The leaders of the people who returned from exile responded that only they had permission from King Cyrus to rebuild the Temple. Those offering to help could have nothing to do in this project as they were not included in the edict that the king commanded. They make no reference to their adversaries’ earlier opposition or to their unorthodox beliefs, but refer only to the literal words of the royal edict. Only the phrase our God in an exclusive sense shows their rejection of the claim of their enemies to “worship your God as you do.”

For Jeshua see Ezra 2.2.

You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God is an English equivalent of the emphatic Hebrew expression that is literally “[It is] not to us and to you to build a house to our God” (see La Bible de la Pléiade); that is, it is out of the question that the building effort should be a joint one (so New Jerusalem Bible). An equally strong and direct form should be used in the receptor language. In some languages this will be a possessive construction: “It is not ours (exclusive first person plural pronoun) and yours (second person plural) together to build a house to our God.” The possessive pronoun our has a sense of exclusiveness emphasizing that he is the God that we worship and you are not among us. This is expressed explicitly in languages whose grammar distinguishes between first person plural inclusive and exclusive pronouns.

But we alone will build: This declaration of the Jews is introduced by a Hebrew conjunction that is rendered as a strong adversative but in Revised Standard Version. However, many versions do as Good News Translation has done and begin a new sentence emphasizing “We ourselves will build it.” The Hebrew statement uses the independent first person plural pronoun followed by an adverb that is rendered as alone in many versions. New Jerusalem Bible says “We shall build … on our own.” Some translators may restructure the syntax to read “It is we ourselves who will build it.” In some languages this meaning will be made explicit by the use of an independent first person plural exclusive pronoun (so Deftere Allah).

King Cyrus the king of Persia: In English it is not good style to repeat a title as a description as the Hebrew does with “the king Cyrus king of Persia.” However, because this is the first such double use of “king” in the book of Ezra (see Ezra 1.1, 7), it is an emphatic variation that should not be lost in translation. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh captures the emphasis by translating “the king, King Cyrus of Persia.” Bible en français courant retains the emphasis without repetition by saying “Cyrus himself, the emperor of Persia.” For a comment on “emperor,” see Ezra 1.1.

Commanded us: Here the Jews make it very clear that they were ordered to build the Temple. This contrasts with Ezra 1.3, where they were permitted but not ordered to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. In this context the Jews are emphasizing the authority they have from the king to rebuild the Temple after being permitted to return to Jerusalem.

A possible model for translating this verse is the following:

• But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the other heads of the clans of Israel said to them, “It is not for us and for you together to build a house to our God. It is we alone who will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, told us to do.”

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 .