Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezra 6:16
And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy,
16. the children of Israel ] Cf. the application of the term ‘Israel’ in Ezr 2:70, Ezr 3:1. In its special religious significance, its use here is appropriate to the sacredness of the event, in which the people were engaged, while it tends to clear the Jewish community from the charge of exclusiveness towards their own brethren. ‘The priests and Levites and the rest of the children of the Captivity’. Under these heads, the Israelites would be grouped at such a festival, cf. Ezr 6:20. Children of the Captivity’. See on Ezr 1:11, Ezr 2:1. Cf. Ezr 6:19.
dedication ] Called in the Greek Encnia ( , LXX.), and in Hebrew ‘Khanukah’, the same word which gives its name to the Feast of the Dedication, founded to commemorate the purification of the Temple after the pollution of Antiochus Epiphanes (164), cf. Joh 10:22. That festival was kept for eight days (cf. 1Ma 4:60 ) and began on 25th of Chislev (the 9th month).
with joy ] Some have suggested in connexion with this joyous occasion that the Psalms 145-148, called in the LXX. Psalm of Haggai and Zechariah, may have been composed at this period. But proof is wanting.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16. the children of Israel . . .kept the dedication . . . with joyThe ceremonial was gonethrough with demonstrations of the liveliest joy. The aged who hadwept at the laying of the foundation [Ezr3:12] were most, if not all of them, now dead; and all rejoicedat the completion of this national undertaking.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the children of Israel,…. Those of the ten tribes that remained after the body of the people were carried captive, or came with the Jews at their return:
the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity; those of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:
kept the dedication of this house of God with joy; they set it apart for sacred use and service, with feasting and other expressions of joy and gladness, as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(16) Children of the captivity.This designation is peculiarly appropriate here, as in Ezr. 6:20. All Israel soon follows.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(16-22) The dedication of the second Temple.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Kept the dedication with joy It was surely an occasion for joy and thanksgiving, for it marked the close of a long and bitter period of calamity and dangers, of persecution and trouble. Like the vast assembly that had celebrated the dedication of the former house, nearly five hundred years before, they were “joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for Israel.” 1Ki 8:66.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
How beautiful and truly interesting is it, to discover, more or less, through the Bible, from the first forming of the church on our fathers coming out of Egypt, even to the days of the Lord Jesus, how this great typical feast of the passover was kept and most religiously observed. Surely nothing upon earth can more decidedly prove the vast and infinite importance of the thing signified, when the sign was thus preserved with such solemnity of holiness from generation to generation. Think, Reader, I charge you, how vast, how infinitely momentous must be the passover of Jesus’s blood, when through so many ages the shadow of it was thus religiously observed with the most scrupulous exactness. Oh! Sir! how shall we escape, how shall any man escape, who wilfully neglects so great salvation? Heb 2:3 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezr 6:16 And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy,
Ver. 16. Kept the dedication with joy] So they did at the dedication of the first temple, 2Ch 7:10 . God had required all his worships to be celebrated with joy, Deu 12:7 , and made it a condition of an acceptable service, Deu 26:14 . Sacrifices offered with mourning were abomination, Hos 9:4 , yea, accursed by God, Deu 28:47 . What a general joy was there at Samaria when Christ first was preached and believed on among them, Act 8:8 , when they first became God’s building, 1Co 3:9 , a temple for God to dwell in and walk in, 2Co 6:16 ! The like was at Bern, at Geneva, at Zurich, when the reformed religion was first received among them. They caused (for joy thereof) the day and year to be engraven in a pillar in letters of gold, for a perpetual memory to all posterity. Like as at Heidelberg, A.D. 1617, on the first of November, they kept, for three days time, an evangelical Jubilee, for joy of the Reformation begun by Luther, a hundred years before (Vita Parei, operib, praefix.).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Ezr 6:16-18
16And the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. 17They offered for the dedication of this temple of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18Then they appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites in their orders for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
Ezr 6:16 and the rest of the exiles Who could this refer to? Possibly (1) converts to Judaism who were converted while they were also in exile (cf. Ezr 6:21). Or (2) it could refer to those Jews who remained in Palestine, but did not participate in pagan or synergistic worship (cf. Ezr 6:21).
