Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezra 4:14

Now because we have maintenance from [the king’s] palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the king;

14. have maintenance from the king’s palace ] R.V. eat the salt of the palace; which preserves the metaphor of the original. The LXX. omitted the clause: Vulg. ‘memores salis, quod in palatio comedimus’: 1Es 2:20, ‘forasmuch as the things pertaining to the Temple are now on hand’, which substitutes a different sentence for one that was not intelligible. The old Jewish translation ‘because we aforetime destroyed the Temple’, adopted by many former commentators (cf. Luther, ‘Nun wir alle dabei sind, die wir den Tempel zerstret haben’), seems to have been based upon the old symbolical custom of ‘sowing with salt’ the site of a town or place that had been destroyed, e.g. Jdg 9:45, and upon the idea of unfruitfulness associated with salt (cf. ‘a salt land and not inhabited’, Jer 17:6; Deu 29:23; Zep 2:9; cf. Heb. Job 39:6; Psa 107:34). Others, with the same conception, ‘we have salted (Jerusalem) with the salt of the palace’, i.e. assisted the Imperial armies in its destruction. ‘The palace’ in the original is the same word (‘heycl’) as that used for ‘the temple’ in Ezr 3:6, Ezr 5:14. The ambiguity of this word and the use of a rare metaphor has given rise to the difficulty of translation. Literally, the words mean ‘because we have salted the palace’s salt’. The explanation then will be not, as has been suggested, ‘because we have been entertained (guest friends, i.e. are the king’s friends), at the palace’, but ‘because we are in the king’s service’. The writers as representatives of colonies and dependent districts were very probably officials, and therefore members of the great network of Persian government.

The English word ‘salary’ from salarium or salt-money is generally compared with this phrase.

and it was not meet ] R.V. and it is not meet.

dishonour ] literally ‘nakedness’. A strong metaphor, which the LXX. reproduces. Cf. Lev 18:7, &c. The order is emphatic, ‘and the shame of the king it is not meet for us to see’. The Vulg. ‘lsiones’ gives the technical Latin word for ‘damage’ in a general sense.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

We have maintenance – See the margin. The phrase to eat a mans salt is common in the East to this day; and is applied not only to those who receive salaries, but to all who obtain their subsistence by means of another. The Persian satraps had no salaries, but taxed their provinces for the support of themselves and their courts.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Ezr 4:14

Now because we have maintenance from the kings palace.

Good cause for great zeal

I. We acknowledge a very gracious fact.

1. We have been maintained from the Kings palace–

(1) In things temporal.

(2) In things spiritual.

2. Our maintenance from the Kings palace has cost His Majesty dear. He spared not His own Son.

3. We have had a bountiful supply.

4. We have had an unfailing portion.

5. The supply has ennobled us.

6. How cheering it is to have such a soul-satisfying portion in God.

II. Here is a duty recognised. By every sense of propriety we are bound not to see God dishonoured–

1. By ourselves.

2. By those who dwell under our roof.

3. By those with whom we have influence; particularly those who desire to unite with us in Church fellowship. We must not receive into our membership persons of unhallowed life–those who know not the truth as it is in Jesus.

4. By the mutilation and misrepresentation of His Word.

5. By a neglect of His ordinances.

6. By a general decline of His Church.

7. By so many rejecting His gospel. We cannot prevent their doing so, but we can weep for them, pray for them, etc.

III. A course of action pursued. Certified the king. It is a holy exercise of the saints to report to the Lord the sins and the sorrows they observe among the people and to plead for their removal. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 14. Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace] More literally: Now because at all times we are salted with the salt of the palace; i.e., We live on the king’s bounty, and must be faithful to our benefactor. Salt was used as the emblem of an incorruptible covenant; and those who ate bread and salt together were considered as having entered into a very solemn covenant. These hypocrites intimated that they felt their conscience bound by the league between them and the king; and therefore could not conscientiously see any thing going on that was likely to turn to the king’s damage. They were probably also persons in the pay of the Persian king.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Thus they pretend the kings service to their own malicious designs and private interests.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14. we have maintenance from theking’s palaceliterally, “we are salted with the salt ofthe palace.” “Eating a prince’s salt” is an Orientalphrase, equivalent to “receiving maintenance from him.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace,…. Have posts under the king, to which salaries were annexed, by which they were supported, and which they had from the king’s exchequer; or “salt” o, as in the original, some places of honour and trust formerly being paid in salt; hence, as Pliny p observes, such honours and rewards were called “salaries”:

