Ezra 6:10

_AND THAT WHICH THEY HAVE NEED OF, BOTH YOUNG BULLOCKS, AND RAMS, AND LAMBS, FOR THE BURNT OFFERINGS OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN, WHEAT, SALT, WINE, AND OIL, ACCORDING TO THE APPOINTMENT OF THE PRIESTS WHICH ARE AT JERUSALEM, LET IT BE GIVEN THEM DAY BY DAY WITHOUT FAIL:_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-12 When God's time is come for fulfilling his gracious purposes concerning his church, he will raise up instruments to do it, from whom such good service was not expected. While our thoughts are directed to this event, we are led by Zechariah to fix our regard on a nobler, a spiritual building. The Lord Jesus Christ continues to lay one stone upon another: let us assist the great design. Difficulties delay the progress of this sacred edifice. Yet let not opposition discourage us, for in due season it will be completed to his abundant praise. He shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it....

Verse Ezra 6:10. _AND PRAY FOR THE LIFE OF THE KING, AND OF HIS SONS._] Even heathens believed that offerings made in their behalf to the God of the Jews would be available. And this principle has had considerable influence in certain states where there was even a form of religion established by the law, to induce them to tolerate other forms, that the state might have the benefit of their prayers....

EXPOSITION DISCOVERY OF THE DECREE OF CYRUS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE TEMPLE, AND RECITATION OF ITS EXACT TERMS (Ezra 6:1). The application made by the satrap of Syria to Darius received his immediate attention. A search was instituted—in the first instance, at Babylon, but afterwards at the other capitals also; and in Ecbatana, the Median metropolis, where the Persian kings always resided during a portion of the year, a copy of the original decree was found, which is considerably fuller and more definite, though in some respects covering less ground, than the "proclamation'' with

THAT THEY MAY OFFER SACRIFICES OF SWEET SAVOURS UNTO THE GOD OF HEAVEN,.... Such as will be acceptable to him, Genesis 8:21 AND PRAY FOR THE LIFE OF THE KING, AND OF HIS SONS; prayer being wont to be made at the time of the morning and evening incense; and the Jews used to pray for other people besides themselves, and especially when desired, and particularly for kings and civil magistrates, to whom they were subject, see Jeremiah 29:7, the sons of Darius Hystaspis, for whose life, as well as his own, he would have prayer made, were, according to Herodotus d, three by his first wife, the daughter of Gobryas, before he began to reign, the eldest of which was Artobazanes; which sons must be here meant, since this was towards the beginning of his reign; he had afterwards four more by Atossa

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The search of the king and the result (Ezra 6:1)_ 2. The command of Darius (Ezra 6:6) 3. The king's command obeyed (Ezra 6:13) 4. The house finished (Ezra 6:14) 5. The dedication of the house (Ezra 6:16) 6. The feast of Passover and unleavened bread (Ezra 6:19) Ezra 6:1. King Darius had a search made in the place where the records of the empire were kept, “in t

THE KING'S REPLY ACCORDING HIS PERMISSION TOR THE BUILDING TO BE CONTINUED. Ezra 6:1. a decree: the actual decree does not begin until Ezra 6:8. Ezra 6:2. Achmetha: _cf._ Tob_3:7; _i.e._ Ecbatana, in Media, the summer residence of the Persian kings. A ROLL: in this case more probably a cylindrical clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform characters; but the fact that a roll is mentioned shows that the Jews of Ezra's time were unfamiliar with that form of writing. Ezra 6:3. This purports to be a copy of Cyrus-' decree (_cf._ Ezra 1:1); it is, however

SWEET SAVOURS. See note on Leviticus 1:9....

The king's special desire, propitiatory sacrifice and intercessory prayer to be offered on behalf of his dynasty. _sacrifices of sweet savours_ R.V. SACRIFICES OF SWEET SAVOUR. One word in the original; it occurs also in Daniel 2:46 -Then the king Nebuchadnezzar … worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him". The expression recalls the -burnt offering … of a sweet savour unto the Lord" (Exodus 29:18; Exodus 29:25; Leviticus 1:9; Leviticus 1:13;...

DISCOURSE: 434 SERMON ON THE KING’S ACCESSION Ezra 6:10. _Offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king_ [Note: This Sermon was preached on the occasion of the Accession of King George the Fourth, 1820.]. ON the last occasion of our assembling in this place, we were called to pay a respectful tribute to the memory of our late beloved and revered sovereign, whose mortal remains were then committed to the tomb. The vision which the Apostle John beheld of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, in which Jehovah, with all his hosts and angels, vouchsafes to dwell, was then submitted to your attention, as offering peculiar consolation to us under the loss we have sustained: for there “the spirits of the just are made perfect,” and enter into the complete fruition of that glory, which here they apprehended only by the weak and imperfect grasp of