Ezra 3 Study Notes

3:6 The first day of the seventh month would most likely have been September 17, 538 BC.

3:7 As soon as the sacrificial system was in place, the next order of business was the acquisition of building material. Payment was made to the people of Sidon and Tyre who cut down the famous cedars of Lebanon and floated the logs down the coast to Joppa, just south of present-day Tel-Aviv, for transit overland to Jerusalem. While stonecutters were also hired, they were not as numerous as Solomon’s 80,000 who worked on the first temple (2Ch 2:18) since some of the stones from the rubble of the first temple could be reused.

3:8-9 During the seven months preceding the second month of the second year, enough of the temple site had been cleared that work on the foundation could begin. Zerubbabel and Jeshua the priest led laymen as well as priests and Levites in the joint effort. In 5:16 Sheshbazzar is mentioned as laying the foundation of the temple. As the official governor, maybe he was credited with this event even though Zerubbabel carried on most of the work and would later succeed Sheshbazzar as governor.

3:10 The continuity of the people with their preexilic forefathers is again emphasized in the phrase as King David of Israel had instructed. When David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem (1Ch 16:4-6), the Levites were to “give thanks and praise” while the priests blew the trumpets and Asaph “sounded the cymbals.” Here the descendants of Asaph used the cymbals and the current priests blew their trumpets.

3:11 The Levites’ antiphonal refrain, “For he is good; his faithful love to Israel endures forever,” is found in slightly varying forms in the Psalms (100:4-5; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1; 136:1). The shout (Hb teru‘ah) was commonly used in battle but also for other significant events, such as the shout of the people when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem by King David (1Ch 15:28).

3:12-13 The episode described here is not the same event as described in Hg 2:1-5, which occurred almost twenty years later when the building of the temple finally resumed. Here the author prepares the way for Ezr 4 with the opposition of enemies. Not only did the Lord’s people hear the sound but so did their adversaries, who tried to thwart their plans.