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Ezra 6 · a question people ask

Does the chapter approve the punishment in 6:11?

In the text

6:11 is part of Darius's decree, which runs from 6:6 to 6:12 and ends, "I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with all diligence" (6:12). In it the king names a punishment for whoever alters his message (6:11), and says, "May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem" (6:12). The chapter gives these as the king's words. It doesn't say God commanded the punishment, and it doesn't say it was ever carried out. In its own telling, outside the king's words, the chapter says of God that the house was finished "according to the commandment of the God of Israel" (6:14), and that "the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them" (6:22).

The verses

“The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.”
Ezra 6:14 · World English Bible
“and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; because the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God, the God of Israel’s house.”
Ezra 6:22 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ezra 6

Ezra 6: 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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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