以斯拉記 4:4-5 RCUVTS

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Ezra 4:1-24

Opposition stops the work (4:1-24)As a result of Assyria’s resettlement program of two centuries earlier, a race of people grew up in the area around Samaria and Jerusalem who were of mixed blood and mixed religion. They were known as Samaritans (see notes on 2 Kings 17:24-33). The Jewish leaders refused their offered help in building the temple of God, no doubt to prevent wrong ideas from corrupting Israel’s religion. The Samaritan group reacted bitterly. They opposed the Jewish builders so... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Ezra 4:4

troubled them in = terrified them from. read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Ezra 4:5

Cyrus. The son of Astyages and Esther. See App-57 . Darius: i.e. Darius Hystaspis (see App-57 , App-58 ). "Darius" being only an appellative (= the maintainer), needs "Hystaspis" to be added, to identify him; as Astyages, when called Darius, needs the addition of "the Mede". See App-58 , and notes on p. 618. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ezra 4:4

Ver. 4. Weakened the hands— See Nehemiah 6:9. Jeremiah 38:4. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ezra 4:5

Ver. 5. Until the reign of Darius— The most probable opinion is, that the Darius here meant was Darius Hystaspes, whose second year was the eighteenth after the first of Cyrus, according to Huet. And it is plain that Ahasuerus, mentioned in the sixth verse, was Cambyses; and Artaxerxes, mentioned in the seventh, the false Smerdis; because they were kings of Persia, who reigned between the time of Cyrus and the time of that Darius by whose decree the temple was finished. But, as that Darius was... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ezra 4:4

4, 5. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, c.—Exasperated by this repulse, the Samaritans endeavored by every means to molest the workmen as well as obstruct the progress of the building and, though they could not alter the decree which Cyrus had issued regarding it, yet by bribes and clandestine arts indefatigably plied at court, they labored to frustrate the effects of the edict. Their success in those underhand dealings was great; for Cyrus, being frequently... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ezra 4:1-5

Opposition during Cyrus’ reign 4:1-5The Assyrian government encouraged its residents to move to Israel and to settle there after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C. This was official government policy during the reigns of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.; 2 Kings 17:24) and Ashurbanipal (668-ca. 630 B.C.; Ezra 4:10). These immigrant people worshipped pagan idols (2 Kings 17:30-31), but also started worshipping Yahweh, whom they regarded as the god of the land in which they... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ezra 4:1-24

Feud Between the Jews and SamaritansThis chapter describes the desire of the Samaritans to take part in the rebuilding of the Temple, and their successful opposition to the Jews on their request being refused.1. The adversaries] The term is here anticipatory of the opposition subsequently displayed. The people thus designated were the Samaritans, who, in the main, were the descendants of the immigrants who, to replace the Israelite population that had been deported after the fall of Samaria,... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Ezra 4:5

(5) And hired counsellors against them.—They adopted a systematic course of employing paid agents at the court: continued for eight years, till B.C. 529. Cambyses, his son, succeeded Cyrus; he died B.C. 522; then followed the pseudo-Smerdis, a usurper, whose short reign Darius did not reckon, but dated his own reign from B.C. 522. A comparison of dates shows that this was the first Darius, the son of Hystaspes. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Ezra 4:1-5

THE LIMITS OF COMPREHENSIONEzra 4:1-5; Ezra 4:24THE fourth chapter of the Book of Ezra introduces the vexed question of the limits of comprehension in religion by affording a concrete illustration of it in a very acute form. Communities, like individual organisms, can only live by means of a certain adjustment to their environment, in the settlement of which there necessarily arises a serious struggle to determine what shall be absorbed and what rejected, how far it is desirable to admit alien... read more