Ezra 7:22

22 You are to give him up to 7,500 pounds of silver, 500 bushels of wheat, 550 gallons of wine, 550 gallons of olive oil, and an unlimited supply of salt.

Ezra 7:22 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 7:22

Unto one hundred talents of silver
Which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling; these, according to Jarchi, were to buy the offerings or sacrifices with:

and an hundred measures of wheat;
or corn, the same measure with the homer, each of which held ten ephahs, or seventy five wine gallons, five pints, and upwards; these, according to the same writer, were for meat offerings, made of fine flour, or rather bread offerings, as they may be called:

and to an hundred baths of wine;
which was the same measure in liquids as the ephah in things dry, a tenth part of the cor or homer, and held seven wine gallons, five pints, and upwards ^F21; these were for the drink offerings:

and to an hundred baths of oil;
the same measure as before; these were to mix in the meat offerings:

and salt without prescribing how much;
because it was used in all offerings, and was cheap, and therefore no measure is fixed, but as much as was wanting was to be given, see ( Leviticus 2:1-13 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 See Cumberland's Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 137.

Ezra 7:22 In-Context

20 If you need anything else for your God’s Temple or for any similar needs, you may take it from the royal treasury.

21 “I, Artaxerxes the king, hereby send this decree to all the treasurers in the province west of the Euphrates River : ‘You are to give Ezra, the priest and teacher of the law of the God of heaven, whatever he requests of you.

22 You are to give him up to 7,500 pounds of silver, 500 bushels of wheat, 550 gallons of wine, 550 gallons of olive oil, and an unlimited supply of salt.

23 Be careful to provide whatever the God of heaven demands for his Temple, for why should we risk bringing God’s anger against the realm of the king and his sons?

24 I also decree that no priest, Levite, singer, gatekeeper, Temple servant, or other worker in this Temple of God will be required to pay tribute, customs, or tolls of any kind.’

Footnotes

• [a]. Aramaic 100 talents [3,400 kilograms].
• [b]. Aramaic 100 cors [22 kiloliters].
• [c]. Aramaic 100 baths [2.1 kiloliters] of wine, 100 baths of olive oil.