Ezra 1:1-4

Ezra 1:1-4. The Decree of Cyrus

The history of the time throws light upon the action of Cyrus, whose Decree gave life to the seemingly lifeless bones of Israel (Ezekiel 37) and restored the scattered flock to their pasture (34). Except by his personal attendants, the fall of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, had been hailed by all with satisfaction. The priests had been alienated from him by his neglect of the defences of the great temples. The generals and nobles despised a king, who absented himself from his capital and his troops, and entrusted to his son the chief command. The poorer classes had no respect for a weak monarch, who failed to protect them from the invader and only imposed on them heavy tasks of building. Cyrus was welcomed in Babylon as Deliverer and saluted as -the Great King." The Jewish colony who, although they had been taught by their prophets to expect Cyrus" ultimate success, could hardly have foreseen so easy a victory, so bloodless a capture of Babylon, as that which the Inscriptions describe, would have been among the most demonstrative in their rejoicing over his success. They saw before them the possibility of the near realization of their hopes.

Cyrus was too shrewd a sovereign to throw away any opportunity of cementing together the various elements of his newly conquered empire. He could cheaply earn the affection of many a subject race by gratifying its hopes and removing from Babylon the symbols of its servitude. He gave permission therefore to those of this class resident in the Capital, to take back their gods that had been forcibly removed to Babylon, and to set them up in their former homes. To the Jews he granted corresponding (and, perhaps, in recognition of their special services in his cause, peculiar) privileges. He gave permission to the worshippers of Jehovah to return to their own country, to resume the worship and to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. They had no images or gods to carry with them. But the sacred vessels, regarded with deep veneration, which had been carried off from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, were given back once more into the keeping of the priests.

Ezra 1:1-3 (as far as the words -let him go up") are almost word for word the same as 2 Chronicles 36:22-23. The very slight differences clearly arise from errors of transcription. We have here (a) Ezra 1:1, the short form -Yirm'yah" instead of the longer -Yirmyahu" (both of which are found for Jeremiah): (b) Ezra 1:1 -by the mouth" instead of -at the mouth": (c) Ezra 1:3, -his God be with him" instead of -the Lord his God be with him".

The fact, that the book of Ezra opens with the same passage as closes the books of Chronicles, has been differently explained.

(1) On the hypothesis, that Ezra-Nehemiah are a separate composition from the books of Chronicles, it is supposed that the compilers of both works made use of the same written documents.

(2) On the hypothesis, that Ezra-Nehemiah come from the hands of the same compiler as the books of Chronicles, we must suppose (a) that there was a time when Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah, in some form or another, constituted a single work: (b) that Ezra-Nehemiah were detached for the purpose of completing the history of the people, narrated in 2 Kings, by an account of the Return from Captivity and of the foundation of the new Jewish Constitution: (c) that afterwards, when the books of Chronicles were added as a sort of historical appendix to the Jewish Canon, they were made to conclude with the opening words of Ezra-Nehemiah. The records of the People thus ended, not with the reminiscence of captivity, but with the announcement of release. Furthermore Chronicles, though placed in the Jewish Canon after Ezra-Nehemiah, thus retained, by means of the concluding verses, a witness to its identity of origin with the books which preceded.

The second hypothesis, for reasons given in the Introd., appears to be the preferable.