and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour; to see any thing done injurious to his crown and dignity, to his honour and revenues, when we are supported by him; this would be ungrateful as well as unjust:

therefore have we sent and certified the king; of the truth of what is before related; and, for the further confirmation of it, refer him to the ancient records of the kingdom, as follows.

o “salem vel sale”, Montanus, Vatablus, Michaelis. p Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 7.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(14) Maintenance.more exactly, we eat the salt of the palace. This seems to be a general expression for dependence on the king, whose dishonour or loss they profess themselves unwilling to behold.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. We have maintenance from the king’s palace Omit the interpolation, kings, of the translators. This version gives the sense, but the margin gives the Chaldee more correctly: We are salted with the salt of the palace. To take or eat one’s salt is a common saying among many nations for receiving one’s living from another. Our word salary comes from the Latin word for salt, ( sal,) and arose from the custom of paying Roman soldiers in salt. These Samaritans profess great zeal for the king, inasmuch as they obtained their living from him.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ezr 4:14 Now because we have maintenance from [the king’s] palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour, therefore have we sent and certified the king;

Ver. 14. Now because we have maintenance from the king’s palace] Chaldee, are salted with the salt of the palace, Salarium de regis palatio pereipimus, have our salary from the court, as Junius rendereth it. The great use of salt makes it here put for all kind of commodity; like as bread is called pants, as if it were , the all and whole of our sustenance, Deu 8:3 .

And it was not meet for us to see the king’s dishonour] Chaldee, nakedness, privities, which uncovered, cause contempt, as it befell Noah in his drunkenness; and the king of Spain, when by Queen Elizabeth proclaimed bankrupt.

Therefore have we sent and certified the king ] As knowing that Beneficium postulat officium, Bounty commands duty. Ingratitude is a monster in nature, a solecism in good manners, &c. Lycurgus would make no law against it, because he held that none could be so unreasonable as to be guilty of it. Yet Alphonsus complained of his ungrateful courtiers; and so did Frederick III, emperor of Germany. Queen Elizabeth also said, that in trust she had oft found treason. That traitor Parry had vowed her death, although he had been condemned for burglary, and saved by her pardon (Speed).

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

we have maintenance = the salt of the palace is our salt. See note on Num 18:19.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

have maintenance: etc. Chal, are salted with the salt of the palace, Salt is reckoned among the principal necessaries of life – Ecc 39:26, or verse 31 hence, by a very natural figure, salt is used for food or maintenance in general. I am well informed, says Mr. Parkhurst, that it is a common expression of the natives in the East Indies, “I eat such a one’s salt,” meaning, I am fed by him. Salt was also, as it still is, among eastern nations, a symbol of friendship and hospitality; and hence, to eat a man’s salt, is to be bound to him by the ties of friendship.

and it was: Eze 33:31, Joh 12:5, Joh 12:6, Joh 19:12-15

Reciprocal: Neh 5:14 – the bread

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Ezr 4:14. Now because we have maintenance from the kings palace In the Hebrew it is, we are salted with the salt of the palace. That is, are sustained by the kings munificence, or have a salary from him, as Junius translates it. In ancient times, it appears, it was usual to allow those who had deserved well, and on that account were honourably provided for at the kings charge, among other things, a daily quantity of salt; it being a thing very necessary in human life. Locke, however, who translates the clause, we have eaten of the kings salt, understands the meaning to be, We have engaged ourselves in a covenant of friendship with him. It was not meet for us to see the kings dishonour Thus they represent themselves as very loyal to the government, and mightily concerned for the honour and interest of it; and hence they urge the king to put a stop to the building of the city and temple of Jerusalem, as what would certainly be to his loss and dishonour.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments