Basement (33) 1 <=">'''•
Lower block (n-|;jD? 2 cubits.
Higher block (rnivj? * "
Block of altar hearth p.xnx) . ... 4 ..
HomB l"'""-
Total
12 cubits.
the temple had been destroyed, Sheshbazzara WR« sent by Cyrus, king of Persia, to be governflr of Judiea. He received permission to take with huii his leading fellow-countrymen from Babylon, to restore their Jewish religion and rebuOd tb9 teraple.jS Sheshbazzar was accompanied by his nephew Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, representing respectively the royal and priestly lines Cyrus not only gave orders that the temple should be re-erected, but he gave Sheshbazzar power to carry with him the sacred vessels taken by Nebucliadnezzar from the temple, and imposed a tax upon tlie provinces west of the Euphrates to meet the expenses of the return of the Jews to their own country.7 Phoenicia and Tyre were to supdIv the wood from Lebanon, and to send it on rafts to Joppa.« Whether all the instructions given by tlie Persian king were carried out we have no means of knowing.
Seven months after the Ketum, the altar of burnt- oflerin" was erected,e probably upon the same site as the old one. The building of the house was slower work, but a collection was made to meet the needful outlay.f In the 2nd month of the "nd year after the Return, the foundation-stone was laid. 7, Then there was a pause m the work owin" to the opposition of the mixed population ot Samaria.e who, as not being pure Israelites, were not allowed to share in the rebuilding of the temple. I
There is no conBrmation ot the statement* that the people of &." aria intrigued with the Persian king to authonUtively s o^tTe work. According to Hagga, -f Z«>-"J^'^*^,ii''; indffcrence of the people that was at '''\':^"°J °i. '^*^ft*^ See especially Zee 1-8, where the various dilBcultie» are met m the successive visions.
The proportion of height and (assumed) basemen.s s ( = {e).^ a favourite ratio with Ezekiel. Note further that the he Sjht ,s identical with the altar surface : thus we get a cube (a *. a A). In the calculation of height the horns are mcluded. In act the horns seem to have been an essential part, nay the r^iost sacred part, ot the altar.9 On them the blo«l was sprinkled and to them fugitives came, feehng safe if they had hold of them In early times the altar possessed no horns., btade » NowMk X and others regard the horns as a sur>ival of the bull fm«"of Jehovah worshipped in the N. kingdom, which w,^ klso a representation of deities woijhipped by the Egj-ptians Canaanites, and Phmnicians. The ho^v stone or altar .t has been said, was in early times covered by the skm of the amma K^rificed the skin of the bull having the horns attached But whv,ur that case, was not the altar constructed with «>™honis, The number on oAe skin, instead of dmM,- that ,.«m6er? Villal- pandox thought the horns trophies of the anunals sacnBoed to £Sd Spencer «. inclines to the opinion that the horns were expressive of (Ugnity, the horn being a decoration worn by distinguished persons.
iii ZERUBBABEVS r£jl/PZ,E. -The temple erected by tiie Jews who returned from exile IS called Zerub- babel's because he was the leader m promoting its erection, supporting Haggai and Zechariah in their endeavours to urge the people to build when the latter were inclined to relax. He was grandson of Jehoiachin and probably nephew of Sheshbazzar. i- In the spring of B.C. 537, forty -nine years after
« "jN-inri : Sx-isn : tor the proper writing ot the word see SROr liotes on Is'aiah 291 (Cheyne), a.id on Ezckicl 4315 (ToyX It is probable that the word is not compound, the endmg being a mere noun suffix as in Sn?, S-n;, and ^V- ^ So Chej^e and Kraetzschmar, following Ewald (see Coinm. and Gram, i 1CJ<;). The word simply means in that case 'burning place, from m.^
% Sec"Ezk 4S1»«. * So Cheyne would read it.
J V.15. ' 3|.
tEV ' settle •• the Heb. wonl means elsewhere court or eiiclo^ure from a Semitic root meaning to press in, to en- dose Perhaps the word stands in Ezk 4314 strictly for the surroumling ledge ot one cubit width ; then for the square block above it. „^, . „ij
. Ezk 4tH2 4lM. * Ct. Am 314. .
" Ex 20^ (Book ot Cov.) ; ct. Stade. Guch. L 466 ; Now. fl<*.
^"''lmM X On Erdtwi, ii. S9S.
u. De Leiiibui, U. 677 (ed. Tub. 17S2). . Called Sanabassar by the beet Greek authontie*
Nothing further was done until B.C. 520, the "nd year of the reign of Darius Hystaspis. Shesh- bazz'ar was probably dead now, and the lead was taken up by his nephew and successor Zerubbabel, aided by the high priest Joshua. Much of the new zeal was owing to the earnest pleadings of the new prophets named. Recommenced in B.C. 5iU, ^ the temple was completed in B.C. 516.M
Sources of information as to Zerubbabel s Temple. —These are very meagre : indeed we have hardly anything which for certain applies to the temple as it was at or soon after the txile. Ihere are scattered notices in Ezra and Nehemiah Heca- tffius of Abdera, contemporary and friend of Alexander the Great, is said by JosephuSF to have written a book concerning the Jews and he quotes parts of it referring to the temple. It is bv no means certain that Hecatfeus wrote the book in question; nevertheless, the quotations made by Josephus are interesting and of value. The OT Aiiocrvpha also has important allusions ; e'^pecially is this true of the Books of Maccabees. But it is hard to say how far the statements are true of the temple completed in B.C. 516. Josephus is too much controlled by the temple as he saw it, to be a reliable guide concerning the earlier