The Expositor's Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Adeney Walter Frederic

to alter or destroy the temple at Jerusalem. The savagery of his menace is in harmony with his conduct when, according to Herodotus, he impaled three thousand men at Babylon after he had recaptured the city.59 Those were cruel times – Herodotus tells us that the besieged Babylonians had previously strangled their own wives when they were running short of provisions.60 The imprecation with which the edict closes may be matched by one on the inscription of Darius at Behistum, where the Great King invokes the curse of Ormazd on any persons who should injure the tablet. The ancient despotic world-rulers had no conception of the modern virtue of humanitarianism. It is sickening to picture to ourselves their methods of government. The enormous misery involved is beyond calculation. Still we may believe that the worst threats were not always carried out; we may make some allowance for Oriental extravagance of language. And yet, after all has been said, the conclusion of the edict of Darius presents to us a kind of state support for religion which no one would defend in the present day. In accepting the help of the Persian sovereign the Jews could not altogether dissociate themselves from his way of government. Nevertheless it is fair to remember that they had not asked for his support. They had simply desired to be left unmolested.

      1

      Josephus, Ant., XI. viii. 7.

      2

      Neh. xii. 26 and 47.

      3

      Allowing some months for the preparation of the expedition – and this we must do – we may safely say that it started in the year after the decree of Cyrus, which was issued in B.C. 538.

      4

      Ant., XI. i. 1, 2.

      5<

1

Josephus, Ant., XI. viii. 7.

2

Neh. xii. 26 and 47.

3

Allowing some months for the preparation of the expedition – and this we must do – we may safely say that it started in the year after the decree of Cyrus, which was issued in B.C. 538.

4

Ant., XI. i. 1, 2.

5

Gal. iv. 4.

6

Jer. xxv. 11, 12.

7

Jer. xxix. 10.

8

Jer. xxvii. 6.

9

Rom. i. 19.

10

Acts x. 34, 35.

11

Hag. ii. 6-8.

12

1 Esdras ii. 14.

13

Ezra ii. 1.

14

Tirshatha. Ezra ii. 63.

15

This name is a later form of "Joshua"; the older form of the name is used for the same person in Hag. i. 1, 14, and Zech. iii. 1.

16

Of course the Nehemiah and Mordecai in this list are different persons from those who bear the same names in the Books of Nehemiah and Esther and belong to later dates.

17

See Ezra i. 5.

18

Luke ii. 36.

19

Ezek. xliv. 9-16.

20

Psalm cxxvi. 1-3.

21

I.e., if the route was the usual one, by Tadmor (Palmyra). The easier but roundabout way by Aleppo would have occupied a still longer time.

22

Ezra vii. 8, 9.

23

Neh. vii. 70-72.

24

1 Esdras v. 47.

25

Matt. vi. 29.

26

John iv. 21, 23.

27

2 Kings xvii. 25-28.

28

Ant., XII. v. 5.

29

The "Osnappar" of Ezra iv. 10.

30

Isa. lvi. 7.

31

2 Kings xvii. 33.

32

2 Kings xvii. 30, 31.

33

Hag. i. 1, ii. 9.

34

Joel ii. 28.

35

Hag. i. 5, 7.

36

Hag. ii. 9.

37

Hag. i. 1.

38

Hag. ii. 1 seq.

39

Psalm cxviii. 8, 9.

40

Zech. iv. 6, 7.

41

Ezra v. 3.

42

Ezra v. 4.

43

Ezra v. 5.

44

Gen. xvi. 13.

45

Luke xii. 7.

46

Ezra vi. 1.

47

"Nineveh and Babylon," p. 345.

48

Bertheau-Ryssel, "Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch," p. 74.

49

1 Kings vi. 2.

50

Ezra iv. 24, vi. 15.

51

Ezra v. 8.

52

Ezra vi. 4.

53

1 Kings vi. 36.

54

Ezra v. 9.

55

Ezra vi. 10.

56

Herodotus, iii. 89.

57

Sayce, Introduction, pp. 57, 58.

58

Ezra. vi. 11.

59

Herodotus, iii. 159.

60

Ibid.

59

Herodotus, iii. 159.

60

Ibid.