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Esdras 6

ARC · Chapter 6/10

1Então o rei Dario deu ordem, e buscaram na chancellaria, onde se mettiam os thesouros em Babylonia.

2E em Achmetha, no paço, que está na provincia de Media, se achou um rôlo, e n'elle estava escripto um memorial que dizia assim:

3No anno primeiro do rei Cyro, o rei Cyro deu esta ordem: A casa de Deus em Jerusalem, esta casa se edificará para logar em que se offereçam sacrificios, e seus fundamentos serão firmes: a sua altura de sessenta covados, e a sua largura de sessenta covados;

4Com tres carreiras de grandes pedras, e uma carreira de madeira nova: e a despeza se fará da casa do rei.

5De mais d'isto, os vasos de oiro e de prata da casa de Deus, que Nabucodonosor transportou do templo que estava em Jerusalem, e levou para Babylonia, se tornarão a dar, para que vão ao seu logar, ao templo que está em Jerusalem, e os levarão á casa de Deus

6Agora pois Tattenai, governador de além do rio, Sethar-boznai, e os seus companheiros, os apharsachitas, que estaes de além do rio, apartae-vos d'ali.

7Deixa-os na obra d'esta casa de Deus; para que o governador dos judeos e os judeus edifiquem esta casa de Deus no seu logar.

8Tambem por mim se decreta o que haveis de fazer com os anciãos dos judeos, para edificar esta casa de Deus, a saber: que da fazenda do rei dos tributos d'além do rio se dê promptamente a despeza a estes homens, para que não sejam impedidos.

9E o que fôr necessario, como bezerros, e carneiros, e cordeiros, por holocausto ao Deus dos céus, trigo, sal, vinho e azeite, segundo o rito dos sacerdotes que estão em Jerusalem; e dê-se-lhes, de dia em dia, para que não haja falta.

10Para que offereçam sacrificios de cheiro suave ao Deus dos céus, e orem pela vida do rei e de seus filhos.

11Tambem por mim se decreta que todo o homem que mudar este decreto, um madeiro se arrancará da sua casa, e, levantado, o pendurarão n'elle, e da sua casa se fará por isso um monturo.

12O Deus, pois, que fez habitar ali o seu nome derribe a todos os reis e povos que estenderem a sua mão para o mudarem e para destruirem esta casa de Deus, que está em Jerusalem. Eu, Dario, dei o decreto; apressuradamente se faça.

13Então Tattenai, o governador de além do rio, Sethar-boznai e os seus companheiros, assim fizeram apressuradamente, conforme ao que decretara o rei Dario.

14E os anciãos dos judeos iam edificando e prosperando pela prophecia do propheta Aggeo, e de Zacharias, filho d'Iddo: e a edificaram e aperfeiçoaram conforme ao mandado do Deus de Israel, e conforme ao mandado de Cyro e Dario, e d'Artaxerxes rei da Persia.

15E acabou-se esta casa no dia terceiro do mez d'Adar que era o sexto anno do reinado do rei Dario.

16E os filhos d'Israel, os sacerdotes, e os levitas, e o resto dos filhos do captiveiro, fizeram a consagração d'esta casa de Deus com alegria.

17E offereceram para a consagração d'esta casa de Deus cem novilhos, duzentos carneiros, quatrocentos cordeiros, e doze cabritos por expiação do peccado de todo o Israel; segundo o numero das tribus d'Israel.

18E pozeram os sacerdotes nas suas turmas e os levitas nas suas divisões, para o ministerio de Deus, que está em Jerusalem; conforme ao escripto do livro de Moysés.

19E os que vieram do captiveiro celebraram a paschoa no dia quatorze do primeiro mez.

20Porque os sacerdotes e levitas se purificaram como se fossem um só homem, todos estavam limpos: e mataram o cordeiro da paschoa para todos os filhos do captiveiro, e para seus irmãos, os sacerdotes, e para si mesmos.

21Assim comeram os filhos d'Israel que tinham voltado do captiveiro, com todos os que a elles se apartaram da immundicia das gentes da terra, para buscarem o Senhor, Deus d'Israel:

22E celebraram a festa dos pães asmos os sete dias com alegria, porque o Senhor os tinha alegrado, e tinha mudado o coração do rei de Assyria a favor d'elles; para lhes esforçar as mãos na obra da casa de Deus, o Deus d'Israel.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

King Darius has the royal archives searched and finds Cyrus's original decree, confirming the authorization to rebuild the temple. He orders the work to continue with financial support, and the temple is finally completed and dedicated with great joy.

