Commentaria in I Esdrae
Chapter 7. Synopsis of the Chapter
Artaxerxes sends Esdras to Jerusalem, to visit, instruct, direct and rule the Jews.
1. Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, Esdras the son of Saraias, the son of Azarias, the son of Helcias, 2. the son of Sellum, the son of Sadoc, the son of Achitob, 3. the son of Amarias, the son of Azarias, the son of Meraioth, 4. the son of Zaraias, the son of Ozi, the son of Bocci, 5. the son of Abisue, the son of Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest from the beginning. 6. This Esdras went up from Babylon, and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God gave to Israel: and the king gave him, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him, all his request. 7. And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the children of the priests, in the seventh year of king Artaxerxes, 8. and they came to Jerusalem in the fifth month: the same is the seventh year of the king.
Verse 6.
9. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. 10. For Esdras had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do and to teach in Israel the commandment and judgment. 11. And this is the copy of the letter of the edict, which king Artaxerxes gave to Esdras the priest, the scribe, learned in the words and commandments of the Lord, and his ceremonies in Israel. 12. Artaxerxes king of kings, to Esdras the priest, most learned scribe of the law of the God of heaven, greeting. 13. It is decreed by me, that whosoever of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, is minded to go into Jerusalem, shall go with thee. 14. For thou art sent from the king and his seven counsellors, to visit Juda and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God, which is in thy hand: 15. and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose tabernacle is in Jerusalem. 16. And all the silver and gold that thou shalt find in all the province of Babylon, and that the people are willing to offer, and which the priests shall offer of their own accord for the house of their God, which is in Jerusalem: 17. receive freely, and buy diligently with this money, calves, rams, lambs, and sacrifices, and libations thereof, and offer them upon the altar of the temple of your God, which is in Jerusalem. 18. But if it seem good to thee and to thy brethren to do any thing with the rest of the silver and gold, do it according to the will of your God. 19. The vessels also that are given thee for the ministry of the house of thy God, deliver in the sight of God in Jerusalem. 20. And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, as much as thou must needs lay out, it shall be given out of the king’s treasury and out of the exchequer, 21. and by me. I Artaxerxes the king have appointed and decreed to all the keepers of the public chest, that are beyond the river, that whatsoever Esdras the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall ask of you, you give it with all speed, 22. unto a hundred talents of silver, and unto a hundred cors of wheat, and unto a hundred baths of wine, and unto a hundred baths of oil, and salt without measure. 23. Whatsoever belongeth to the ritual of the God of heaven, let it be given exactly in the house of the God of heaven: lest he be angry against the realm of the king and of his sons. 24. We also give you to understand concerning all the priests, and Levites, and singers, and porters, and Nathinites, and ministers of the house of God, that you have no power to impose tribute, or custom, or toll upon them. 25. But thou Esdras, according to the wisdom of thy God, which is in thy hand, appoint judges and magistrates, that they may judge all the people that is beyond the river, that is to say, them that know the law of thy God, yea and the unskilful teach ye freely. 26. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king diligently, judgment shall be executed upon him, either unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of his goods, or at least to prison. 27. Blessed be the Lord the God of our fathers, who hath put this in the heart of the king, to glorify the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem: 28. and hath extended his mercy to me before the king and his counsellors, and all the king’s mighty princes: and I being strengthened by the hand of the Lord my God, which was upon me, gathered out of Israel the chief men to go up with me.
1. After these words—after these acts and deeds.
Esdras (the writer of this book), the son of Saraias—the Pontiff killed by the Chaldeans, and brother of Josedec, and uncle of Jesus the Pontiff.
