Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezra 6:14
And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built, and finished [it], according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
14. the elders of the Jews ] cf. Ezr 5:5.
and they prospered ] R.V. and prospered. Cf. Ezr 5:8.
through the prophesying ] i.e. the success of the work was due in great measure to the encouragement and support rendered by the two prophets. The LXX. and 1 Esd. render as if the meaning were ‘in the time of the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.’ The Vulgate gives ‘in accordance with the prophesying’ (juxta prophetiam).
Haggai Zechariah ] see on Ezr 5:1.
and according to the commandment of Cyrus, &c.] R.V. the decree of Cyrus, &c. The word in the original differs slightly from that in the previous clause. The R.V. preserves the distinction drawn between the Divine ‘commandment’ and the human ‘decree’.
Cyrus Darius Artaxerxes ] The decrees of Cyrus and Darius have been given by the author (chap. Ezr 1:2-4, Ezr 6:3-12). The mention of a decree of Artaxerxes occasions a difficulty. (1) The decree of Artaxerxes quoted in Ezr 4:18-22 is hostile to the Jews and could not be intended in this verse. (2) How does Artaxerxes’ name occur in this passage, which is concerned with the reign of Darius? Certainly the context would lead us to expect the mention of only Cyrus and Darius. Some in consequence have supposed that the name of Artaxerxes has been inserted as a gloss, either in ignorance of the true chronology or for the sake of bringing together the names of the three great Persians, who were benefactors of the Jewish race. But the reading is attested by the LXX. version, and by 1Es 7:4. We must therefore suppose hat the Compiler has in this passage as well as in Ezr 4:6-23 disregarded the chronology of the context and anticipated later history.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Artaxerxes – The Artaxerxes of marginal reference seems to be meant (i. e., Longimanus); he was one of those who together with Cyrus and Darius helped forward the completion of the work.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ezr 6:14-22
And they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai.
The true pulpit the best promoter of honest industry
It–
I. quickens the power of thought. He quickens public thought most who presents the most startling subjects with the highest enthusiasm. The true pulpit does this. The subjects it presents are the most vital to mans interests, the most stimulating to his inquiry. They involve the sublimest facts of nature and the grandest truths of inspiration, the highest interests of man now and for ever. Hence there is no power equal to the power of the true pulpit to break the monotony of mind and set the wheels of intellect ageing. This being so, the attendant on a true ministry will be–
1. The more qualified to form a good plan of action.
2. The more practical sagacity he will have to adapt means to ends.
3. The more solicitous he will be to execute his plan.
II. Supplies the timid with motive for action. The man who has been made thoughtful by the power of the pulpit is made to feel that the more successful he is in his business–
1. The more useful he is as a citizen.
2. The more useful as a religionist. (Homilist.)
Prophets and builders
The prophet and the builder must always go hand in hand. It is noticeable that the builder seldom or never goes first, but invariably succeeds the intelligent and ardent speaker. This is only another way of saying that thought precedes action. When men think deeply they are preparing the way for laying massive foundations by persons who could not themselves have entered into such intellectual strife. The one must not despise the other. Haggai built nothing, nor did Zechariah probably lay stone upon stone; on the other hand, Zerubbabel may not have been a man of active thought, and Jeshua may not have been gifted with eloquence; but they all worked together–the first man, seeing the truth of God and feeling the burden of the zeal of heaven, excited the sentiment of the two, that they might proceed to give practical and visible effect to the noble prophecies dictated by the Spirit. It is in vain for hearers to complain of preachers when they themselves are not prepared to carry out the word of the Lord. (J. Parker, D. D)
God requires men to work
God puts the oak in the forest, and the pine on its sand and rock, and says to men, There are your houses, go hew, saw, frame, build, make. God builds the trees; men must build the house. God supplies the timber; men must construct the ship. God buries the iron in the heart of the earth; men must dig it, and smelt it, and fashion it. Clay and rock are given us, not brick and square stones. What is useful for the body, and, still more, what is useful for the mind, is to be had only by exertion–exertion that will work men more than iron is wrought, and will shape men more than timber is shaped. Again, in the spiritual world God requires men to work. He gives them certain things, and then says, Go, work. He requires them to work in building up His spiritual temple as much as He required the Jews, in days of old, to work in building up His earthly temple.
The building of Gods temple
Men are like workmen set each by the architect upon some single bit of carving. One has given him to fashion a fragment where incompleteness breaks a promise of beauty. Another has set him only level lines and surfaces of blank monotony. To one it falls to carve a head without a body; to another, a lovely face; to many, patterns seemingly of little grace or meaning. But the task of each demands long labour and utmost care. At last the various blocks are put together, and, lo! there rises a glorious cathedral, filling eye and heart with its majesty and loveliness, destined to draw to it and shelter within itself one generation after another of devout worshippers. So, the temple of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, is building through the ages. Whoever, in high place or in low, is living the life of fidelity and love, is carving a stone for the fabric. (George S. Merrian.)
The erection of church
There is no book that throws more light upon the obligation of building temples for God, and the spirit that should ever inspire it, than that of Ezra.
I. In building a Christian temple we express our felt connection with the spiritual world. All building may be regarded as the expression of some sentiment, instinct, or wish of human nature. Markets, senate-houses, theatres, hotels, have all risen as the effects, embodiments, and realisations of some principle in our common nature. But these are all for our material wants and interests. In building a house for God we declare that we have other relations than those that connect us with this material system, other wants than those of the body, other interests than the secular and the physical. We thus attest our connection with the spiritual universe, our relation to eternity, our moral obligation to the Infinite, our desire for communion with God.
II. In building a Christian temple we express the idea that we require special manifestations of God. In the temple of nature God is portrayed in every object and proclaimed in every sound. But we feel that some other manifestation is required. In nature we can only see Him as the Almighty Creator and Absolute Sovereign; we want Him to appear in another relationship, one more suited to our fallen condition; we want Him to appear to us a redeeming God–one mighty to save. Had we not sinned we should need no such manifestations of God as we seek in the erection of temples. The temple of nature would suffice. There is no temple in heaven; God is seen in all, loved in all, worshipped in all.
