The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 50

EXPOSITION. Ver. 7.-And in the days of Artuerxea. east of Babylon. The Apharsites aro no See the comment on ver. 6. If Artaxerxes doubt Persians ; the Dehavites, Dai or Dahre be the Pseudo-Smerdis, we can readily a tribe located in Persia Proper (' Hero<l. ,' i'. understand why an application was not 125). If uncertainty attaches to any of the made to him at once, and how it came about names, it is to two only-the Dinaites an,l that the Jews recommenced their building, the Te.rpelites. Of these, the Dinaites are as they appear from vers. 12, 13 to have probably the people of Dayan, e. country done. The Pseudo-Smerdis was a usurper ; bordering on Cilicia, whose inhabitants aro his reign was a time of partial anarchy ; in often mentioned by the Assyrian monarchs. a distant pa.rt of the empire it would not be The Tarpelites have been regarded as tlrn known for e. while who was king. Men people of Tripolis; but it is improbable that would be thrown on themselves, and would that city had a.a yet received its Greek name. do as it seemed good in their own eyes. Perhaps they a.re the Tuplai, or people of Later, there may have been some doubt Tuba!, mentioned in Scripture and the whether e. king, who was known to be e. Assyrian inscriptions, the letter r being a religious reformer, would follow the policy euphonic addition, as in Da.rmesek for of his predecessor with respect to the Jews, Dammesek shaTmth for ahebeth, and the or reverse it_ Hence a delay, and then a like. more formal application than before for e. Ver. 10.-The rest of the nations whom positive decree to stop the building (see ver. the great and noble Asne.pper brought over. 21). The rest of their companions. Literally, Nothing more is known of "the great and of their companies-the abstract for the noble Asnapper," who is here mentioned as concrete. The writing of the letter we.a bringing the colonists and setting them written in the Syrian tongue. Rather, "in in the cities of Samaria. We must suppose the Syrian fashion," i. e. in Syriac characters. him to have been e.n officer employed by And interpreted in the Syrian tongue. Or Esar-he.ddon on this service. The name is "translated into the Syriac language." The Assyrian in form, and may have meant character and the words were a.like Syriac "Asshur pursues." The rest that a.re on (comp. 2 Kings x-viii. 26). Ezra gives the this side the river. Rather, "across the letter in Chaldee. river." As Romans in North Italy, writing Ver. 8. -Be hum the chancellor. Literally, to Rome, would have spoken of themselves "the lord of judgment." It may be con- e.s "Transpadani," so Persian subjects, jectured that Rehum was the sub-satrap writing to Susa from the west of the J orclan, (inro<1aTpa,r1J~·, Xen. ), of the province of speak of their country as "across the Se.maria. And Shimahai the scribe. Or Jordan." And at such e. time. Rather, "secretary." Herodotus tells us that in " and so forth." This and the preceding every Persian province the governor had verse set forth the address of Rehum's letter. e. secretary attached to him, who was The whole address not being given, the appointed by the crown, and acted e.s a writer ends with the phrase uk'eneth, which check upon his nominal master (Herod., means" and so forth," or" et cetere." (comp. iii. 128). The position assigned to Shim- eh. vii. 12 ). •• shai in this chapter (see especially vers. 9, Ver. 11.-This is the copy of the letter. 17, 23) is such as might be expected under The address having been given, the writer these circumstances. now proceeds to the contents of the letter. Ver. 9.-The Dinaitea, &c. It is curious Thy servants the men on this aide the river, that the Samaritans, instead of using a &c. This wo.s u. sort of heading inside tLe general appellation, describe themselves letter-a repetition in brief of the address. under the names of the various nations and Ver. 12.-The Jews which came up from cities which had furnished the colonists of thee. I. e. from the central provinces-from whom they were the descendants. It would that pa.rt of the empire where thou dwellest. seem that they were not yet, in the time of To ua. To our part of the world-to Pales- t~e Pseudo-Smerdis, amalgamated into a tine. Are ... building the rebellious and smgle people. From the list of no.mes we the bad city. The ground of this accusa- 11:10.ygatherthat the colonists ofEso.r-haddon's tion must bo sought in the various revolts o! time had been derived chiefly from Southern the Jews from the Babylonians recorded Babylonia and the adjacent regions of in 2 Kings xxiv., xxv. There had been Sus_iann, Persia, and Elymo.is. The Baby- one, or perhaps two, previous revolts from lonians, Susanchites, and Elo.mites speak for Assyria (2 Kings xviii. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. themselves, and require no explanation. 11) ; but of these the Samaritans probably The Archevites are the people of Erech or knew nothing. They would, however, be Orchoe (now Warka.), a city to the south- likely to know that before N cbuchadnezza.r  54 THE BOOK OF EZRA. [on. tv. 7-16.