Ezra 6:3

3 In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

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 Then King Darius made a decree, and they searched the archives where the documents were stored in Babylon.

2 But it was in Ecbatana, the capital in the province of Media, that a scroll was found on which this was written: "A record.

3 In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

4 with three courses of hewn stones and one course of timber; let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

5 Moreover, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God."

Footnotes

• [a] Meaning of Aram uncertain