III. In building a Christian temple we attest our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1. As a revelation from God intended and adapted to meet the condition of sinners.
2. As necessary to all men, through all times. We feel that while coming generations may not require our systems of philosophy, our ecclesiastical polities, our schemes of government, our codes of laws, they will require the gospel; and hence we rear a temple for its proclamation.
IV. In building a Christian temple we express our philanthropy. We are not building merely for ourselves, but for others; not even for our contemporaries, but for posterity. A Christian temple true to its mission is the greatest blessing to society. There the most soul-elevating ideas are proclaimed. Of all ideas to which men are subject none are so important as the religious. Other ideas will arouse certain faculties–some the intellect, some the imagination, some the emotions–but this the entire man. Other ideas act upon human nature as the rays of winter upon the soil; under its influence only a few germs will be evolved and a few plants will grow; but this, like the glowing beams of the vernal sun, will penetrate the deepest depths with its quickening energy, cause every seed-bud to burst into life and expand into fruitfulness. The mystic rod of Moses was not so mighty as the instrument the religious teacher wields. He lives nearest the heart of the world; he is up at the head springs, out of which proceed the issues of life. True religious ideas wherever proclaimed are the chief blessings of the world. In Christian temples such ideas are brought to bear with all their force upon the human mind; by them men are made to feel their obligations to be truthful, virtuous, benevolent, and Godlike; evil is subdued, hearts are changed, and souls are saved by these ideas. Christian temples are to society what tides are to the ocean, what the winds are to the atmosphere; they stir the mass and keep it pure.
V. In building a christian temple we express the idea that public worship is to be perpetuated by human instrumentality. We have reason to thank God that He has left such work as the building of temples to us. Had the necessaries of life sprung from the earth, so as to require no labour, the physical energies of man would never have been developed. Had knowledge come into our mind without the exercise of our faculties, we should never have known anything of intellectual force. In like manner, had everything in religion been done for us, so that no demand would have been made upon our benevolent sympathies, we should have been beings of morbid religious sentiment, and without any force or greatness of character. (Homilist.)
The second temple
From this subject we learn–
1. That man in this world needs a sanctuary, in which he may call on the name of the Lord his God. We are closely bound to the material globe, and the holiest affections. The most spiritual exercises naturally cling round some sacred spot where we have been accustomed to meet with God and with His people. Speaking of an old village church, Washington Irving says, For my part, there are feelings that visit me in a country church, amid the beautiful serenity of nature, which I experience nowhere else; and, if not a more religious, I think I am a better man on Sunday than on any other day of the seven. This principle lies deep in human nature. Among the most sacred memories of life are the childhood recollections which carry us back to the old familiar church, which then seemed so grand and impressive, where with father and mother we reverently worshipped God.
2. We learn that toil and sacrifice enter into the building of these sanctuaries. God does not ask for that which costs us nothing. Sacrifice may not be needed by Him, but it is necessary for us, and without it human nature cannot attain its highest and best.
3. We learn not to neglect the sanctuary. (E. B. Mason.)
Kept the dedication of this house of God with Joy.
Dedicating the temple
I. The building of Gods house was carried on in face of obstacles. Every important work has its hindrances. No great results have been achieved without meeting obstacles. But men have always been found qualified for the hard tasks. A clear brain, boundless energy, and unflinching will are hidden away in the right man, ready to be revealed at the right time. The tremendous barriers that stand before the waiting and needed reform chill the courage of the many, while they also arouse the energy and provoke the will of the true leader. Haggai had counted the cost, and knew exactly what he had to contend against. There was the cry of procrastination. The time is not come–the time that the Lords house should be built. The time is not ripe is a phrase that might often be interpreted to mean, the people are not ready. When any reform is pressing, you hear a clamour for delay. There are some who take counsel of their fears rather than of their faith. When Lincoln read his Proclamation of Emancipation to Seward, the Secretary of State counselled delay, until at last the President took the matter into his own hands and sent the message of liberty ringing through the land. Haggai understood the reason for delay, the people were filled with self-love and desire for display.
II. The building of the temple had a moral and spiritual influence on the people. At the dedication they offered a sin offering of twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. When once the temple was furnished, and the people saw all the appointments complete and an altar standing before them and in use, their sense of sin was aroused. The first sacrifice on that new altar was for their sins. With their new house they began a new life. The house of God in a community stands for a spiritual idea. The school-house and college stand for the intellectual needs of man. The moral and spiritual side finds its exponent in the church. These silent memorials of Gods grace compel us for a moment to think of duty and the hereafter, and they are suggestive of the rest that remaineth. A reverential soul can worship God anywhere, but a house dedicated to Him is an aid to such worship. While there we are released for the time from the distracting sights and sounds of outside life, and under the singing of hymns and the uplifting influence of prayer the mind becomes calmed for the consideration of truth.
III. The house of God is the home of joy. The Oriental expressed his feelings in most demonstrative ways. He shouted, clapped his hands, and danced when happy, and these extravagances were carried into his religious worship. Worship with the Jew was a natural channel for the display of feeling, while the Occidental suppresses his emotion in worship. We need more naturalness in the house of God. We come before God to express ourselves, not to suppress ourselves. The very truth proclaimed in Gods house is fitted to produce the liveliest emotions. Mankind ought to be induced to come to the house of God because of the abundance of peace to be found there. The view of God should be the one fitted to draw all hearts to Him. A young man, homeless and lonely, wandered through the streets of one of our cities. He could get no work, and had had no food for some time. Despair had seized his soul, and in that frame of mind he entered a church and dropped into a back seat. The sermon was being delivered, and it presented such a view of God and emphasised certain elements of truth that it deepened his despair, and he rushed from the church and threw himself into the river. This ought not to have been. There are stem truths in the gospel, yet to give them undue prominence, and make them overshadow the obvious intent of the gospel is to deprive it of its essential quality of hopefulness. The house of God stands for the best and brightest and cheeriest in human life. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Dedicating the temple
We are here advised as to the accessories by which the builders of the temple were enabled to succeed.
