Ezra 1:7 - Exposition

The vessels . Probably all that he could find, yet scarcely all that had been taken away, since many of these were of bronze ( 2 Kings 25:14 ), and the restored vessels seem to have been, all of them, either of gold or silver (see Ezra 1:11 ). Which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth. The carrying off of sacred vessels, as well as images, from temples is often represented in the Assyrian sculptures. It was a practice even of the Romans, and is commemorated on the Pillar of Titus, where the seven-branched candlestick of the Jewish temple is represented as borne in triumph by Roman soldiers. And had put them in the house of his gods. Elohayv , which is the form used in the text, can only mean "his god ," not "his gods." Nebuchadnezzar represents himself, in his inscriptions generally, as a special devotee of a single Babylonian god, Merodach, whose temple, called by the Greeks that of Bel, is no doubt here intended (comp. Daniel 1:2 ).