Ezra 6:3-5

EZRA—NOTE ON Ezra 6:3 This record is not identical with the decree as recorded in Ezra 1:2. It gives new specifications about the building, its location, its size, and its materials. Perhaps a copy of the original decree had been found (see note on 6:1–2), and instructions may have been added to it. Also, different copies of Cyrus’s original decree may have been made for different purposes (the one in Ezra 1:2 included wording for public proclamation, while this version in Ezra 6:3 was for the royal archives). The size of the temple might be specified in order to limit it, since public funds were being used to pay for it. The absence of a length dimension is odd, and the greater breadth than Solomon’s temple is unexpected (compare 1 Kings 6:2), especially in view of Ezra 3:12.