Atlas Biblica

    Ezra · 22 verses

    Ezra 6

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    A royal treasury is commanded to buy bulls, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil so that worshippers may pray for the king’s life; then, at the feast’s far end, that king is called the king of Assyria.

    A decree found in an unexpected strongholdvv. 1–12

    Darius orders the archives searched in Babylon, and the decisive scroll turns up in the fortress of Ecbatana, in Media. Cyrus’s old decree is read aloud: the house of God in Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, its costs paid from the royal treasury, and its confiscated vessels returned. Darius then tells Tattenai and the officials to keep away, funds the builders from provincial taxes, and supplies the whole daily menu of sacrifice. The arrangement has a briskly practical centre: the offerings are to rise, and prayers for the lives of the king and his sons are to follow. Interference receives an architectural punishment worthy of a particularly severe building inspector: a beam from the offender’s own house, impalement upon it, and the house reduced to rubble.

    The house is finished, and the feasting beginsvv. 13–22

    Tattenai, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates carry out Darius’s decree with diligence, which is a gratifyingly uneventful response to a threat involving one’s own house and a very large beam. The Jewish elders build and prosper; Haggai and Zechariah prophesy; and the temple is completed in the sixth year of Darius. At its dedication, priests, Levites, and the returned exiles offer a formidable procession of animals, including twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel. They appoint the temple servants by divisions, keep the Passover, and observe seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy. The final sentence supplies a curious title for the royal heart that has helped them: the heart of the king of Assyria.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Ezra 6:1Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon.

    2. Ezra 6:2And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum:

    3. Ezra 6:3In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,

    4. Ezra 6:4with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.

    5. Ezra 6:5Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.

    6. Ezra 6:6Therefore Darius decreed: To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region: You must stay away from that place!

    7. Ezra 6:7Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.

    8. Ezra 6:8I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered.

    9. Ezra 6:9Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.

    10. Ezra 6:10Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons.

    11. Ezra 6:11I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.

    12. Ezra 6:12May God, who has caused His Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence.

    13. Ezra 6:13In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed.

    14. Ezra 6:14So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

    15. Ezra 6:15And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

    16. Ezra 6:16Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

    17. Ezra 6:17For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.

    18. Ezra 6:18They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

    19. Ezra 6:19On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover.

    20. Ezra 6:20All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves.

    21. Ezra 6:21The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

    22. Ezra 6:22For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 209 passages were voted onto 22 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 22Ezra 1:1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
    • 22Proverbs 21:1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.
    • 222 Chronicles 30:21The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the LORD day after day, accompanied by loud instruments of praise to the LORD.
    • 222 Chronicles 35:17The Israelites who were present also observed the Passover at that time, as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
    • 22Proverbs 16:7When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even the man’s enemies live at peace with him.
    • 162 Chronicles 7:5And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
    • 21Ezra 9:11that You gave through Your servants the prophets, saying: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the impurity of its peoples and the abominations with which they have filled it from end to end.
    • 22Exodus 13:6–7For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
    • 22John 19:11Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”
    • 1Ezra 5:17Now, therefore, if it pleases the king, let a search be made of the royal archives in Babylon to see if King Cyrus did indeed issue a decree to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.
    • 41 Kings 6:36Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.
    • 6Ezra 5:3At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”
    • 11Daniel 3:29Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”
    • 121 Kings 9:3And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.
    • 17Ezra 8:35Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and a sin offering of 12 male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.
    • 18Numbers 3:6“Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapterEzra 728 verses.Named hereJudahEverything the graph connects to this name.BookEzraAll 10 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.