Ezra 7:24
Ver. 24. Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God,.... The king had a right and perfect knowledge of the distinct offices and services of those persons, see Ezr 7:7,it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them; that they might be the less encumbered with the affairs of life, and be more at leisure to attend divine service, and do it the more readily and freely; it was usual with the Heathens to except ecclesiastics from taxes, tributes, and imposts; so the priests in Egypt {w}, and the Druids here in Britain {x}.{w} Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 66. {x} Caesar. Comment. de Bello Gall. l. 6. c. 13. Ezra 7:25Ver. 25. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand,.... Which he had a large share of from the Lord, and could readily make use of to good purpose; and this may be meant of the law of God made with the highest wisdom, and to know and observe which is an instance of wisdom in men, De 4:6,set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; such as God, in his great wisdom, directed to in his wise law to be appointed over the people, to judge righteous judgment; to inform them in all matters of controversy that might arise among them, and decide them according to it; and lead them into a greater and better knowledge of it, De 16:18. Jarchi takes the word for "set" to be a comparative, and the sense to be, that the wisdom of Ezra was greater than the judges that judged the people, than them that knew the law:and teach ye them that know them not; such people that were ignorant thereof; though the above writer interprets this of ignorant judges,"the judge that knows not to judge, make him know judgment to do it.'' Ezra 7:26Ver. 26. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king,.... Either the judge who delays judgment, or does not execute it according to the law of God, and of the king; or the people, that do not obey the law of God in matters of religion, and the law of the king in civil things, Judea being now a province of the Persian empire; though some think the law of the king only refers to this law or decree of the king, which gave the Jews power to execute their own laws:let judgment be executed speedily upon him; immediately, without delay, according to the nature of his crime:whether it be unto death; if guilty of a capital crime, deserving death, let him be put to death:or to banishment; from his native country to a foreign distant land;or to rooting out {y}, as the word signifies; an utter extirpation of him and his family, a destroying him root and branch; or, as Jarchi expresses it, a rooting him out of the world, his seed and family:or to confiscation of goods; to payment of mulcts and fines:or to imprisonment; for such a term of time; all according to the breach of what law he may be guilty of; thus far the king's decree.{y} wvrvl "ad eradicationem ejus", Pagninus, Montanus; "ad eradicationem", Tigurine version, Vatablus, De Dieu, Michaelis. Ezra 7:27Ver. 27. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers,.... This is Ezra's thanksgiving to God for the above decree:which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart; which he rightly took to be of God, who wrought in him to will and to do:to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem; to provide for the ornamenting of it, for vessels in it, as well as for sacrifices; for as for the building of it, that was finished. Ezra 7:28Ver. 28. And hath extended mercy unto me, before the king and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes,.... Before Artaxerxes, his seven counsellors, Ezr 7:14 and the nobles of his realm, in being appointed by them to carry their freewill offerings to Jerusalem, and the king's commands to his treasurers, with leave to take as many of the Jews with him as were willing to go:and I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me; animated to undertake this work, and execute this commission, being under the influence of divine favour and protection:and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me; he went about in the several parts where Israelites dwelt, and persuaded some of the principal men among them to go along with him to Jerusalem, showing them the king's decree, which gave them leave; and their names and numbers are described in the next chapter.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.