Verse 10
10. Offer sacrifices of sweet savours Or, offer sweet odours.
The God of heaven The same respectful and devout Monotheism appears in this letter of Darius as in the proclamation of Cyrus. See note on Ezra 1:2.
It is interesting to find this same Darius, in his great inscription at Behistun, declaring, “The temples which the Magian had destroyed I rebuilt. The sacred offices of the state, both the religious chants and the worship, I restored to the people which the Magian had deprived them of.” This, doubtless, refers to the state religion of the Persians, which Darius re-established in place of the Magianism which the usurper had sought to revive; but it shows how Darius, like Cyrus, would naturally have a sympathy for the religion of the Jews, and sustain the action of his great predecessor toward them.
Pray for the life of the king The Persian monarch anticipates, by more than five centuries, the exhortations of an apostle of Christ. Comp. 1 Timothy 2:1-2.
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