Ezra 4:16, commentary and pictures

It is the closing threat in a letter to the Persian king that if Jerusalem were rebuilt and its walls finished he would lose all control, authority and revenue in the land west of the Euphrates. It was sent by the Samaritan adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, including Rehum and Shimshai, after Zerubbabel and Jeshua refused them any part in the work, and its charge that restoration meant rebellion was a false slander meant to stop the building. The king who received it and ordered the work stopped was the impostor Artaxerxes, the false Smerdis who reigned seven months and opposed the work favored by Cyrus and Cambyses. His order was enforced by force and held the work back until the second year of Darius Hystaspes, when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again and Darius confirmed the decree of Cyrus and let the work go on. The stop order discouraged the Jews into leaving God's work for their own interests, yet opposition and a ruler's command are no proof that God would have a duty abandoned, and the record here with Ezra 7 fixes the later decree of Artaxerxes, not that of Cyrus or Darius, as the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24.

Warning Against Rebuilding

Ezra 4:16 is the closing warning of the letter that if Jerusalem should be rebuilt and its walls set up, the king would have no portion on this side of the river, meaning he would lose control, authority and revenue from the territory west of the Euphrates. The warning came from the Samaritans, a mixed people and neighboring inhabitants, the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, including Persian officials such as Rehum and Shimshai, opposing Zerubbabel and Jeshua or Joshua after being refused any part in the work. Having offered help and been refused, they hired counselors against the Jews through the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses without success. Their sustained effort to hinder the rebuilding of the temple then obtained a stop-work decree from the impostor.

The warning was part of a deceptive accusation, slander and misrepresentation intended to stop the rebuilding by arguing that the city's restoration meant rebellion. The alleged rebellious purpose and consequence of the Jews' work were false, and while Jerusalem had historically rebelled, applying that result to the Jews falsely attributed the accusers' own purpose to them. The Artaxerxes addressed in Ezra 4:7-23 is the impostor, the pseudo or false Smerdis, also called Gomates, who reigned seven months, opposed the religion favored by Cyrus and Cambyses, issued a decree stopping the work, and whose action was later reversed by later kings. One account calls the recipient of the Ezra 4:11-16 Samaritan letter Cambyses, and another places the hindering work under Artaxerxes the Magian in 522 B.C. before the later decrees that enabled restoration of Jerusalem and the Jewish state.

The accusation prompted the king to order the work stopped, and the adversaries enforced the order by force and compelled the Jews to cease building, so opposition presented as a threat to Persian rule and carried out in the king's name succeeded for a time. The stoppage procured by the opposition through misrepresentations interrupted the work until the second year of Darius Hystaspes in 520 B.C., about fifteen years after the temple foundations were laid and about two years under the formal stop decree. Then Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again despite renewed opposition, and an honest report by the new governor brought Darius's decree not only to let the work at Jerusalem go on but to speed it with money from the king's tribute and with bullocks, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, after Cyrus's decree was found and the rebuilding was allowed to continue.

The verse belongs to the record of powerful adversaries hindering Zerubbabel amid the people's poverty and the great size of the task so that completion seemed impossible. It provides the setting of disrepair and languishing temple work around 520 B.C. for Haggai's message and for Zechariah's promises of peace and protection. Through this opposition hatred was aroused between Jews and Samaritans that made a Samaritan as evil as one possessed of a devil in Jewish eyes.

Prophecy and Seventy Weeks

The letter preserved in Ezra 4:11-16 proves that the second Persian decree, that of Darius Hystaspes, related to the temple only. That decree was made about fourteen years after Cyrus, about 550 years before the death of Christ, and it was not efficacious and was not carried into effect. Therefore it is not the period from which the 490 years of the seventy weeks are reckoned. The record in Ezra 4 together with Ezra 7 establishes the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 as the true date for the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, rather than the decree of Cyrus or the decree of Darius.

Before the house of God was completed and after the death of Cyrus, the adversaries of the Jews prevailed upon the king to make a decree putting a stop to the building at Jerusalem. That hindering decree had been shown to Micah nearly one hundred years before, that the decree should be far removed and the walls should be built. The removal was accomplished by Darius king of Persia, who passed a decree that search should be made for the decree made by Cyrus, and when it was found passed one agreeing with that of Cyrus and for removing that which hindered the work, so the house was completed.

The warning that if Jerusalem were rebuilt and its walls set up the king would have no portion west of the river belonged to the sustained effort to hinder Zerubbabel and Jeshua in rebuilding the temple after being refused any part in the work. Having hired counselors against the Jews through the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses without success, the opposers obtained from the impostor Smerdis a decree putting a stop to the work at Jerusalem for about two years until the second year of Darius Hystaspes in 520 B.C. That Artaxerxes is the usurper false Smerdis, also called Artaxerxes the Magian, whose obstruction in 522 B.C. preceded later decrees that enabled the restoration of Jerusalem and the Jewish state. He reigned for seven months, and his decree against the Jews explains why he is noted in the prophecy.

Their opposition helped bring the stop-work order and discouraged the Israelites, who turned from God's work to their own interests, until Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again despite renewed opposition. Then an honest report by the new governor brought a decree from Darius not only to let the work at Jerusalem go on but to speed it with money from the king's tribute and with bullocks, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil. His action reversed that of the false Smerdis, and the king renewed the decree permitting the work.

Discouragement and Duty

The warning that a rebuilt Jerusalem with its walls set up would cost the Persian king control of the territory west of the Euphrates came from the neighboring inhabitants and Samaritans opposing the work. Their accusation brought a royal order stopping the building, and that opposition discouraged the Jews. They took the hindrance as a sign that God did not want them to build, and turned aside from God's work to their own interests. Haggai and Zechariah then called them back to the work, after which the king renewed the decree permitting it.

Opposition and even a ruler's command are not in themselves proof that God wants people to abandon a duty. The slanderous threat and the stop-work order were not sufficient reasons for the Jews to abandon a work God favored. They could have answered the accusation, and no earthly monarch could ultimately prevent God's purpose.