Ezra 7:22

22 up to 100 talents[a] of silver, 100 cors[b] of wheat, 100 baths[c] of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.

Ezra 7:22 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 7:22

Unto one hundred talents of silver
Which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling; these, according to Jarchi, were to buy the offerings or sacrifices with:

and an hundred measures of wheat;
or corn, the same measure with the homer, each of which held ten ephahs, or seventy five wine gallons, five pints, and upwards; these, according to the same writer, were for meat offerings, made of fine flour, or rather bread offerings, as they may be called:

and to an hundred baths of wine;
which was the same measure in liquids as the ephah in things dry, a tenth part of the cor or homer, and held seven wine gallons, five pints, and upwards F21; these were for the drink offerings:

and to an hundred baths of oil;
the same measure as before; these were to mix in the meat offerings:

and salt without prescribing how much;
because it was used in all offerings, and was cheap, and therefore no measure is fixed, but as much as was wanting was to be given, see ( Leviticus 2:1-13 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F21 See Cumberland's Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 137.

Ezra 7:22 In-Context

20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury.
21 "And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence,
22 up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.
23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.
24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
  • [b]. A cor was about 6 bushels or 220 liters
  • [c]. A bath was about 6 gallons or 22 liters
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.