In this verse there occur three pairs that offer a set of interesting contrasts:

• King Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar,

• the house of the LORD and the house of the gods of Nebuchadnezzar, and

• the action of carrying away from and the action of placing in.

First, there is a focus on two rulers. In the text King Cyrus is being contrasted with Nebuchadnezzar. Second, there is a contrast between two buildings, the house that belongs to the LORD and the house that belongs to the gods of Nebuchadnezzar. By identifying the two houses with the deities to whom they belong, a contrast is also being drawn between the God of Israel and the gods of Babylonia. Third, two actions are being contrasted. Two occurrences of the same Hebrew verb in this verse focus the reader’s attention on this contrast. The verb may be translated literally “to cause to be taken out.” It is translated in Revised Standard Version as brought out and carried away according to the context. In this wordplay the vessels of the house of the LORD which Nebuchadnezzar had “captured” and placed in the temple of his gods are now “taken out” and thus are freed by Cyrus.

Here Cyrus is identified only as the king in contrast to the full title “Cyrus king of Persia,” which is used several times in this chapter.

The vessels of the house of the LORD, as is evident in the following verses, included various bowls and serving utensils that had been used for ceremonial meals in the Temple. No exact descriptions of these dishes exist. The translator should use a very general term like “articles” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible), “objects,” or even “things.”

Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonian king who reigned 605-562 B.C. He was the one who besieged Jerusalem in 597 B.C., destroyed the Temple in 586 B.C., took many people into exile from Judah in 597, 586 and 582 B.C., and plundered the valuables of the Temple in 597 and 586 B.C. to be used in the worship of the gods of Babylonia (see, for example, Dan 5.1-4). He took them to the house of his gods, which was the temple of the chief god of Babylon, Merodach who was also known as Marduk or Bel. This was originally a storm deity whose name meant “son of the storm.” He was the absolute king of the gods according to Enuma elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, and was considered to be a universal god. The Babylonians worshiped a number of gods, including Nebo, the son of Marduk and Ishtar, a fertility goddess. There were a number of temples in Babylon dedicated to these gods. The vessels were put in the house of Nebuchadnezzar’s gods along with the images of other conquered peoples to symbolize the victory of his gods over those of other peoples.

Had carried away … and placed: In English these verbs are in the pluperfect verb tense, since in the Hebrew narrative the action of Cyrus took place in the past, but the action of Nebuchadnezzar took place before the action of Cyrus. Nebuchadnezzar’s act is more distant in the past than Cyrus’s act. Translators must be careful to indicate the time relationship of the one event to the other event. Although the structure of the verse is relatively simple, the focus on King Cyrus and the contrast between his deed and that of Nebuchadnezzar must be made clear in the translation.

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 .

In Revised Standard Version this verse is connected to the previous chapter by the temporal expression Now when. “At that time” would also be an appropriate translation.

The people who came to offer help and then hindered the work are identified as the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. Previous experience with the neighboring peoples in Ezra 3.3 already marked them as enemies. The root meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated as adversaries or “enemies” is “to press, to bind up.” The underlying meaning here is “to cause distress to [someone]” or “to be hostile toward [someone].” In the history as it is recounted in the following verses, it becomes clear that these people were hostile toward the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Bible en français courant makes it explicit that they are “enemies of the Jews of Judah and Benjamin.” For Judah and Benjamin, see Ezra 1.5.

In translation the word used to express enmity here should be one whose main component of meaning is “antagonism”, “opposition to” or “hostility toward.” The emphasis in this context is not on mutual hatred or on the enmity of war, nor is it the enmity of a powerful oppressor against a conquered people. It should not be specified in the translation that these enemies were the Samaritans as is done in Amplified Bible.

What they heard may refer to the sound that was heard far away in Ezra 3.13. This is how it is interpreted in 1 Esdras 5.66: “when the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to find out what the sound of the trumpets meant.” Most translations, however, use heard to introduce what someone told the enemies of the Jews. They heard a report that the Jews who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple.

The returned exiles is literally “the sons of the exile.” New King James Version attempts to follow the Hebrew by saying “the descendants of the captivity,” but this does not make sense in English. Many other languages, however, will have a similar expression for describing a group of people who have undergone a common experience. For example, this may be expressed as “the offspring of the exile,” or there may be a special noun or compound noun to render it. The meaning, of course, is “those who had returned from exile” (Good News Translation). Translators must make sure that the meaning is clear.

A temple to the LORD, the God of Israel: The Hebrew text uses the preposition le, meaning “to” or “for,” to indicate for whom the Temple was being built. Many versions render it this way with a preposition such as to (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or “for” (New International Version, Bible en français courant). Other versions translate the meaning on the basis of the context, which is that they were rebuilding the Temple “of” the LORD, as in Good News Translation (also New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version). For temple see Ezra 3.6, and for the LORD, the God of Israel, see Ezra 1.3.

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 .

The connector But is a contrastive conjunction to indicate that although the Temple had been built previously, it was later destroyed.

Because our fathers had angered the God of heaven: An explanation is given for the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the people in Babylonia. Our fathers (Good News Translation “our ancestors”) had caused the God of heaven to become angry. It is not explained here what they did to make God angry, but they were punished for their deeds.

God gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, that is, he “put them under the power of Nebuchadnezzar” (similarly Revised English Bible) or “let them be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar” (Good News Translation). Nebuchadnezzar is called a Chaldean to identify his ethnic origin. The Chaldeans lived in southern Babylonia and founded the Neo-Babylonian Empire after the fall of the Assyrian Empire. In some languages being a member of a tribe is expressed as “son of” plus the tribe’s name. In other languages it may be preferable to specify that “his tribe was Chaldean” or “by race he was Chaldean.” For more information on Nebuchadnezzar and his title, see the comments on Ezra 1.7.

Who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia: The Jews explain that it was King Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed this house. The first meaning of the verb is “to hide, to remove from sight” and by extension it means “to destroy.” New English Bible says “who pulled down this house” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “who demolished this house.” Nebuchadnezzar also “carried the people captive to Babylon” (New English Bible). As in Ezra 2.1, both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation identify the place to which they were exiled as Babylonia because not all the exiles were kept in the city of Babylon itself. Babylonia is “the province of Babylon” or “the land of Babylon” (see the comment at Ezra 1.16).

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 .

And also to convey …: The king made specific provisions for the Temple in Jerusalem including money for sacrifices and vessels for its service, and the second part of Ezra’s commission was to convey these materials to Jerusalem. This verb may be translated as “take with you” (Good News Translation, New International Version) or “bring with you” (so New American Bible), depending on receptor language usage.

Silver and gold: See the comments on Ezra 1.4.

Freely offered: See the comments on Ezra 1.6. It is the same verb used in verse 13 above.

To the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem: See the comments on Ezra 1.2-4. The theme of the God of Israel whose house is in Jerusalem is repeated three times in the king’s letter, once here and twice in the following two verses. However, only in this verse in the book of Ezra is the word dwelling or “habitation” used. Elsewhere, the standard term “house” is used to refer to the Temple. Although dwelling here clearly refers to the Temple in Jerusalem, most versions have used an equivalent word here, instead of using “Temple” as Good News Translation has done. Translators should use a word similar to dwelling, which Chouraqui refers to as a “residence.”

In Aramaic there is one sentence in verses 15-16. Good News Translation breaks it into two sentences to make reading easier, and translators may wish to do the same.

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 .