Be it known unto the king
This seems to have been the usual form of beginning a letter to a
king in those days, ( Ezra 4:12 ) that we went
into the province of Judea; which from a kingdom was reduced to a
province, and was become a part of the Babylonian, now Persian,
monarchy, see ( Ezra 2:1 ) to the house of
the great God; as the Jews called the Lord their God; and even
the Heathens had a notion that there was one supreme God, though
they worshipped inferior ones; and some had a notion that Jehovah
the God of the Jews was he:
which is builded with great stones;
marble stones; as Jarchi F17, stones of rolling, as it may be
rendered; which, according to Aben Ezra, were so large and heavy,
that they could not be carried, but were obliged to roll them:
and timber is laid in the walls,
cedar wood, as Aben Ezra interprets it, for beams, for flooring
and raftering; or rather, is put upon the walls, for the lining
and wainscoting of them, which was done with cedar wood:
and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their
hands;
and, unless timely prevented, will soon be finished.