I. God was with them. All along He had been predisposed in their behalf. We also are exhorted to work out our own salvation because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do.
II. God was pleased to communicate with them through his ordained servants. Haggai was an old man whose strength lay largely in admonition. Zechariah was younger, more inclined to the dreaming of hopeful dreams and the seeing of bright visions.
III. They were encouraged by the favourable attitude of temporal princes. The dedication took place in the month Adar, the month of splendour, so called because of the brightness of its suns and the beauty of its flowers.
1. A hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs were offered in sacrifice; and for a sin offering, twelve he goats for all Israel. There is something pathetic in the mention of these he goats. Ten of the twelve tribes, having out themselves loose from their brethren, had little or no part in the building of this temple, but they were remembered, and a place in the sin offering was Sacredly reserved for them. It was as when mothers set vacant chairs for their absent, wayward sons on thanksgiving day. Whatever might happen, the religious unity of Israel must be preserved. In like manner the Church of Christ, however parted asunder by the controversies of the past, should be at one in the work of the kingdom and in the rejoicings of the triumph of Christ.
2. At this dedication the ancient order of service was restored. The assignments of the priests and Levites date back to the time of Moses (Num 3:6-10). It does not follow that because a custom is old it is obsolete. Prayer is as old as human want, like the air we breathe, and time can make no improvement upon it. It should be observed that the Feast of Passover was among the venerable customs which were revived at this dedication. It was a foreshadowing of the atonement of Christ, without which all other pomp and circumstance of service are a dumb show. (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)
The joy of dedicating a house for the Lord
I. We observe in general that the joy with which the children of Israel, etc. Kept the dedication of the house of god arose–
1. Because of the consideration of its being now completely finished.
2. Of their regarding it as a token of God for good, a demonstration at once of His faithfulness and favour towards them and of the delightful prospect which it held out to them of their enjoying with comfort and with advantage the public ordinances of religion.
II. But more particularly this joy arose–
1. From the consideration of their having been honoured and enabled to build a house to the Lord their God.
2. From the consideration of its being a means of promoting the glory of God.
3. From its being a means of securing the observance and extending the benefits of religious ordinances to future and succeeding generations. (G. B. Brand.)
The dedication of the second temple
I. The occasion was one of joy. Hebrew and Christian worship are joyful, because believers worship a revealed God of salvation. Heathen worship is a straining or groping of man after God (1Ki 18:26-29).
II. The service was one for which all who had to take part in it had previously purified themselves.
III. There were burnt offerings as a token of the consecration of the people heart and soul afresh to God.
IV. There were sin offerings. In Divine worship there should always be a recognition of sin, and of Christs having put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
V. There was the observance of the passover. They loved God because God loved them; this is the order now, and we cannot reverse it (1Jn 4:19).
VI. The feast of unleavened bread was kept joyfully for seven days.
1. In token of national unity and fellowship.
2. In token of their desire to cultivate purity.
VII. The new national life thus inaugurated had far less of pomp and show about it than were seen in the days of Solomon. But there was more of spiritual power (Hag 2:9). (C. Clemance, D. D.)
The dedication of the temple was characterised by
I. Religious rejoicing. The reasons for this were–
1. Protracted labours brought to a close.
2. The honour offered to Jehovah their God.
3. The benefits which were likely to accrue to men through their sacred edifice and its worship.
II. Devout gratitude.
III. Deep humility.
IV. Appropriate arrangements for its future use. (William Jones.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. According to the commandment of the God of Israel] He first gave the order, and stirred up the hearts of the following Persian kings to second that order.
Of Cyrus] This sovereign gave his orders for the rebuilding of the temple about A.M. 3468.
And Darius] Darius Hystaspes confirmed the above orders, A. M. 3485.
And Artaxerxes] Artaxerxes Longimanus sent Ezra to Judea with new privileges, A.M. 3547. With the permission of the same king, Nehemiah came to Judea in 3550. The writer recapitulates the different sovereigns who favoured the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. See Calmet.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai: this is a seasonable intimation that this great and unexpected success was not to be ascribed to chance, nor to the kindness or good humour of Darius; but unto God only, who by his prophets had required and encouraged them to proceed in the work, and by his mighty power disposed Dariuss heart to such kind and noble purposes and actions.
Artaxerxes; who is thought to be either,
1. Xerxes, Dariuss son and successor, who is called also Artaxerxes, and Ahasuerus, who is here joined with his father Darius, possibly because he favoured the Jews, and promoted their cause with his father, and saw to the execution of his fathers decree, and was his fathers viceroy, if not made co-emperor with his father in his lifetime, which was not unusual. Or,
2. Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes, who was best known by the name of Artaxerxes; who is here joined with Cyrus and Darius, because though the temple was finished, as to the substance of the work, in Dariuss reign, Ezr 6:15, yet it was afterwards more fully completed and adorned by Artaxerxes, as is evident from Ezr 7:20,27, by whom Nehemiah was sent to Jerusalem with a large commission and full power to take care about the building of the city, and all other things concerning the Jewish nation and religion.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the elders of the Jews builded,…. Went on with the building of the temple:
and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo; or grandson, as before; being animated and encouraged by them; and as they foretold and promised it would, be, so it was; they had success in their work, the Lord overruling the heart of Darius the king and his council in their favour:
and they builded and finished it; that is, the temple:
according to the commandment of the God of Israel; by the above prophets, who spoke to them, and prophesied in his name:
and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia; the commandment of Cyrus is in Ezr 1:1 that of Darius in this, Ezr 6:8, but who Artaxerxes is, and his commandment, is not easy to say; he cannot be the Artaxerxes between Cyrus and Darius, but one that followed the latter; besides, he was a hinderer of the building, Ezr 4:21, some think this was Xerxes the son and successor of Darius, and who might be partner with his father in the empire at this time, and so is joined with him in this commandment; which is more probable than that he should be his grandson Artaxerxes Longimamus, in whose reign the temple, it is supposed, was beautified and ornamented, though the exterior building of it was before finished; and so he is spoken of by anticipation; and still more plausible than that he should be, with others, Artaxerxes Mnemon, the son of Darius Nothus; but, after all, I am most inclined to think, with Aben Ezra, that he is Darius himself; and the words to be read, Darius, that is, Artaxerxes, king of Persia; Artaxerxes being, as he observes, a common name of the kings of Persia, as Pharaoh was of the kings of Egypt; though this is by some rejected h; and who goes by this name in the continuance of this history, in whose seventh year, the year after this, Ezra went up to Jerusalem, and, in the twentieth of his reign, Nehemiah, Ezr 7:1, and I find Dr. Lightfoot i was of the same mind; and, according to Diodorus Siculus k, the kings of Persia were called by the name of Artaxerxes after Mnemon; and so they might before; Cambyses is so called in Ezr 4:7. Herodotus l says the name signifies “a mighty warrior”.
