.e. a judicial sentence". The house was finished "according to the commandment of the God of Israel" (6:14). The Old Testament has this Aramaic word five times, four of them in Ezra and one in Daniel. In Ezra it is God's twice: here, and in Artaxerxes' letter, "Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven" (Ezra 7:23). In 4:21 it is the king's, "until a decree is made by me" (Ezra 4:21), and in 5:5 the WEB gives it as matter, "until the matter should come to Darius" (Ezra 5:5). In 6:14 the same verse sets it beside te'em: God's commandment first, then the kings' decree.
For your group
Ezra 6 Bible study questions
- 1The elders "built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah" (6:14). Whose words from God have kept you building when you would have stopped, and how could you pass that kind of word on to someone this week?
- 2Darius's decree gave the offerings so that they could "pray for the life of the king and of his sons" (6:10). Who has authority over you, at work, in your town or in your country, that you could pray for this week, including people you didn't choose?
- 3At the foundation there was weeping and joy mixed together (Ezra 3:12-13); at the finish the chapter names only joy, and says "the LORD had made them joyful" (6:22). Where are you right now, between a start and a finish, and what would it look like to thank God along the way?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Ezra 6 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home