Ezr 6:17 as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats Although a detailed description of the sacrifices for the dedication is listed (much smaller than Solomon’s dedication, cf. 1Ki 8:63), the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16) is never mentioned in Ezra or Nehemiah.
for all Israel 12 male goats, corresponding to the number of tribes of Israel It was important for the returning Jews (mostly from the southern tribes called Judah) to affirm they represented all the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Most of the northern ten tribes taken into captivity by Assyria (722 B.C., fall of Samaria) never returned to Palestine. Nevertheless these were the covenant people of God. The promises and covenants of YHWH also belonged to them!
SPECIAL TOPIC: The Number Twelve
Ezr 6:18 the priests of their divisions The law of Moses stipulated the special tribe of temple servants (i.e., Levi, cf. Num 3:6; Num 8:6-22; Num 18:1-7; 1 Chronicles 6), but it was David who organized them into 24 orders who took turns serving in the temple (cf. 1 Chronicles 23-24; 2Ch 35:4-5). Only four orders returned under Zerubbabel (cf. chapter 2).
the book of Moses This would have been a way to show the validity of the returning exiles as the people of God! See Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: Moses’ Authorship of the Pentateuch
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Ezr 6:16-18
Ezr 6:16-18
THE DEDICATION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE
“And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy. And they offered at the dedication of this house a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is written in the book of Moses.”
Critical scholars are very sensitive about any mention of the book of Moses, and their usual knee-jerk reaction is to challenge the passage as being from a different editor or some later hand. However, there is no reason whatever to believe such challenges. They are not scientific, they are founded upon scholarly imagination, and not upon any fact. The silly reason for such a challenge, according to Hamrick, was that the word Jews was the author’s usual term for Israel; but here he referred to them as the children of Israel. What a foolish assumption it must be that Ezra was not familiar with both expressions and that he would never have used both. At this glorious moment when God’s people had been returned from captivity and their temple restored, the more formal term children of Israel, was not only appropriate, it was required.
As Hamrick noted, “This story indicates that there was a conscious attempt to imitate the ceremony associated with the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8, and 2 Chronicles 5-7).” However, the relative poverty of the people made it impossible to duplicate it. “Solomon offered over two hundred times as many oxen and sheep at the dedication of his temple as were offered on this occasion (1Ki 8:63).”
E.M. Zerr:
Ezr 6:16. Four classes of persons are named as taking part in this dedication or setting apart of the temple. The first is a general class; children of Israel. The priests, meaning the part of the tribe of Levi that descended from Aaron, in the second class. The third is the tribe of Levi as a whole, and fourth, any individuals left out in the ones mentioned above, but designated as being among the captivity literally. Some Jews were permitted to remain in Palestine during the 70 years. These people, of course, were enslaved under the Babylonians, but not actually taken into the land possessed by their captors.
Ezr 6:17. The offering of sin offerings was not especially an acknowledgement of sin, although they had enough sins charged up against them to call for such sacrifices; but certain offerings were thus designated, regardless of the purpose for which they were given. Special attention is called to the word twelve in connection with the tribes of Israel. There is a doctrine in the world to the effect that the 10 tribes were lost in the captivity, and as yet have never been found. Well, the services that went on at this dedication, were under the supervision of the priests. They certainly would have known it, had these tribes been lost. And if so, they would have had no occasion for counting them when providing the sacrifices according to the number of the tribes.