h Vid. Rainold de Lib. Apocryph. praelect. 31. p. 271. i Works, vol. 1. p. 139. k Bibliothec. l. 15. p. 400. l Erato, sive, l. 6. c. 98.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.This verse includes all the agents in the great work with which the book deals: from Cyrus to Artaxerxes; the elders, that is, the heads of the Jews; the prophets (see Ezr. 5:1); but all is from the God of Israel, whose commandment Cyrus and all others fulfilled.
Artaxerxes king of Persia.Evidently the Artaxerxes Longimanus of the sequel, whose contributions and help did so much toward the perfecting of the general design, though the finishing here mentioned took place fifty years before his reign. Observe that he alone is called king of Persia, which shows that Ezra is writing in his time, and adds his name to the original record. Just as the later Artaxerxes is introduced, so the earlier Cyrus is, in this comprehensive review.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Ver. 14. And Artaxerxes king of Persia Houbigant omits the word Artaxerxes here.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 435
THE SUBSERVIENCY OF A FAITHFUL MINISTRY TO THE ERECTION OF GODS SPIRITUAL TEMPLE
Ezr 6:14. And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo.
THE purposes of God, whatever difficulties may seem to obstruct the execution of them, are all accomplished in due season. The deliverance of his people from Babylon, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, though in themselves the most improbable events, were effected with a facility the most surprising. The heart of Cyrus was moved to give the orders that were requisite; and though the constructing of the temple was retarded by unforeseen obstacles, yet afterwards, through the exhortations of the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, that laborious work was finished in the space of four years.
We shall offer a few remarks upon,
I.
The building of the temple through the instrumentality of the fore-mentioned prophets.
Many difficulties obstructed the progress of the work
[Scarcely was the foundation laid, before an attempt was made to impede the work through the hypocrisy of pretended friends. The Samaritans offered to co-operate with the Jews in raising the intended fabric: but their design was to frustrate, rather than promote, the completion of it. And though this appears at first sight to be a strange mode of shewing hostility, yet it is indeed most common, both in political contests, and in the concerns of religion. Many will profess to desire the same objects, and will offer to concur in prosecuting them to a certain point, who, if their offers were accepted, would only defeat the ends proposed The Jews, however, aware of the snares thus laid for them, determined to prosecute their work alone. [Note: Ezr 4:1-3.].
That device having failed, they were assaulted by the hostility of open enemies. Complaints were made against them to the governing powers, and they were represented as plotting to regain their liberty and independence. Their former endeavours to cast off the Babylonish yoke were referred to as proofs of their present disposition to rebel against the king of Persia [Note: Ezr 4:4-16.]. It is in this way that the servants of God have been assailed in all ages: our blessed Lord was calumniated as an enemy to Csar; and his Apostles, as movers of sedition: and, if at any period of the Church an occasion can be found against the people of God, the record of it shall be brought against them in all future ages, and the evils of one party (as of the Puritans, for instance) shall be made to characterize religion itself, and all who profess it: and a sense of duty and of regard for the public welfare shall be artfully pleaded as an apology for the measures, which in reality were dictated by nothing but a rooted aversion to the cause of God [Note: Ezr 4:14.].
This plan having too fatally succeeded, the Jews yielded to despondency, and for the space of fifteen years suspended the work in which they had engaged [Note: Ezr 4:23-24.]. A spirit of indolence and supineness soon prevailed among them, and would have operated to a total dereliction of the work, if God had not sent his prophets to rouse them from their lethargy. And indeed this is the greatest obstacle to every good work, since the longer it continues, the more entire is the ascendant which it gains over us.]
Through the preaching of the prophets, however, these difficulties were overcome
[The Prophet Haggai justly reproved them for attending so carefully to their own accommodation, whilst the temple and the service of their God were altogether forgotten; and bade them carefully to consider their ways [Note: Hag 1:2-5; Hag 1:7.]. The Prophet Zechariah also urged them to bear in mind how awfully their fathers had suffered for their neglect of God [Note: Zec 1:1-6.]; and then, by a variety of images which he had seen in visions, encouraged them with assurances of success in their labours [Note: Read attentively the four first chapters of Zechariah in this particular view.]. Thus were the people stimulated to exertion. But behold, no sooner did they resume their work, than their enemies renewed their application to the government to issue again their mandate to discontinue it [Note: Ezr 5:1-10.]. Whilst they were occupied only in building ceiled houses for themselves, no notice was taken of it: but as soon as they began to serve their God, their enemies were up in arms. And so it always is; zeal is approved in every thing except religion: but, as soon as ever it discovers itself in that, every effort will be made to repress it. This effort, however, was overruled, as similar efforts have often been, for the furtherance of the work it was intended to destroy [Note: Compare Ezr 6:1-10. with Php 1:12.]: and in the short space of four years the edifice was completed [Note: ver. 15.].]
The history thus viewed leads us naturally to notice,
II.
The subserviency of a faithful ministry to the erection of Gods spiritual temple
The temple of old was a shadow of that spiritual temple which is erected for God in the hearts of men; being built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, and Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone [Note: Eph 2:20-22.]. The erection of this,
1.
