And they gave money to the masons and the carpenters …: At the beginning of this new section the conjunction And is not needed (so Good News Bible). The pronoun they refers to the Jewish people. Good News Bible has “The people,” and Contemporary English Version says “the Israelites.” We prefer “The Jews.” The Greek word for money is literally “silver,” but this word is used generally for money. It can be translated with any general term that is used for monetary exchange in the form of payment. The meaning here may be that the money was paid to the workmen as Revised Standard Version suggests, or it may be as Good News Bible interprets the text, that is, the community contributed money to be paid to workmen. In the technical terminology of employment, the money was used to “hire” the needed workmen. The Greek word for masons refers to men who quarry and work with stone. The English word carpenters refers to people who build with wood, but the Greek word here includes those who work with other materials as well.

And food and drink and carts to the Sidonians and the Tyrians: Food and drink most likely refer to grain and wine, which the Jews gave as payment. As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, the Greek text is unclear at the point where Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible have carts. This reading is in fact found in only one manuscript. Other manuscripts have several other words (among them is not “wine,” as in Contemporary English Version‘s footnote). The reading we suggest is “joy,” found in King James Version. This reading too is found in only one Greek manuscript, but is also reflected in Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic manuscripts. It seems to be the one reading among the many which best explains the existence of the others. This reading supposes that the Hebrew word for “oil” in the parallel passage of Ezra 3.7 was mistaken for the somewhat similar Hebrew word for “joy,” and this was what was translated into Greek. The word “joy” does not easily fit in with food and drink, so scribes made different guesses as to what the right word was, in each case choosing one pronounced much like or spelled much like the Greek word for “joy.” The word “joy” is also the most difficult of the readings presented (that is, the one the scribes would have been least likely to have introduced), and we may apply the principle of textual criticism here that, other things being equal, the most difficult reading is more likely to be the original one. If “carts” was the original reading, there is no possible explanation for all the other choices to exist, since “carts” makes perfectly good sense. The word “joy” also explains why there are manuscripts that omit the phrase “and joy” entirely. In defense of this reading it may also be pointed out that Josephus, who used 1 Esdras as a source for book 11 of his Jewish Antiquities (11.4.1), seems to know this reading, although he says that the Sidonians and Tyrians were “very willing and ready” to do the work rather than that the Jews “gladly” paid them. The Sidonians and the Tyrians were the people of the Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre, north of the old kingdom of Israel. The translation of this phrase should not suggest that all the people of Sidon and Tyre were involved in bringing lumber for the Temple. Obviously, only a certain number of laborers were hired.

To bring cedar logs from Lebanon: For cedar logs and Lebanon, see the comments on 1 Esd 4.48.

And convey them in rafts to the harbor of Joppa: The cedar logs were tied together in such a way as to create rafts to be brought down the seacoast to the port city of Joppa, which was about 58 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Jerusalem. So the cargo was its own mode of transportation. Contemporary English Version says “and so these logs were tied together into rafts and floated by sea to the harbor at Joppa.”

According to the decree which they had in writing from Cyrus king of the Persians: See 1 Esd 2.3-7. For Cyrus king of the Persians, see the comments on 1 Esd 2.1-2.

A model that combines verses 54 and 55 is:

• The Jews hired stoneworkers and carpenters to rebuild the Temple. They also gladly paid men from Sidon and Tyre with food and drink to bring cedar logs down from [the mountains of] Lebanon. These men tied the logs into rafts, and floated them down the seacoast to the port at Joppa. All of this was done according to the written orders given by King Cyrus of Persia [or, what King Cyrus of Persia had written in a letter].

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.