Ezr 6:18. There is no practical difference between divisions and courses as used here. There was some, work that the priests only could do, being of the family of Aaron. The other Levites had a more general line of duty, yet could perform some things that no other tribe could lawfully do. Also, the number of eligible men in both kinds had grown so numerous, that it became necessary to have them serve in turns and sections. A part of the arrangement for the courses or turns of the priests had been fixed by David (1Ch 24:1-19), which was far this side of Moses, yet with the approval of God. Therefore, as it is written in the book of Moses refers only to the service, not to the turns or courses. The outstanding thought we should get out of this paragraph is that of good order or system. That is taught in the New Testament. (Col 2:5.)
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the children: 1Ch 9:2, Neh 7:73
children of the captivity: Chal, sons of the transportation, Ezr 4:1
the dedication: 1Ki 8:63, 2Ch 7:5, 2Ch 7:9, Joh 10:22
with joy: Ezr 6:22, Ezr 3:11, Ezr 3:12, Deu 12:7, 1Ch 15:28, 2Ch 7:10, 2Ch 30:23, 2Ch 30:26, Neh 8:10, Neh 12:43, Psa 122:1, Phi 4:4, Having set up the worship of God in this dedication, they took care to keep it up, and made the book of Moses their rule, to which they had an eye in this establishment. Though the temple service could not now be performed with so much pomp and plenty as formerly, because of their poverty, yet no doubt it was performed with as much purity and close adherence to the Divine institutions as ever. No beauty is like the beauty of holiness.
Reciprocal: Num 7:10 – dedicating 2Sa 6:17 – offered 1Ch 15:25 – with joy 1Ch 16:1 – they offered Ezr 2:70 – General Ezr 6:19 – the children Neh 12:27 – gladness Dan 5:13 – the children
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ezr 6:16. The children of Israel Probably some out of each of the twelve tribes; the priests and Levites, &c., kept the dedication of the house of God with joy When it was built, being designed only for sacred uses, they now showed by an example how it should be used, which, says Bishop Patrick, is the proper and simple sense of dedicating. They entered upon it with solemnity, and probably with a public declaration of the separating it from common uses, and the surrendering it to the honour of God, to be employed in his service.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Jews’ celebration 6:16-22
Compared with the dedication of the first temple, this one was very modest. Solomon had offered more than 200 times as many animals. The Jews offered one sin offering, which involved slaying a goat, for each of the 12 tribes (Ezr 6:17). The reference to the number of Israel’s tribes being 12 shows that none of the tribes were "lost" during the captivity, as some modern cults claim. The people still considered the nation to be a confederation of 12 tribes, and they called it "Israel" (Ezr 2:2; Ezr 2:59).
"The remnant who had returned make solemn confession of sin in the name of the whole scattered and dispersed race. They acknowledge the essential unity of Israel’s tribes alike in the consequences of sin, in the possibilities of restoration, and in the renewed consecration to God’s service." [Note: H. E. Ryle, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 83.]
The Passover celebration took place five weeks after the temple dedication. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day after Passover and lasted seven days (Lev 23:6-8). Note that some Gentile converts had evidently accompanied the remnant from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezr 6:21).
The reference to Darius (cf. Ezr 6:6-12) as the "king of Assyria" (Ezr 6:22) is unusual but not unique. In some ancient Near Eastern king lists, the rulers of territories that were previously independent are referred to as kings of those countries. [Note: Fensham, The Books . . ., p. 96.]
"Perhaps, however, it is meant to awaken memories of the traditional oppressor (cf. Neh 9:32), whose empire first Babylon and then Persia had inherited, but whose policies were now dramatically reversed." [Note: Kidner, p. 60. See also Dumbrell, p. 68.]
Naturally the restoration Jews rejoiced greatly that their national worship of Yahweh could continue again as the Mosaic Covenant specified. Since life in Israel rested on the worship of Yahweh, the re-establishment of life under the Mosaic Law depended on the re-establishment of Mosaic worship. Thus the record of the completion of the temple and the resumption of worship is the climax of this first part of Ezra (chs. 1-6).