Ezra 4:6

_AND IN THE REIGN OF AHASUERUS, IN THE BEGINNING OF HIS REIGN, WROTE THEY UNTO HIM AN ACCUSATION AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM._ In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they ... an accusation, х_ 'ACHASHWEEROWSH _ (H325); Septuagint, en basileia Assoueerou]. Ahasuerus was a regal title, and the king referred to was successor of Cyrus, his son Cambyses (see Rawlinson's 'Bampton Lectures,' pp. 183, 454)....

6-24 It is an old slander, that the prosperity of the church would be hurtful to kings and princes. Nothing can be more false, for true godliness teaches us to honour and obey our sovereign. But where the command of God requires one thing and the law of the land another, we must obey God rather than man, and patiently submit to the consequences. All who love the gospel should avoid all appearance of evil, lest they should encourage the adversaries of the church. The world is ever ready to believe any accusation against the people of God, and refuses to listen to them. The king suffered himself to be imposed upon by these frauds and falsehoods. Princes see and hear with other men's eyes and ears, and judge things as represented to them, which are often done falsely. But God's judgment is just; he sees things as they are....

Verse Ezra 4:6. _IN THE REIGN OF AHASUERUS_] This is the person who is called _Cambyses_ by the Greeks. He reigned seven years and five months; and during the whole of that time the building of the temple was interrupted....

AHASUERUS - Or, Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus. Persian kings had often two names....

AND IN THE REIGN OF AHASUERUS, IN THE BEGINNING OF HIS REIGN,.... According to Jarchi, this was Ahasuerus the husband of Esther; but, as most think d, was Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus; so Josephus e; who was an enemy to the Egyptians; and, fearing the Jews might take part with them, was no friend to them; their enemies therefore took the advantage of the death of Cyrus, and the first opportunity after Cambyses reigned in his own right: AND WROTE THEY UNTO HIM AN ACCUSATION AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM; full of hatred and enmity, spite and malice, charging them as a turbulent, disobedient, and rebellious people. d Spanhem. Introduct. Chron. ad Hist. Eccl. p. 54. Universal History, Vol. 5. p. 203. Prideaux, p. 175. e Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 4.) sect. 4, 6. Vid. R. David Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 8. 2. So Dr. Lightfoot, Works, vol. 1. p. 139....

AHASUERUS The Cambyses of secular history (529-521 BC); not the Ahasuerus of Esther, who is the Xerxes of secular history (485 BC). (_ See Scofield) - (Daniel 5:31). _...

CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The offer of the Samaritans refused (Ezra 4:1)_ 2. The letter to King Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:7) 3. The king's reply (Ezra 4:17) 4. The work is stopped (Ezra 4:23) Ezra 4:1. The adversaries were the Samaritans. (There is an interesting correspondence with the book of Acts. After the Spirit of God had begun His blessed work, the enemy from without and then within started his hindering work.) They had watched silently the work of restoration and then appeared before Zerubbabel and the chief of the fathers and said unto them, “Let us build

EZRA 4:6 F. These are two stray verses which have been left in the text here by mistake. This offers a good example of the way in which fragments of sources are jumbled together in our book. Ezra 4:6 refers to a letter (the writer is not mentioned) written to Xerxes, who is not mentioned elsewhere in the book, containing an accusation, not specified, against the Jews. Ezra 4:7 refers to another letter written in Aramaic by Mithredath (mentioned in Ezra 1:8 as the treasurer of Cyrus) and others to Artaxerxes; but it does not say what the letter was about. In Ezra 4:5 we are in the reign of Cyrus, 536, an

AHASUERUS. the venerable king. See App-57, and p. 618. An appellative, used here of Cyrus (Ezra 4:5), or retrospectively of Astyages; or, this verse may he retrospective, and should he in parenthesis....

_Ahasuerus_ R.V. margin -Or _Xerxes_. Heb. Ahashverosh". The well-known Xerxes, the son of Darius, who reigned 20 years (485 465). He is generally identified with the Ahasuerus of the book -Esther". _in the beginning of his reign_ i.e. on the death of Darius, who had favoured the Jews. _unto him_ R.V. omits these words, which are not found in the Hebrew. _an accusation_ Heb. -sitnah", which occurs elsewhere only in Genesis 26:21 as the name of a well called -sitnah" or -enmity" by Isaac on account of the opposition of the Philistines. Akin to the name -Satan", opposer. The LXX. misunderstanding the original renders by ἐπιστολή. _the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem_ Another designation, cf. Ezra 4:1 -Judah and Benjamin",...