Ezra 1 Study Notes

1:7 The articles . . . that Nebuchadnezzar had taken when the Babylonians sacked the temple were not only extremely valuable but were of priceless spiritual worth to the returning exiles. Though plundered from the temple that Solomon built, they would again be used in worship in the second temple and would be an additional link to the worshiping community that existed before the great catastrophe of 586 BC.

1:8 Both the name and title of Mithredath are Persian. This is the first mention of the enigmatic Sheshbazzar (vv. 8,11; 5:14,16). His name is Babylonian (“May Shamash [the sun god] protect the father”). His title, prince of Judah, occurs nowhere else in the OT.

1:9-10 The variation in English translations of this passage reflects the difficulty in determining the exact identity of the items mentioned. Particularly uncertain is the reference to 29 silver knives (Hb machalaphim). This rare term may instead refer to duplicate bowls (LXX) or possibly another type of bowl.

1:11 The figure of 5,400 is more than twice the total of the figures given in vv. 9-10. Possibly the items mentioned in the inventory (vv. 9-10) were only a portion of the material returned to Sheshbazzar. A textual corruption, more commonly occurring in lists of numbers, may also account for the disparity. The term exiles (Hb golah) can refer to either the exile to Babylon or the people of the exile. All but one of the twelve occurrences of the term in Ezra (6:21) refer to the people of the exile.