Ezra 6:3

3 In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, ^[a]

Ezra 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 6:3

In the first year of Cyrus the king; the same Cyrus the king
made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house
be builded
See ( Ezra 1:1-4 ) ( Isaiah 44:28 ) ,

the place where they offered sacrifices;
to God in times past, ever since it was built by Solomon:

and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid;
so as to bear and support the building erected on them, as the word signifies:

the height thereof sixty cubits;
which were thirty more than the height of Solomon's temple, ( 1 Kings 6:2 ) though sixty less than the height of the porch, which was one hundred and twenty, ( 2 Chronicles 3:4 ) and which some take to be the height of the whole house; and hence it may be observed what Herod said ^F25, that the temple then in being wanted sixty cubits in height of that of Solomon's:

and the breadth thereof sixty cubits;
whereas the breadth of Solomon's temple was but twenty, ( 1 Kings 6:2 ) , but since it cannot reasonably be thought that the breadth should be equal to the height, and so very disproportionate to Solomon's temple; many learned men understand this of the extension of it as to length, which exactly agrees with the length of the former temple, ( 1 Kings 6:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 15. c. 11. sect. 1.

Ezra 6:3 In-Context

1 Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon.

2 And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum:

3 In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,

4 with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.

5 Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. The house was to be approximately 90 feet or 27.4 meters in height and width; Syriac (see also 1 Kings 6:2) It is to be sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.