Ezra 6:2

2 And there was found in the city, in the palace, a volume, and this was the record written in it.

Ezra 6:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 6:2

And there was found at Achmetha
Which Jarchi and Aben Ezra take to be the name of a vessel in which letters and writings were put for safety; but it was no doubt the name of a place; the Vulgate Latin version has it Ecbatana; and so Josephus F19; which was the name of a city in Media, where the kings of that country had their residence in the summer time F20; for it has its name from heat F21; the Persian kings dwelt at Shushan in the winter, and at Ecbatana in the summer {w}; hence they are compared by Aelian F24 to cranes, birds of passage, because of their going to and from the above places:

in the palace that is in the province of the Medes,
here was found

a roll;
which was the decree of Cyrus, which perhaps he took with him when he went thither:

and therein was a record thus written;
as follows.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 Antiqu. l. 11. c. 4. sect. 6.
F20 Curtius, l. 5. c. 8. Vid. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 6.
F21 Hiller. Onomastic. Sacr. p. 618.
F23 Athen. Deipnosophist, l. 12. c. 1.
F24 De Animal. l. 3. c. 13.

Ezra 6:2 In-Context

1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and caused a search to be made in the record-offices, where the treasure is stored in Babylon.
2 And there was found in the city, in the palace, a volume, and this was the record written in it.
3 In the first year of king Cyrus, Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the holy house of God that was in Jerusalem, Let the house be built, and the place where they sacrifice the sacrifices. (Also he appointed its elevation, in height sixty cubits; its breadth of sixty cubits.)
4 And three strong layers of stone, and one layer of timber; and the expense shall be paid out of the house of the king.
5 And the silver and the gold vessels of the house of God, which Nabuchodonosor carried off from the house that was in Jerusalem, and carried to Babylon, let them even be given, and be carried to the temple that is in Jerusalem, and put in the place where they were set in the house of God.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.