John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 4:1
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin ,.... The Samaritans, as appears from Ezra 4:2 , heard that the children of the captivity ; the Jews, who had been in captivity seventy years, and were just come out of it, and still were not quite free, but under the jurisdiction and control of the king of Persia: builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel ; that they were going about it, and had laid the foundation of it, which might soon come to their ears, the distance not... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezra 4:1-5
We have here an instance of the old enmity that was put between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. God's temple cannot be built, but Satan will rage, and the gates of hell will fight against it. The gospel kingdom was, in like manner, to be set up with much struggling and contention. In this respect the glory of the latter house was greater than the glory of the former, and it was more a figure of the temple of Christ's church, in that Solomon built his temple when there was no... read more