The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:1-7
§ 2. RESTORATION OF THE ALTAR OF BURNT SACRIFICE , AND CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES . read more
Ezra 3:2-6 Niv
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:1-7
Acceptable service. When the 42,000 Israelites arrived in the land whither they went forth, they took peaceable and glad possession of their old homes; many, if not most, of them returning to the very fields and homesteads from which their fathers had been led away. They then showed a piety which was partly the fruit of the long discipline they had passed through in Persia. Their service of Jehovah, on this their return, was characterised by— I. SPONTANEITY ( Ezra 3:1 , Ezra 3:5 ... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:1-7
Aspects of worship. I. The HUMAN in WORSHIP . "Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak," etc. ( Ezra 3:2 ). These men were the leaders in this movement of worship; they gathered the people thereto. There is a human side to Divine worship; the altar looks toward earth as well as toward heaven; man builds, if God consecrates it; man appoints the time of worship, arranges its method, gathers the people, stimulates the conscience by faithful words, and enforces the law. A few good men... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:2
Jeshua the son of Jozadak. The position of Jeshua, both here and in Ezra 3:8 , Ezra 3:9 , sufficiently marks him as the high priest, though Ezra does not give him the title. Haggai, however ( Ezra 1:1 , 14; Ezra 2:2 ), and Zechariah ( Ezra 3:1 , Ezra 3:8 ; Ezra 6:11 ) distinctly assign him the office. His father, Jozadak, or Josedech, was the son of Seraiah, high priest at the destruction of Jerusalem ( 1 Chronicles 6:14 ). The name Jeshua is a mere variant of Joshua, and so... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:3
They set the altar upon his bases. They built the new altar upon the foundations of the old one, making it exactly conform to them. This was done, no doubt, to indicate that the religion which the exiles brought back from Babylon was in every respect identical with that which they had possessed before they were carried thither. Many moderns hold the contrary; but it has not yet been proved that the sojourn at Babylon modified the religious ideas of the Jews in any important particular. For... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:4
CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES ( Ezra 3:4 ). Emboldened by their successful restoration of the altar of burnt sacrifice, Zerubbabel and Jeshua allowed the people to gather themselves together and celebrate the autumnal festival, though they can scarcely have made it on this occasion a "feast of ingathering." As it is written . According to the mode of celebration prescribed in the law; i.e. for seven consecutive days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:4-6
The worship of the first year. In connection with the worship of the first year after the return of the children of Israel from Babylon, we notice— I. THAT IT WAS SUCH AS COULD BE CONDUCTED IN THE OPEN AIR . 1. They had their altar rebuilt. 2. But the foundation of the temple was not yet laid. This recalls the worship of the patriarchs. 3. There appears to have been no celebration of the ceremonies of the great day of atonement. II. THAT ... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:4-7
The first feast. "Also," Ezra 3:4 ; "afterward," Ezra 3:5 ; "but," Ezra 3:6 ; these are the three stepping-stones of this passage. After making a good beginning in restoring the daily sacrifices, the people "also" kept their first feast. "Afterward" they did what they could in restoring the observance of all the other ordinances and feasts of Jehovah. "But," it being impossible to do this satisfactorily as they were then situated with regard to the temple, they further proceeded to... read more
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:5
PERMANENT ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DAILY SACRIFICE , THE SET FEASTS , AND THE OFFERING OF FREE - WILL OFFERINGS ( Ezra 3:5 , Ezra 3:6 ). Having set up the altar, and celebrated the particular festival which the revolving year happened to have brought round, and which it would have been wrong to neglect, the exiles re-established permanently three things:— 1. The daily sacrifice; 2. The celebration of the new moons and other regular feasts; and 3. The... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Ezra 3:1-3
The altar rebuilt. The return from Babylon is supposed to have been in the spring. The first employment of the people would be to construct for themselves huts, or so to repair dilapidated buildings as to make them fit for habitation. This accomplished, no time was lost in setting about the great work of re-establishing their ancient worship. So "when the seventh month was come," the month Tisri, corresponding to portions of our September and October, they repaired to Jerusalem to... read more