Is attended with the same difficulties
[Who that begins truly to surrender up his soul to God, does not find many impediments from pretended friends? They will profess to approve of religion, and will propose to go with us to a certain length, that so they may have the greater influence to keep us from following the Lord fully, and from serving him with our whole hearts If we are enabled to withstand their efforts, then we shall be assailed by open enemies, who will accuse us of evil designs against both the Church and State; and will call forth the power of the civil magistrate, or of our more immediate governors, to suppress our zeal. Not unfrequently will they become our greatest foes, who by their relation to us ought rather to become our firmest protectors And too often do timidity and sloth induce us to relax our efforts, till, if God do not by some special act of providence or grace awaken us, we lose the time for working, and, like the foolish virgins, experience for ever the fatal effects of our remissness ]
But the work of God in the soul,
2.
Is carried on and perfected by the same means
[God has established an order of men on purpose to carry on this spiritual building in the world [Note: Eph 4:11-13.]. Paul and the other Apostles may be called master-builders [Note: 1Co 3:10.]; but every pastor and teacher is engaged in the same work, according to the peculiar office that has been assigned him. To impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established, and to perfect that which is lacking in your faith, and in every way to be helpers of your joy, is the great end of all our ministerial labours: and, if we would labour with effect, we must use the very same means as Haggai and Zechariah did.
We call you then, Brethren, to consider your ways: consider what has hindered you hitherto; and what has been the consequence of intermitting your exertions in the service of your God. Have you not reason to blush and be confounded for the little progress that you have made in the divine life? Consider too, as Zechariah so largely recommends, the promises of God. What assurances of success are given you by your gracious God, if only you will put your hands to the work in good earnest Up then, and be doing, every one of you; and your God will be with you. Yield not to discouragements of any kind; for greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And beware how you give way to carnal ease and indolence: surely it ill becomes you to be so intent, as most of us are, on earthly things, whilst the spiritual edifice advances so slowly. Let all inquire, what yet remains to be done in their own hearts, and, what may be done for God in the world at large: and let us, by coming daily and hourly to Christ as the living foundation-stone, seek, as living stones, to be built up a spiritual house [Note: 1Pe 2:4-5.], that shall be the habitation of God, through the Spirit, for ever and ever.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
How truly beautiful in their place are God’s ministers, when they strengthen the hands that hang down, and confirm the feeble knees.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezr 6:14 And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished [it], according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
Ver. 14. And Artaxerxes ] This is Xerxes (called also Ahasuerus, husband of Esther), or, as some think, Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes by Esther; by whom the temple, finished before, might be much beautified, and, haply, enlarged also.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezra
THE NEW TEMPLE AND ITS WORSHIP
Ezr 6:14 – Ezr 6:22
There are three events recorded in this passage,-the completion of the Temple, its dedication, and the keeping of the passover some weeks thereafter. Four years intervene between the resumption of building and its successful finish, much of which time had been occupied by the interference of the Persian governor, which compelled a reference to Darius, and resulted in his confirmation of Cyrus’ charter. The king’s stringent orders silenced opposition, and seem to have been loyally, however unwillingly, obeyed. About twenty-three years passed between the return of the exiles and the completion of the Temple.
I. The prosperous close of the long task Ezr 6:14 – Ezr 6:15. The narrative enumerates three points in reference to the completion of the Temple which are very significant, and, taken together, set forth the stimulus and law and helps of work for God.
It is expressive of deep truth that first in order is named, as the cause of success, ‘the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.’ ‘Practical men,’ no doubt, then as always, set little store by the two prophets’ fiery words, and thought that a couple of masons would have done more for the building than they did. The contempt for ‘ideas’ is the mark of shallow and vulgar minds. Nothing is more practical than principles and motives which underlie and inform work, and these two prophets did more for building the Temple by their words than an army of labourers with their hands. ‘There are diversities of operations,’ and it is not given to every man to handle a trowel; but no good work will be prosperously accomplished unless there be engaged in it prophets who rouse and rebuke and hearten, and toilers who by their words are encouraged and saved from forgetting the sacred motives and great ends of their work in the monotony and multiplicity of details.
Still more important is the next point mentioned. The work was done ‘according to the commandment of the God of Israel.’ There is peculiar beauty and pathos in that name, which is common in Ezra. It speaks of the sense of unity in the nation, though but a fragment of it had come back. There was still an Israel, after all the dreary years, and in spite of present separation. God was still its God, though He had hidden His face for so long. An inextinguishable faith, wistful but assured, in His unalterable promise, throbs in that name, so little warranted by a superficial view of circumstances, but so amply vindicated by a deeper insight. His ‘commandment’ is at once the warrant and the standard for the work of building. In His service we are to be sure that He bids, and then to carry out His will whoever opposes.
We are to make certain that our building is ‘according to the pattern showed in the mount,’ and, if so, to stick to it in every point. There is no room for more than one architect in rearing the temple. The working drawings must come from Him. We are only His workmen. And though we may know no more of the general plan of the structure than the day-labourer who carries a hod does, we must be sure that we have His orders for our little bit of work, and then we may be at rest even while we toil. They who build according to His commandment build for eternity, and their work shall stand the trial by fire. That motive turns what without it were but ‘wood, hay, stubble,’ into ‘gold and silver and precious stones.’
The last point is that the work was done according to the commandment of the heathen kings. We need not discuss the chronological difficulty arising from the mention of Artaxerxes here. The only king of that name who can be meant reigned fifty years after the events here narrated. The mention of him here has been explained by ‘the consideration that he contributed to the maintenance, though not to the building, of the Temple.’ Whatever is the solution, the intention of the mention of the names of the friendly monarchs is plain. ‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses; He turneth it whithersoever He will.’ The wonderful providence, surpassing all hopes, which gave the people ‘favour in the eyes of them that carried them captive,’ animates the writer’s thankfulness, while he recounts that miracle that the commandment of God was re-echoed by such lips. The repetition of the word in both clauses underscores, as it were, the remarkable concurrence.
