This verse continues the command from the preceding verse. Although both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation translate the three commands in verses 6-7 separately (“keep away”; let the work … alone; let … rebuild this house …), Good News Translation links the second command with the first one by means of the conjunction “and.”

Let the work … alone: The verb here is a masculine plural imperative that means “leave,” that is, “Permit the work to continue…” (see Chouraqui), “Let the work continue” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), or “Allow the work … to go on” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). This affirmative command may be restated as a negative command as Good News Translation has done (“do not interfere with…”). In some languages this may be expressed as “Do not put your mouths into…” or “Do not let your mouths enter….” This command may also be restructured to make the governor and the elders the objects of the verb here and to combine it with the next command. Thus, the order is to allow the governor and the elders to get on with the work of rebuilding the Temple (so New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible). However, because the emphasis is on the theme of the work of rebuilding the Temple in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (see Neh 2.16), translators should retain this focus in the first part of the verse as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done.

Governor of the Jews: The same term is used here as for the Persian governor Tattenai. See Ezra 5.3.

For elders of the Jews, see Ezra 5.5.

Its site is the place where the Temple had stood before it was destroyed (see Ezra 2.68).

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .