Ezra 5 · a question people ask

5:16 says Sheshbazzar laid the foundations. Didn't Ezra 3 say the builders laid it?

In the text

Both are in the book, and these notes don't fit them together. Here it is the elders' answer, as Tattenai's letter reports it (5:6, 5:11): the vessels "were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor" (5:14), and "Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem" (5:16). Ezra 3 says, "When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD’s temple" (Ezra 3:10), after Zerubbabel and Jeshua began the work (Ezra 3:8), and the book of Zechariah says, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house" (Zechariah 4:9). Ezra 3's honest question on who laid the foundation sets these verses side by side, and Ezra 1's on who Sheshbazzar was does the same; the book doesn't say whether Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel are one man or two, and neither do these notes. Ezra 5 adds one more pair to set side by side: the elders say, "Since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed" (5:16), and Ezra 4 had said, "Then work stopped on God’s house which is at Jerusalem" (Ezra 4:24). The book doesn't explain how the two fit, and these notes don't try.

The verses

“The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king follows.”
Ezra 5:6 · World English Bible
“Thus they returned us answer, saying, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are building the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.”
Ezra 5:11 · World English Bible
“The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.”
Ezra 5:14 · World English Bible
“Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem. Since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed.”
Ezra 5:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ezra 5

Ezra 5: Who gave you a decree?

Ezra 5 starts the building again with prophets, not a king (5:1-2). When the governor asks, "Who gave you a decree?" (5:3), the work doesn't stop: "the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they didn’t make them cease" (5:5); and the elders answer, "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth" (5:11).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions