Commentaria in I Esdrae
All the kingdoms.—Understand “all” in an accommodated sense, that is, almost all, very many; or “all” that were subject to the monarchy of the Chaldeans: as if to say, God made me monarch, and therefore transferred to me with the monarchy all the kingdoms subject to the Chaldeans. So in Luke 2:1 it is said: “There went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled,” that is, evidently, the world subject to Augustus and the Roman empire. For the Indians and many others not subject were not enrolled. Moreover Xenophon, book 1, says that Cyrus subdued the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Bactrians, Cilicians, Indians, Paphlagonians, Sacae, Mariandyni, Cyprians, Egyptians, and very many other nations, which he shook with the dread and terror of his name, and at the same time drew by benevolence and wisdom, so that they desired to be governed by him. Hear Cyrus instructing his captains and soldiers in Xenophon, book 1: “Let the leader,” he says, “never cease either to benefit his own or to harm the enemy: for it is hard to maintain even one man in idleness, harder a whole household, but hardest of all to maintain a whole army idle, and so it never becomes an army to be inactive. A diligent commander, not an idler, will bring it about that both the soldiers abound in provisions and their bodies are in the soundest health.” Hence also Cyrus did not take food unless he had first exercised his body and sweated. For he said that then food tastes most sweet, and the body is strengthened by exercise and accustomed to any labours. So Xenophon.
He hath charged me to build him a house (a temple) in Jerusalem.—“Charged” means preordained, decreed, and by this very word he tacitly “charged” him through Isaias, chapter 45, last verse, whose words I recited a little before. From this Cyrus understood that it was the will of God that he should restore the temple burnt by the Chaldeans, which will he here calls a charge.
3. Who is there among you of all his people (who, namely, desires to return from Babylon to Jerusalem)? Let his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord God (as if to say: whatever Jews or Israelites are in my kingdom who desire to return to their Judea, come, let them be gathered together, so that they may return together from captivity to their country: for I give them full leave to return, and to rebuild the city and the temple; indeed I pray for them the favour and help of their God to accomplish it). For he is the God that is in Jerusalem—Vatablus: who is that true and only God; as if to say: There is no other true God than the God whom the Israelites worshipped and worship in Jerusalem. Cyrus therefore here professes that he acknowledges the God of the Jews to be the true God, and that the other gods of the Gentiles are not true, or at least are of less dignity and power, and subject to the God of the Hebrews, whom Plato and the philosophers called demigods. Hence Xenophon, book 8 of the Cyropaedia, asserts that Cyrus also worshipped the gods of the nations, and when about to die had a dream by which he was invited to ascend to the gods; wherefore he adored and invoked Jupiter and the Sun, and, speaking much of the immortality of the soul, and that after death he would pass over to the gods, expired.
4. And let all the rest, in all places wheresoever they dwell, help him every man from his own place, with silver—[…] those who in other places have fixed their abodes, married wives, begotten children, bought fields, so that they cannot or will not leave these and return to Jerusalem, let these help those who desire to return. By the edict of Cyrus they helped the Jews returning, as is plain from the silver and gold, both for provision for so long a journey, and for the restoration of the city and the temple.
Every man from his own place—that is, let each in his place and from his place, namely from his fields and houses, supply what he has. Cyrus therefore here appointed the Jews who remained behind as tributaries, as it were, to those returning to Jerusalem. Again “all the rest” means not only Jews, but also the other peoples subject to his rule, who likewise are to help those returning to Jerusalem, especially the prefects of the provinces, whom Josephus calls “royal friends.” Hence these from this
Besides what they offer freely to the temple of God.—“Besides” is a word of augmenting and confirming, as if to say: I know that many have already designated in mind and determined in heart certain gifts which they themselves desire to offer to the temple: these therefore I do not forbid, but praise and confirm, and wish them offered; but beyond this I wish each to add other things besides, which may serve the returning as provision for the road, and for the rebuilding of the city and houses, and for their other manifold needs and uses. Hence some think that Cyrus fixed the price which each should contribute to them, as afterwards Darius and Artaxerxes, Cyrus’ successors, did; and that Cyrus decreed that the temple should be built from the royal treasury and at his expense is plain from chapter 6, verse 4. Hence for “besides what they offer freely,” the Hebrew has, with a free-will gift, as if to say, with the offering which they freely offer to the temple, they shall give also other things for provision for the road, etc. So Vatablus, Pagninus and others.