Explanation

The search of the royal archives in Ecbatana reveals that the written memory of an old promise can, years later, become the proof that rescues a stalled project. Darius not only confirms Cyrus's order but goes further, decreeing that the royal treasury fund the work and the temple's offerings — quite a turnaround for a people who had faced opposition. The dedication of the temple, followed by the celebration of Passover, marks the symbolic end of the exile and the resumption of organized religious life in Jerusalem. The lesson is that God's promises, even when filed away and forgotten for a time, can be recovered at just the right moment.

Fun facts

  • Ecbatana, where the decree was found, was the summer capital of the Persian kings, located in what is now the region of Iran — showing that the Persian royal archives were organized and kept in different cities across the empire.
  • The temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius's reign, about 20 years after the rebuilding began, showing how the project endured decades of ups and downs.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Esdras 6:1Darius grants the request and has his archivists search the official record houses in Babylon for any trace of Cyrus's old decree.
  2. Esdras 6:2The document turns up not in Babylon but in Achmetha, another capital of the Persian empire in the region of Media, where it had been kept for decades along with other official records.
  3. Esdras 6:3Darius has the royal archives searched and the original record of Cyrus's decree is found, with exact measurements for the temple. This discovery shows how the Persian empire kept administrative documents for decades, and it is precisely this record that settles the dispute in the Jews' favor.
  4. Esdras 6:4Cyrus's original decree spelled out even the building materials, stone and timber, and ordered that the expenses come out of the royal treasury, not out of the people's own pockets.
  5. Esdras 6:5The document confirms that the sacred vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were to be restored to their place of origin, the temple in Jerusalem, exactly as Cyrus had ordered.
  6. Esdras 6:6After confirming the old decree, Darius orders Governor Tatnai and his companions to simply stay away and stop interfering with the work.
  7. Esdras 6:7Darius explicitly orders the construction to continue without interruption, letting the Jews and their own governor carry on the work at its usual site.
  8. Esdras 6:8More than just permitting the work, Darius decrees that the royal treasury itself fund the rebuilding, drawing the money from the tribute collected in the region west of the Euphrates.
  9. Esdras 6:9Darius orders the royal treasury itself to fund the Jews' daily sacrifices, including animals, wheat, salt, wine, and oil. A foreign king paying for another people's worship shows how Persian policy favored religious autonomy in conquered provinces, so long as it kept the peace.
  10. Esdras 6:10In exchange for the funding, Darius asks for something quite practical: that the priests also pray for his life and his sons' lives during the sacrifices.
  11. Esdras 6:11The penalty for disobedience was brutal: a beam was to be pulled from the offender's own house, set up on end, and used to hang him on it right there.
  12. Esdras 6:12Darius ends the decree by asking that the God of the Jews Himself destroy any king or people who might try to destroy this temple in the future — a pagan king invoking divine protection over a project not his own.
  13. Esdras 6:13As soon as they receive the order, Tatnai and his companions obey without delay, exactly as Darius had decreed.
  14. Esdras 6:14The work advances successfully thanks to the steady encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, with the formal approval of three different Persian kings: Cyrus, Darius, and later Artaxerxes.
  15. Esdras 6:15The temple is finished in the sixth year of Darius's reign, closing out a process that had begun decades earlier with Cyrus. About twenty years passed between the first decree and the completion of the work, with stoppages, accusations, and fresh starts along the way.
  16. Esdras 6:16Priests, Levites, and all the people who had returned celebrate together the dedication of the finished temple, a moment of joy after so many years of the work being stopped and started again.
  17. Esdras 6:17The dedication sacrifices include twelve male goats for a sin offering, one for each tribe of Israel — a symbolic gesture that the temple was for the whole people, even with only a few tribes actually represented there.
  18. Esdras 6:18Priests and Levites are organized into work shifts, following the system of divisions already written down since the days of Moses — worship was resuming not just the building, but also the old routine.
  19. Esdras 6:19In the very same year the temple is finished, the people already celebrate the first Passover there, on the fourteenth day of the first month, just as the law had always required.
  20. Esdras 6:20Before celebrating the Passover, priests and Levites purify themselves together, as one man, so they can prepare the lamb sacrifice for the whole people. It is the first Passover celebrated in the rebuilt temple, and the care taken over purification shows the symbolic weight of this fresh start.
  21. Esdras 6:21The Passover meal is shared both by those who had returned from exile and by some local residents who had decided to leave behind the pagan customs of the region to seek the God of Israel.
  22. Esdras 6:22For seven days they keep the feast of unleavened bread, and the text credits even the goodwill of the Persian king to God, calling him here by the old title king of Assyria, the empire Persia had absorbed.

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