II. The dedication of the Temple Ezr 6:16 – Ezr 6:18. How long the dedication was after the completion is not specified. The month Adar was the last of the Jewish year, and corresponded nearly with our March. Probably the ceremonial of dedication followed immediately on the completion of the building. Probably few, if any, of the aged men, who had wept at the founding, survived to see the completion of the Temple. A new generation had no such sad contrasts of present lowliness and former glory to shade their gladness. So many dangers surmounted, so many long years of toil interrupted and hope deferred, gave keener edge to joy in the fair result of them all.
We may cherish the expectation that our long tasks, and often disappointments, will have like ending if they have been met and done in like spirit, having been stimulated by prophets and commanded by God. It is not wholesome nor grateful to depreciate present blessings by contrasting them with vanished good. Let us take what God gives to-day, and not embitter it by remembering yesterday with vain regret. There is a remembrance of the former more splendid Temple in the name of the new one, which is thrice repeated in the passage,-’this house.’ But that phrase expresses gratitude quite as much as, or more than, regret. The former house is gone, but there is still ‘this house,’ and it is as truly God’s as the other was. Let us grasp the blessings we have, and be sure that in them is continued the substance of those we have lost.
The offerings were poor, if compared with Solomon’s ‘two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep’ 1Ki 8:63, and no doubt the despisers of the ‘day of small things,’ whom Zechariah had rebuked, would be at their depreciating work again. But ‘if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.’ The thankfulness of the offerers, not the number of their bullocks and rams, made the sacrifice well pleasing. But it would not have been so if the exiles’ resources had been equal to the great King’ s. How many cattle had they in their stalls at home, not how many they brought to the Temple, was the important question. The man who says, ‘Oh! God accepts small offerings,’ and gives a mite while he keeps talents, might as well keep his mite too; for certainly God will not have it.
A significant part of the offerings was the ‘twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.’ These spoke of the same confidence as we have already noticed as being expressed by the designation of ‘the God of Israel.’ Possibly scattered members of all the tribes had come back, and so there was a kind of skeleton framework of the nation present at the dedication; but, whether that be so or not, that handful of people was not Israel. Thousands of their brethren still lingered in exile, and the hope of their return must have been faint. Yet God’s promise remained, and Israel was immortal. The tribes were still twelve, and the sacrifices were still theirs. A thrill of emotion must have touched many hearts as the twelve goats were led up to the altar. So an Englishman feels as he looks at the crosses on the Union Jack.
But there was more than patriotism in that sacrifice. It witnessed to unshaken faith. And there was still more expressed in it than the offerers dreamed; for it prophesied of that transformation of the national into the spiritual Israel, in virtue of which the promises remain true, and are inherited by the Church of Christ in all lands.
The re-establishment of the Temple worship with the appointment of priests and Levites, according to the ancient ordinance, naturally followed on the dedication.
III. The celebration of the Passover Ezr 6:19 – Ezr 6:22. It took place on the fourteenth day of the first month, and probably, therefore, very soon after the dedication. They ‘kept the feast, . . . for the priests and Levites were purified together.’ The zeal of the sacerdotal class in attending to the prescriptions for ceremonial purity made it possible that the feast should be observed. How much of real devotion, and how much of mere eagerness to secure their official position, mingled with this zeal, cannot be determined. Probably there was a touch of both. Scrupulous observance of ritual is easy religion, especially if one’s position is improved by it. But the connection pointed out by the writer is capable of wide applications. The true purity and earnestness of preachers and teachers of all degrees has much to do with their hearers’ and scholars’ participation in the blessings of the Gospel. If priests are not pure, they cannot kill the passover. Earnest teachers make earnest scholars. Foul hands cannot dispense the bread of life.
There is a slight deviation from the law in the ritual as here stated, since it was prescribed that each householder should kill the passover lamb for his house. But from the time of Hezekiah the Levites seem to have done it for the congregation 2Ch 30:17, and afterwards for the priests also 2Ch 35:11 , 2Ch 35:14.
Ezr 6:21 tells that not only the returned exiles, but also ‘all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel,’ ate the passover. It may be questioned whether these latter were Israelites, the descendants of the residue who had not been deported, but who had fallen into idolatry during the exile, or heathens of the mixed populations who had been settled in the vacant country. The emphasis put on their turning to Israel and Israel’s God seems to favour the latter supposition. But in any case, the fact presents us with an illustration of the proper effect of the presence anywhere of a company of God’s true worshippers. If we purify ourselves, and keep the feast of the true passover with joy as well as purity, we shall not want for outsiders who will separate themselves from the more subtle and not less dangerous idolatries of modern life, to seek the Lord God of Israel. If His Israel is what it ought to be, it will attract. A bit of scrap-iron in contact with a magnet is a magnet. They who live in touch with Him who said, ‘I will draw all men unto Me’ will share His attractive power in the measure of their union with Him.
The week after the passover feast was, according to the ritual, observed as the feast of unleavened bread. The narrative touches lightly on the ceremonial, and dwells in conclusion on the joy of the worshippers and its cause. They do well to be glad whom God makes glad. All other joy bears in it the seeds of death. It is, in one aspect, the end of God’s dealings, that we should be glad in Him. Wise men will not regard that as a less noble end than making us pure; in fact, the two are united. The ‘blessed God’ is glad in our gladness when it is His gladness.
Notice the exulting wonder with which God’s miracle of mercy is reported in its source and its glorious result. The heart of the king was turned to them, and no power but God’s could have done that. The issue of that divine intervention was the completed Temple, in which once more the God of that Israel which He had so marvellously restored dwelt in the midst of His people.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
commandment = decree.
Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton, to mark the important fact that three kings, at various times, were concerned in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The last named was the first in order. Darius was Darius Hystaspis, and Artaxerxes was Astyages (the father of Cyrus), the same as in Neh 2:1. See App-57and App-58; and notes on p. 618.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
finished it
The worship of Jehovah was thus re-established in Jerusalem, but the theocracy was not restored. The remnant which returned from the Babylonian captivity lived in the land by Gentile sufferance, though doubtless by the providential care of Jehovah, till Messiah came, and was crucified by soldiers of the fourth Gentile world-empire Rome, Dan 2:40; Dan 7:7. Soon after (A.D. 70) Rome destroyed the city and temple. See “Times of the Gentiles”; Luk 21:24; Rev 16:19.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
And the elders: Ezr 3:8, Ezr 4:3
through: Ezr 5:1, Ezr 5:2, Hag 1:12-14, Hag 2:2-15, Zec 2:1 – Zec 4:14, Zec 6:1-15
finished it: Zec 4:9
according: Isa 44:28, Hag 1:8
commandment: Chal, decree
Cyrus: Ezr 6:13, Ezr 1:1-4, Ezr 4:24, Ezr 5:13
Artaxerxes: This was Artaxerxes, the third son and successor of Xerxes, surnamed , or Longimanus, or in Persian, Ardsheer deeraz dest, “Ardsheer the long-handed;” so called, according to the Greeks, from the extra-ordinary length of his hands, but according to the Easterners, from the extent of his dominions. He ascended the Persian throne, am 3540, bc 464, and reigned forty-one years. He is said to have been the most handsome person of his age, and to have been a prince of a very mild and generous disposition. Ezr 7:1
Reciprocal: 1Ki 6:38 – finished Ezr 7:7 – Artaxerxes Ezr 9:9 – to set up Est 1:1 – Ahasuerus Ecc 9:10 – thy hand Dan 10:1 – Cyrus Zec 1:16 – my house Zec 7:1 – the fourth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ezr 6:14. They prospered through the prophesying of Haggai, &c. This is a seasonable intimation that this great and unexpected success was not to be ascribed to chance, or to the kindness or good-humour of Darius, but unto God only, who, by his prophets, had required and encouraged them to proceed in the work, and by his mighty power disposed Dariuss heart to such kind and noble purposes. And Artaxerxes That is, Artaxerxes Longimanus, who is here joined with Cyrus and Darius; because, though the temple was built before he came to the throne, in Dariuss reign, (Ezr 6:15,) yet it was afterward beautified and adorned in consequence of the commission he gave Ezra and Nehemiah for that purpose, the latter of whom was invested with full power to take measures for the building of the city, and also the ordering of all other things that concerned the Jewish nation and religion.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:14 And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of {f} Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished [it], according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
(f) Whom God stirs up to assure them that he would give their work good success.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
6
ZECHARIAH THE PROPHET
Zec 1:1-6; Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14
ZECHARIAH is one of the prophets whose personality as distinguished from their message exerts some degree of fascination on the student. This is not due, however, as in the case of Hosea or Jeremiah, to the facts of his life, for of these we know extremely little; but to certain conflicting symptoms of character which appear through his prophecies.
His name was a very common one in Israel, Zekher-Yah, “Jehovah remembers.” In his own book he is described as “the son of Berekh-Yah, the son of Iddo,” and in the Aramaic document of the Book of Ezra as “the son of Iddo.” Some have explained this difference by supposing that Berekhyah was the actual father of the prophet, but that either he died early, leaving Zechariah to the care of the grandfather, or else that he was a man of no note, and Iddo was more naturally mentioned as the head of the family. There are several instances in the Old Testament of men being called the sons of their grandfathers; {Gen 24:47, cf. 1Ki 19:16, cf. 2Ki 9:14; 2Ki 9:20} as in these cases the grandfather was the reputed founder of the house, so in that of Zechariah Iddo was the head of his family when it came out of Babylon and was anew planted in Jerusalem. Others, however, have contested the genuineness of the words “son of Berekh-Yah,” and have traced their insertion to a confusion of the prophet with Zechariah son of Yebherekh-Yahu, the contemporary of Isaiah. This is precarious, while the other hypothesis is a very natural one. Whichever be correct, the prophet Zechariah was a member of the priestly family of Iddo, that came up to Jerusalem from Babylon under Cyrus. {Neh 12:4} The Book of Nehemiah adds that in the high-priesthood of Yoyakim, the son of Joshua, the head of the house of Iddo was a Zechariah. If this be our prophet, then he was probably a young man in 520, and had come up as a child in the caravans from Babylon. The Aramaic document of the Book of Ezra {Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14} assigns to Zechariah a share with Haggai in the work of instigating Zerubbabel and Jeshua to begin the Temple. None of his oracles is dated previous to the beginning of the work in August, 520, but we have seen that among those undated there are one or two which by referring to the building of the Temple as still future may contain some relics of that first stage of his ministry. From November, 520, we have the first of his dated oracles; his Visions followed in January, 519, and his last recorded prophesying in December, 518.
These are all the certain events of Zechariahs history. But in the well-attested prophecies he has left we discover, besides some obvious traits of character, certain problems of style and expression which suggest a personality of more than usual interest. Loyalty to the great voices of old, the temper which appeals to the experience, rather than to the dogmas, of the past, the gift of plain speech to his own times, a wistful anxiety about his reception as a prophet, {Zec 2:13; Zec 4:9; Zec 6:15} combined with the absence of all ambition to be original or anything but the clear voice of the lessons of the past and of the conscience of today these are the qualities which characterize Zechariahs orations to the people. But how to reconcile them with the strained art and obscure truths of the Visions-it is this which invests with interest the study of his personality. We have proved that the obscurity and redundancy of the Visions cannot all have been due to himself. Later hands have exaggerated the repetitions and raveled the processes of the original. But these gradual blemishes have not grown from nothing: the original style must have been sufficiently involved to provoke the interpolations of the scribes, and it certainly contained all the weird and shifting apparitions which we find so hard to make clear to ourselves. The problem, therefore, remains-how one who had gift of speech, so straight and clear, came to torture and tangle his style; how one who presented with all plainness the main issues of his peoples history found it laid upon him to invent, for the further expression of these, symbols so labored and intricate.
We begin with the oracle which opens his book and illustrates those simple characteristics of the man that contrast so sharply with the temper of his Visions.