6. A ready scribe in the law of Moses—as if to say: Esdras was most skilled in the Mosaic law, and most ready in teaching and explaining it; “scribe” is therefore the same as “skilled in the law” or “doctor of the law.” Note: As the Greeks of old called their wise men Philosophers, the Chaldeans Magi, the Gauls Druids, the Indians Brahmans and Gymnosophists, so the Jews called their Doctors Sopherim, which the Septuagint render grammateis; ours, “scribes,” from sepher, that is, letter or writing, as if to say, lettered men, or scribes, because they were occupied with copying, teaching and explaining the Sacred Letters. For the office of the scribes was to preserve holy Scripture uncorrupted, to watch over its correct copying, to interpret it both in writing and by word of mouth: thence to write down responses, to compose treatises, to expound it in various ways, etc.; so St. Epiphanius, Heresy 15. Hence sepher, that is “scribe,” may be derived from saphar, that is, to recount, to review, so that sopher would be the same as expounder of the law; but ours and the Septuagint looked to the etymon sepher, as I said: so the Grammarians of old were named who dealt with grammata, that is, letters, and explained the obscure and doubtful sayings of the poets. For all the study of the Jews was in sacred letters; for profane and Gentile letters they hardly knew. So Jansenius, Toletus, Maldonatus and others, where they treat of the lawyers with whom Christ often disputed. Among these scribes Esdras was eminent, as I said in the Proem. Hence Elias the German, in the Thisbi: “Scribes,” he says, “are the wise, who by another name are called masters”: Sopher is therefore the same as Rabbi, Rab, Rabban. St. Jerome hints the same, epistle 152.
He went up from Babylon—to Jerusalem.
And the king (Artaxerxes) gave him, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him, all his request.—“Hand” signifies the favour and working by which God made Esdras acceptable to the king, says Cajetan, so that the king granted him whatever he asked. There is no doubt that Esdras asked of the king that Jerusalem be restored and girded with walls, and so obtained it. Hence from this seventh year of Artaxerxes, and from this grant of the king, many begin the seventy weeks, down to Christ, as I said on Daniel 9.
7. In the seventh year of Artaxerxes.—From the sixth year of Darius, in which the temple was finished and dedicated, to the seventh year of Artaxerxes, who was the grandson of Darius through his son Xerxes, there flowed 57 years. Wherefore Esdras was then advanced in age and more than a hundred years old, yet still strong and vigorous, God sustaining him for the good of the people, to instruct and polish them in the law of the Lord. Hence it follows:
10. For Esdras had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord (that is, to know it and to have it thoroughly examined), and (then) to do (that is, to fulfil it in deed), and (finally) to teach in Israel the commandment and judgment—what, namely, the law commands to be done or not done, and what is just or unjust by it (for to discern this is “judgment”), lawful or unlawful. Learn here from Esdras that the order of teaching is this: first, that you learn fully; second, that what you have learned you yourself first do and fulfil in deed; third, that you teach the same to others. So Christ “began” first
14. From the face (that is, by the command and authority) of the king and his seven counsellors.—For the kings of the Persians had seven chief princes and counsellors. Hence, in accordance with this number, in Scripture afterwards seven principal Angels are likewise named as princes of God: “Seven men of the heavenly court.” For, as Aristotle says (or whoever is the author of the book On the World, after the middle), “the majesty and government of the kings of the Persians was an image of divine majesty and providence.” See what was said on Apocalypse 1:4, on the words: “And from the seven Spirits.”
To visit Juda according to the law of thy God.—The king therefore here appoints Esdras visitor of the Jews subject to him, to see whether they observe the law of God, and if anywhere they depart from it, to instruct, correct and chastise them.
20. It shall be given out of the king’s treasury.—See here the piety of the Gentile kings, namely of Artaxerxes, who, like Cyrus and Darius, supplied from his own treasury the expenses necessary for the services of the temple.
Verse 20.
24. That you have no power to impose tribute, etc., upon them.— Hence it is plain that the Jews were servants and tributaries of the Persians; but their king here makes the Priests, Levites and the other ministers of the temple immune from every tribute and similar public burden. Let Christian Princes note this.
25. But thou Esdras, etc., appoint judges and magistrates, that they may judge all the people—so as to settle juridically the quarrels of the disputants among the people, and decide them judicially.
26. And whosoever will not do the law, etc., judgment shall be executed upon him, either unto death.— Behold here the king gives to Esdras, and to the judges to be appointed by him from the people, power of death over transgressors, which the Romans denied to the Jews: for they granted it only to Pilate and their other governors. Hence the Jews, when Pilate said that they should judge Christ according to their law, answered: “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,” Matthew 27.