Ezra 4:6, commentary and pictures

Ahasuerus is Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus as king of Persia, and at the beginning of his reign the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, the Samaritans whose offer to join the rebuilding had been refused, wrote a formal accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem to hinder the temple work. Those who hold the differing reading identify him as Xerxes. That first accusation only weakened the hands of the people and discouraged them while the builders remained at work, and the making to cease by force came afterward under his successor the usurper called Artaxerxes, who secured a decree stopping the work. The stoppage was undone after about fifteen years when Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people, Darius searched out the decree of Cyrus and commanded the work to be sped with tribute and supplies, and the house was finished and dedicated in his sixth year. The hindrance shows the decrees of Cyrus and of Darius concerning the temple alone were too limited and not efficacious to restore Jerusalem, so the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7 gives the true beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, and the whole episode gives comfort that earthly powers may oppose God's work for a time but God can check them and no monarch can prevent what He favors.

Identity and Historical Setting

Ahasuerus in the beginning of his reign is Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus as king of Persia, the unworthy son who followed his father's policy, also called the Ahasuerus of Esther. In a differing reading held by some, Ahasuerus is identified as Xerxes. Cambyses became ruler in 529 B.C. after Cyrus, who reigned seven years alone from 536 B.C. after the death of Darius. Cyrus issued in his first year the decree for rebuilding the temple and the return at the end of seventy years captivity from 606 B.C., and Cambyses reigned seven years and five months, from 529 to 522 B.C. Before Smerdis the impostor who is called Artaxerxes in the following verses and before Darius Hystaspes who began in B.C. 521, Ahasuerus is Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, who reigned from B.C. 529 to 522.

The verse places a formal written accusation by the Samaritans against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem at the beginning of the new reign, at once after Cyrus died to work upon the new king. They sent their accusation to Cambyses to bring about a cessation of labor at Jerusalem. The accusation belongs to the opposition of the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin, the Samaritans, a mixed people, to Zerubbabel and Jeshua and Joshua in rebuilding the temple and re-establishing worship. When Zerubbabel and Jeshua refused the Samaritans' offer to join in rebuilding the temple and re-establishing the worship of God, the Samaritans set out to hinder the work in every way they could. They troubled the Jews in building, hiring counselors at the Persian court to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus even until Darius, and appealing to the Persian king, and this opposition helped arouse hatred between the two peoples that was never quenched but grew more bitter with age.

The accusation to Cambyses was only the first accusation and did not succeed in stopping the temple work, but only weakened the hands of the people and discouraged them, while the builders remained actively engaged. That was all, because Cambyses followed out the policy of his father and the Samaritan opposition was already understood. The making to cease by force and power came afterward under his successor Gomates the usurper, the impostor Smerdis called Artaxerxes in the following verses, who obtained a decree stopping the work. Their efforts were in vain under Cyrus and Cambyses, but under the impostor Smerdis they succeeded in getting a decree stopping the work at Jerusalem, so it ceased about two years until the second year of Darius Hystaspes, B.C. 520, when Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again.

The stoppage was later undone by kings who followed. The interruption lasted fifteen years, with rebuilding resuming in Darius's second year and the temple completed and dedicated in his sixth year, twenty-one years after work began. Haggai's ministry is placed around 520 B.C., about fifteen years after the temple foundations were laid, and connects his message with the events recorded in Ezra. Haggai and Zechariah stirred the people to build again, a new and honest governor sent an honest account, Darius ordered a search for Cyrus's decree and issued a decree not only to let the work go on but to speed it with money from tribute and with bullocks, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine and oil, all that was needed at Jerusalem.

Prophecy and Chronology

The hindering opposition to the Jews' rebuilding work shows that the decree of Cyrus was too limited to bring about the full restoration of Jerusalem. About fourteen years after the decree of Cyrus, and 550 years before the death of Christ, came the second of four Persian edicts in favor of the Jews, the decree of Darius Hystaspes. That decree related to the temple only, and it was not efficacious and was not carried into effect, so it cannot be the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem from which the seventy weeks and the 490 years begin. Ezra 4 together with Ezra 7 proves that the decree of Artaxerxes in Ezra 7, rather than the decrees of Cyrus or Darius, is the true date for the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24.

The marginal dating of the verse to B.C. 529 is wrong by 64 years too early, since the first of the three kings named Artaxerxes did not begin to reign until 465 B.C. It therefore cannot support dating the seventy weeks from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes at B.C. 529, because 69 1/2 weeks or 486 1/2 years from B.C. 529 cannot reach to the cutting off of the Messiah in the crucifixion of Christ in A.D. 31.

Opposition and Encouragement

The opposition in the verse was that of the Samaritans to the Jews during the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel and Ezra, and that opposition helped arouse and foster hatred between the two peoples. The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin resisted the return and the rebuilding of the temple by appealing to the Persian king, and this resistance was one of the forces that brought desolation upon Judah and Jerusalem. The powerful opposition that hindered Zerubbabel's rebuilding showed that his work faced formidable adversaries and seemed impossible to complete with the people's meager resources.

The enemies, especially the Samaritans, worked to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple, a royal decree halted the work, and the people became discouraged and turned to their own concerns. Haggai and Zechariah called them back to God's work, after which the king's officers checked the records, confirmed that the work had been authorized, and the decree was renewed. The setting belongs to a period of rebuilding in Jerusalem under difficult conditions, fearing Persian opposition and facing harassment from the Samaritans, and in that setting there is hope and comfort that earthly powers may oppose God's work but God can check that opposition in his own time. No earthly monarch can prevent an undertaking God favors.

The slander of the enemies written to the Persian king against Judah and Jerusalem delayed the temple work, but the delay was not as good a reason as it seemed, since the Jews could have written to the king contradicting the slander. Their neglect also came from being more interested in building luxurious houses for themselves and in cultivating their fields and vineyards than in God's work. God showed that these reasons were not sufficient in His sight by sending Haggai with a message of reproof, allowing drought and pestilence because His house remained in ruins while their own homes were luxuriously finished. The trouble faced while restoring Jerusalem and the temple, recorded in Ezra 4 and 5, helps explain why God's promise of peaceful, thriving streets in Jerusalem seemed marvelous to them, though God was able to fulfill it.