Ezra 6 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

The completion of the story of the building of the temple and re-establishment of the temple worship occurs in this chapter. (See: temple)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

Temple taxes

The king said that the Jews were right and ordered money from his taxes to be used to help them with their sacrifices.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Darius

In this chapter, Darius is called the king of Assyria. In reality, besides ruling over the former Assyrian Empire, Darius was also king of Persia. Persia had conquered Babylon, which had previously conquered Assyria. This made the king of Persia to be the king of Assyria as well. It was unusual to refer to Darius as the king or ruler of Assyria. Ezra may have referred to him in this way to contrast Darius’ actions with those of the former rulers of Assyria, who had treated the Jews very cruelly. Those earlier Assyrian rulers were the ones who had conquered the northern tribes of Israel and deported them to other lands. It was for this reason that the northern tribes lost their identity and were no longer a distinct people group.