5. And the chiefs of the fathers of Juda and Benjamin rose up.—“Chiefs of the fathers” are the heads of families; for each family had its head and father: but various families descending from one head had their prince and, as it were, Patriarch.
7. King Cyrus also brought forth the vessels of the temple of the Lord, which Nabuchodonosor had taken.—They were in number 5400, as is said in verse 11; all of which, taken away sacrilegiously by the Chaldeans and dedicated to their idol Bel, Cyrus restored to God and the temple.
8. By the hand of Mithridates the son of Gazabar.—The word “son” is not in the Hebrew nor in the Greek. Hence Vatablus, Pagninus, Marinus, Cajetan and others render, by the hand of Mithridates the treasurer; Josephus, by Mithridates the prefect of the royal treasury. For the treasury is called gaza, and gazabar means treasurer, as is plain from chapter 7, verse 21, where our version has, “the keepers of the treasury.”
Unless you say that our version understood ben, that is, son, and that Gazabar was a common name, but proper to the office, as we commonly call him who is over the prince’s treasure a treasurer, as if this name were proper to him not by baptism but by office, in which sons often succeed their fathers. Moreover “Mithridates” is compounded from Mithri, that is, greater, a dynast making law and giving judgment.
And numbered them to Sassabasar the prince of Juda.—Sassabasar is Zorobabel, grandson of King Jechonias through his father Salathiel. So Josephus, Lyranus, Dionysius, Vatablus, Mariana, Tornielli, Salianus and others. Wherefore both the father Salathiel and the grandfather Jechonias seem to have died in this first year of Cyrus: for thereafter no mention is made of them, but always of Zorobabel, as leader of Juda. Moreover Salathiel gave his newborn son the name “Zorobabel,” that is, stranger in Babylon, because he begot him in the Babylonian captivity; but when Evilmerodach brought his grandfather Jechonias out of prison and made him a guest at his royal table, the name of Zorobabel was changed, so that he was called “Sassabasar,” that is, rejoicing in tribulation. So Eusebius, book 11 On the Preparation, chapters 3 and 4; for sas means rejoicing, ba signifies in, shar signifies tribulation. Again Pagninus in the Hebrew Names interprets Sessabasar as six in tribulation; for ses signifies six, or byssus. For the Hebrews hand down that he was so called because in six tribulations he stood strong and constant, so that in him was fulfilled that of Job: “In the seventh no evil shall touch thee.”
Here note that of old it was familiar to the Hebrews, Chaldeans, Persians, Phoenicians and other eastern nations to change the names of strangers, and to give them names native to and proper to the nation into which they were brought; native, I say, something definite and suited to the person and to their nature, so that the names were as omens signifying some present or future nature, virtue or property of the thing, as Adam did in giving names to things, Genesis 2:19. So in Daniel chapter 1 the Hebrew names Ananias, Azarias, Misael were changed in Babylon by the Chaldeans into the Chaldee Sidrach, Misach, Abdenago. So in chapter 2, verse 63, the Hebrew Nehemias was called by the Chaldeans in Chaldaic Athersatha. Plato teaches the same of the Greeks in the Cratylus. Wherefore Eusebius, book 11 On the Preparation, chapters 3 and 4, takes from this an argument for the choice wisdom of the Hebrews, namely that sacred Scripture uses the significance and force of proper names.
10. Silver cups of a second sort—“second,” namely, in order and kind, which were reckoned in second place, both in price and in beauty: for the cups of the first order were golden, but those of the second silver.