Commentaria in I Esdrae
Chapter 4. Synopsis of the Chapter
The Samaritans, through the Persian prefects, obtaining a rescript from Cambyses, the successor of Cyrus, hinder the city and the temple.
1. Now the enemies of Juda and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord the God of Israel. 2. And they came to Zorobabel and to the chief of the fathers, and said to them: Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do: behold we have sacrificed to him from the days of Asor Haddan king of Assur, who brought us hither. 3. And Zorobabel, and Josue, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said to them: It is not for you and us to build a house to our God, but we ourselves alone will build to the Lord our God, as Cyrus king of the Persians hath commanded us. 4. Then it came to pass that the people of the land hindered the hands of the people of Juda, and troubled them in building. 5. And they hired counsellors against them to defeat their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of the Persians, and till the reign of Darius king of the Persians. 6. And in the reign of Assuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Juda and Jerusalem. 7. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Beselam, Mithridates, and Thabeel, and the rest that were in the council, wrote to Artaxerxes king of the Persians: and the letter of accusation was written in Syriac, and read in the Syrian tongue. 8. Reum Beelteem, and Samsai the scribe wrote one letter from Jerusalem to king Artaxerxes, in this manner: 9. Reum Beelteem, and Samsai the scribe and the rest of their counsellors, the Dinaites, and the Apharsathachites, the Tharphalites, the Apharsites, the Arphasites, the Babylonians, the Susanechites, the Dievites, and the Elamites, 10. and the rest of the nations, which the great and glorious Asenaphar transported, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria, and in other places beyond the river in peace. 11. (This is the copy of the letter which they sent to him) To king Artaxerxes, thy servants the men that are beyond the river, send greeting. 12. Be it known to the king, that the Jews who came up from thee to us, are come to Jerusalem, a rebellious and wicked city, which they build, setting up the walls thereof, and repairing the foundations. 13. Now therefore be it known to the king, that if that city be built up, and the walls thereof repaired, they will not pay tribute, nor custom, nor yearly revenues: and this will be to the damage of the kings. 14. Now we, remembering the salt which we have eaten in the palace, and because we think it wrong to see the king’s damage, have therefore sent and informed the king, 15. that thou mayst search in the books of the histories of thy fathers, and thou shalt find written in the records, and shalt know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces, and that wars have been raised therein of old time: for which cause also the city itself was laid waste. 16. We make known to the king, that if this city be built, and the walls thereof repaired, thou shalt have no possession beyond the river. 17. The king sent an answer to Reum Beelteem, and Samsai the scribe, and to the rest that were in the council with them, dwelling in Samaria, and in other places beyond the river, saluting them with peace. 18. The accusation which you sent to us, hath been openly read before me. 19. And by my commandment search hath been made: and it is found that that city of old time hath rebelled against kings, and seditions and wars have been raised therein: 20. for there have been also most powerful kings in Jerusalem, who ruled over all the country that is beyond the river, and tribute and custom and revenues were paid to them. 21. Now therefore hear ye my sentence: Forbid those men to build that city, till if it be commanded by me. 22. Take heed lest through negligence you do otherwise, and by little and little the evil grow against the kings. 23. So the copy of the edict of king Artaxerxes was read before Reum Beelteem and Samsai the scribe, and their counsellors: and they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews, and hindered them by force and arm. 24. Then the work of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem was intermitted, and it was not done till the second year of the reign of Darius king of the Persians.
1. The enemies of Juda—namely the Samaritans, or inhabitants of Samaria, perpetual enemies of the Jews, as is plain from verses 2 and 10. Of these I spoke on 4 Kings 17:24. The children of the captivity—that is, the Jews lately captive, and now returned from captivity.
2. Asor Haddan.—This is Asarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, the last king of the Assyrians, of whom see 4 Kings 19, last verse.
3. It is not for you and us (to have fellowship and communion in this building of the temple so as to be joined with you) to build a house to our God—because you are schismatics, indeed heretics and idolaters: for together with our true God you worship idols, which you worshipped in Assyria, whence you were brought into Samaria. The Jews therefore were unwilling to have the Samaritans as partners in the building. First, because they were heretics: whence learn how we ought to flee communion with heretics, especially in sacred things and the Sacraments. Second, because they were enemies of the Jews; whence they might have practised fraud in the building, so as to build an idol in place of a temple. Third, lest the Samaritans should claim the temple as built by themselves, or at least wish to have a part of it, and celebrate in it their superstitions and the worship of idols. Fourth, lest by an evil trick they should mix sand for lime and earth for stones into the work, and so the building of the temple should hasten to ruin and at length fall.
4. The people of the land.—The Samaritans just mentioned, the husbandmen and inhabitants of the neighbouring land of Samaria.
5. They hired (with price and gifts) counsellors—that is, counsellors, namely the Persian prefects and quaestors in Samaria, Syria and Judea, that while Cyrus lived, whom they knew to favour the building of the city and temple, they should supply the expenses slowly and sparingly, and hinder the work by other tricks and evil arts. But Cyrus dying the following year, they approached Cambyses his son, and wrote to him letters in which they accused the Jews as disturbers of the peace and seditious; and so they obtained from him a rescript by which the Jews were ordered to desist from the building. Here note that the letters, both of the Kings and of the Prefects, in this chapter and in the following, verses 6 and 7, are written in the Hebrew text in their own idiom, namely Chaldaic, not Hebrew. The same is done in Daniel. Especially because the Hebrews, lately captive in Babylon, had learned the Chaldee tongue there, and returning thence, inclined to it, and mingled their ancestral Hebrew tongue with Chaldee: from which mixture arose the Syro-Hebrew or Chaldeo-Hebrew tongue, which others call the Jerusalemite. Thus the Latin tongue, mingled by the Goths with the Gothic, produced for us the Spanish, Italian and French tongues.