Ezra 4:11, commentary and pictures

The verse opens the copy of the letter sent to the Persian king, in which the officials west of the Euphrates call themselves his servants and subjects and date their message with a formal address. Its senders were Rehum, Shimshai and their associates, the Samaritan adversaries of Judah and Benjamin who opposed the returned exiles rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Jeshua and Ezra after their offer to join the work was refused. The Artaxerxes addressed was the usurper called false Smerdis or the Magian, who held the kingdom briefly after Cambyses, opposed the work favored by Cyrus, and was succeeded by Darius, though those who held otherwise reckoned the letter of verses 11-16 as addressed to Cambyses. By misrepresenting the Jews as rebelliously rebuilding Jerusalem and its walls to withhold tribute and weaken royal authority, the letter moved the king to stop the work until Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again in the second year of Darius, when Cyrus's decree was found, renewed, and aided from the tribute until the temple was finished. Because the decree of Darius Hystaspes made about fourteen years after Cyrus related to the temple only and not to the restoration of the city, neither it nor that of Cyrus begins the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, while the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 is the true reckoning point for the 490 years. The stopping of the work seemed like a sign that God did not want it built, but opposition and difficulty do not prove a God-given duty should be abandoned, for no earthly king can prevent work that God favors.

Letter in Its History

The verse opens the copy of the letter sent to the Persian king, in which officials dwelling west of the Euphrates present themselves as his servants and subjects and date their message, with at such a time forming part of the formal address. It is the report of Rehum, Shimshai and their associates, inhabitants of the region beyond the river. The setting is the close of the Jewish exile in Babylon, and the letter belongs to the hindrance placed in the way of the work after the death of Cyrus and before the decree of Darius removed it.

The senders are the Samaritans and neighboring inhabitants, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin who opposed the returned exiles as they rebuilt the temple and Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Joshua and Ezra. Their letter is the Samaritans' effort to stop the Jews from rebuilding Jerusalem, part of the troubles the Jews faced after their return from exile. That resistance fostered hatred between the two peoples.

The Artaxerxes addressed is the usurper called false Smerdis, Gomates, Smerdis the Impostor, or Artaxerxes the Magian, successor to Cambyses. He is distinct from Cambyses as the Ahasuerus to whom slander had first been written. He opposed the religion favored by Cyrus and Cambyses, held the kingdom briefly for about seven months, was slain in 522 B.C., and was succeeded by Darius in 521 B.C. His reign about 522 B.C. marks the interruption in the rebuilding that followed the decree of Cyrus.

The letter belongs to the opposition that arose after Zerubbabel and Jeshua refused the Samaritans' proposal to join in rebuilding the temple and re-establishing the worship of God. After failing to persuade the Jews to compromise, the adversaries hired counselors against them at the court of Persia through the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses, and after refusing the offer to cooperate they worked to turn the king against them. They used the change of king to press their effort, at a time when the Persian government controlled Palestine and when completing the temple seemed impossible because of the people's poverty. That opposition helped foster hatred between the two peoples.

The letter accuses the Jews of rebuilding Jerusalem and its walls, portraying them as rebellious once the city is walled. It claims they will refuse royal taxes and weaken the king's authority. It mixes historical facts about Jerusalem's past rebellion with false claims about the Jews' intentions and the effects of rebuilding, slandering them as rebellious in order to stop the temple work.

Through misrepresentation the king issued a decree stopping the work, and the Samaritans then went to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to cease building. The interruption after Cyrus's decree is reckoned in one account as lasting about two years, and in another as a delay of fifteen years from the laying of the foundation. The work had languished and the people were discouraged about 520 B.C. in the time of Haggai's ministry. In the second year of Darius Hystaspes, in B.C. 520, Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again. When building resumed the Samaritans tried again to stop it, but a later search of the royal records confirmed Cyrus's earlier decree, a new and honest governor having sent Darius an honest account. Darius renewed the decree and ordered the work not only to go on but to be speedily helped from the king's tribute and with bullocks, rams and lambs, wheat, salt, wine and oil, all that was needed at Jerusalem, and the temple was completed in his sixth year, reversing the usurper's action.

The opposition continued from the time of Cyrus until the reign of Darius. It is identified as the fourth power that had scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. The account belongs to the rebuilding by the Jews who returned from Babylon in B.C. 535, and to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, whose Babylonian life is illuminated by archaeological study.

Prophecy and Practical Lessons

The copy of the letter in Ezra 4:11-16 is in one reckoning the letter of the Samaritan colony to Cambyses. It proves that the second Persian edict, that of Darius Hystaspes made about fourteen years after Cyrus and 550 years before the death of Christ, related to the temple only and not to the restoration of the city and Jewish constitution. Because it was not efficacious and would prolong the term to near six hundred years, it cannot be the reckoning point for the 490 years of the seventy weeks. Neither the decree of Cyrus nor that of Darius is the starting point of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, while the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 is the true starting point and true date for the beginning of the seventy weeks.

The verse belongs to the account in which the neighboring inhabitants wrote to the Persian king to portray the Jews as rebellious and to seek the stopping of the temple work, after which the king ordered the work to stop. That order seemed to the Jews like a sign that God did not want them to build, but opposition and difficulty do not prove that a duty should be abandoned. The Jews could have answered the accusation, and no earthly king could prevent work that God favored.