OET interlinear EZRA 6:3

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / quotemarks

בִּ⁠שְׁנַ֨ת חֲדָ֜ה לְ⁠כ֣וֹרֶשׁ מַלְכָּ֗⁠א

in=year one to/for=Coresh Oh/the=king

Here the book begins to quote what was said on the scroll that the officials found in Ecbatana. It may be helpful to your readers to indicate this with an opening quotation mark or with whatever other punctuation or convention your language uses to indicate the beginning of a quotation.

Note 2 topic: translate-ordinal

בִּ⁠שְׁנַ֨ת חֲדָ֜ה לְ⁠כ֣וֹרֶשׁ מַלְכָּ֗⁠א

in=year one to/for=Coresh Oh/the=king

The Hebrew uses a cardinal number here, one, but there is not a significant difference in meaning between that and the way the Hebrew uses an ordinal number, “first,” in similar contexts elsewhere. If your language customarily uses ordinals for the numbers of years, you can do that here in your translation. Alternate translation: “In the first year of the reign of Cyrus as king”

Note 3 topic: translate-names

לְ⁠כ֣וֹרֶשׁ

to/for=Coresh

Cyrus is the name of a man. See how you translated it in 1:1.

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / quotemarks

בַּיְתָ֣⁠א יִתְבְּנֵ֔א

house,the rebuilt

Starting here, and through 6:5, there is a quotation within a quotation. The book is quoting from the scroll that the officials found in Ecbatana, and within that scroll, the royal chronicles quote the decree of Cyrus. It may be helpful to your readers to indicate this with an opening secondary quotation mark or with whatever other punctuation or convention your language uses to indicate the beginning of a quotation within a quotation.

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

בַּיְתָ֣⁠א יִתְבְּנֵ֔א & וְ⁠אֻשּׁ֖וֹ⁠הִי מְסֽוֹבְלִ֑ין

house,the rebuilt & and,foundations,its retained

The words built and raised mean similar things. They are a poetic parallel, as in Isaiah 58:12, “Your ancient ruins will be built; you will raise up the foundations of many generations.” Cyrus says basically the same thing twice for emphasis and clarity. If it would be helpful in your language, you could combine these phrases. Alternate translation: “I authorize the Jews to raise up a new temple.” However, there is a slight difference in meaning, and you could also choose to bring that out in your translation. The second phrase is more specific in that it implicitly indicates that the new temple is to be built on the site of the former one. Alternate translation: “I authorize the Jews to rebuild the temple … on the site of the former temple”

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive

בַּיְתָ֣⁠א יִתְבְּנֵ֔א & וְ⁠אֻשּׁ֖וֹ⁠הִי מְסֽוֹבְלִ֑ין

house,the rebuilt & and,foundations,its retained

If it would be helpful in your language, you could say this with an active form, and you could say who would do the action. Alternate translation: “I authorize the Jews to rebuild the temple … on the site of the former temple”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

בַּיְתָ֣⁠א

house,the

Alternate translation: “the temple”

Note 8 topic: translate-bdistance

רוּמֵ⁠הּ֙ אַמִּ֣ין שִׁתִּ֔ין פְּתָיֵ֖⁠הּ אַמִּ֥ין שִׁתִּֽין

height,its cubits sixty width,its cubits sixty

If it would be helpful in your language, you could convert these measures into modern units. Alternate translation: “The temple is to be 90 feet high and 90 feet wide”