“In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berekhyah, son of Iddo, saying: Jehovah was very wroth with your fathers.”
“And thou shalt say unto them: Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: Turn ye to Me-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts-that I may turn to you, saith Jehovah of Hosts! Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying: Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, Turn now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds, but they hearkened not, and paid no attention to Me-oracle of Jehovah. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? But, My words and My statutes, with which I charged My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? till these turned and said, As Jehovah of Hosts did purpose to do unto us, according to our deeds and according to our ways, so hath He dealt with us.”
It is a sign of the new age which we have reached, that its prophet should appeal to the older prophets with as much solemnity as they did to Moses himself. The history which led to the Exile has become to Israel as classic and sacred as her great days of deliverance from Egypt and of conquest in Canaan. But still more significant is what Zechariah seeks from that past; this we must carefully discover, if we would appreciate with exactness his rank as a prophet.
The development of religion may be said to consist of a struggle between two tempers, both of which indeed appeal to the past, but from very opposite motives. The one proves its devotion to the older prophets by adopting the exact formulas of their doctrine, counts these sacred to the letter, and would enforce them in detail upon the minds and circumstances of the new generation. It conceives that truth has been promulgated once for all in forms as enduring, as the principles they contain. It fences ancient rites, cherishes old customs and institutions, and when these are questioned it becomes alarmed and even savage. The other temper is no whit behind this one in its devotion to the past, but it seeks the ancient prophets not so much for what they have said as for what they have been, not for what they enforced but for what they encountered, suffered, and confessed. It asks not for dogmas, but for experience and testimony. He who can thus read the past and interpret it to his own day-he is the prophet. In his reading he finds nothing so clear, nothing so tragic, nothing so convincing as the working of the Word of God. He beholds how this came to men, haunted them and was entreated by them. He sees that it was their great opportunity, which being rejected became their judgment. He finds abused justice vindicated, proud wrong punished, and all Gods neglected commonplaces achieving in time their triumph. He reads how men came to see this, and to confess their guilt. He is haunted by the remorse of generations who know how they might have obeyed the Divine call, but willfully did not. And though they have perished, and the prophets have died and their formulas are no more applicable, the victorious Word itself still lives and cries to men with the terrible emphasis of their fathers experience. All this is the vision of the true prophet, and it was the vision of Zechariah.
His generation was one whose chief temptation was to adopt towards the past the other attitude we have described. In their feebleness what could the poor remnant of Israel do but cling servilely to the former greatness? The vindication of the Exile had stamped the Divine authority of the earlier prophets. The habits, which the life in Babylon had perfected, of arranging and codifying the literature of the past, and of employing it, in place of altar and ritual, in the stated service of God, had canonized Scripture and provoked men to the worship of its very letter. Had the real prophet not again been raised, these habits might have too early produced the belief that the Word of God was exhausted, and must have fastened upon the feeble life of Israel that mass of stiff and stark dogmas, the literal application of which Christ afterwards found crushing the liberty and the force of religion. Zechariah prevented this-for a time. He himself was mighty in the Scriptures of the past: no man in Israel makes larger use of them. But he employs them as witnesses, not as dogmas; he finds in them not authority, but experience. He reads their testimony to the ever-living presence of Gods Word with men. And seeing that, though the old forms and figures have perished with the hearts which shaped them, the Word itself in its bare truth has vindicated its life by fulfillment in history, he knows that it lives still, and hurls it upon his people, not in the forms published by this or that prophet of long ago, but in its essence and direct from God Himself, as His Word for today and now. “The fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But My words and My statutes, with which I charged My servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, Be ye not like your fathers, but turn ye to Me that I may turn to you.”
The argument of this oracle might very naturally have been narrowed into a credential for the prophet himself as sent from God. About his reception as Jehovahs messenger Zechariah shows a repeated anxiety. Four times he concludes a prediction with the words. “And ye shall know that Jehovah hath sent me,” as if after his first utterances he had encountered that suspicion and unbelief which a prophet never failed to suffer from his contemporaries. But in this oracle there is no trace of such personal anxiety. The oracle is pervaded only with the desire to prove the ancient Word of God as still alive, and to drive it home in its own sheer force. Like the greatest of his order Zechariah appears with the call to repent: “Turn ye to Me-oracle of Jehovah of Hosts-that I may turn to you.” This is the pivot on which history has turned, the one condition on which God has been able to help men. Wherever it is read as the conclusion of all the past, wherever it is proclaimed as the conscience of the present, there the true prophet is found and the Word of God has been spoken.
This same possession by the ethical spirit reappears, as we shall see, in Zechariahs orations to the people after the anxieties of building are over and the completion of the Temple is in sight. In these he affirms again that the whole essence of Gods Word by the older prophets has been moral-to judge true judgment, to practice mercy, to defend the widow and orphan, the stranger and poor, and to think no evil of one another. For the sad fasts of the Exile Zechariah enjoins gladness, with the duty of truth and the hope of peace. Again and again he enforces sincerity and the love without dissimulation. His ideals for Jerusalem are very high, including the conversion of the nations to her God. But warlike ambitions have vanished from them, and his pictures of her future condition are homely and practical. Jerusalem shall be no more a fortress, but spread village-wise without walls. Full families, unlike the present colony with its few children and its men worn out in middle life by harassing warfare with enemies and a sullen nature; streets rife with children playing and old folk sitting in the sun; the return of the exiles; happy harvests and spring-times of peace; solid gain of labor for every man, with no raiding neighbors to harass, nor the mutual envies of peasants in their selfish struggle with famine.
It is a simple, hearty, practical man whom such prophesying reveals, the spirit of him bent on justice and love, and yearning for the un-harassed labor of the field and for happy homes. No prophet has more beautiful sympathies, a more direct word of righteousness, or a braver heart.
“Fast not, but love truth and peace. Truth and wholesome justice set ye up in your gates. Be not afraid; strengthen your hands! Old men and women-shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand for the fullness of their years; the citys streets shall be rife with boys and girls at play.”