Ezra 5:4

Then said we unto them after this manner,.... In answer to their questions; namely, Ezra and other Jews replied; for though Ezra is said after this to come from Babylon in the seventh year of

Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building? No JFB commentary on this verse.

Then said we; either, 1. We Tatnai and Shethar-boznai. And so this is an additional and more express inquiry concerning the names of the builders. And this sense is favoured by comparing ,10, where the same questions here severally made, ,4, are in like manner distinguished. And so the sacred writer speaks this in their person; such variation of persons being frequent in the Hebrew language, as the learned know. Or, 2. We Jews; and so the translation must be a little varied, and the words read without an interrogation, thus, Then we told them accordingly (i.e. according to what they asked) what were the names of the men that made this building, i.e. who were the chief undertakers and encouragers of this work; for although the Hebrew particle mah, rendered what, seems always to be used interrogatively, yet the Chaldee particle man, here rendered what, is used otherwise, as is manifest from .

Ezra 5:4 Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?Ver. 4. Then said we unto them] We (Tatnai, Shetherboznai, and their companions) thus said, and thus inquired; see Ezra 5:16, and be sensible how wicked men conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, "and their belly prepareth deceit," Job 15:35. Not their heads only are hammering it, but their bellies are hatching it; they take a kind of contemplative kind of pleasure in their wily projects, as the epicure doth in his dainties; he delights to be acting them over beforehand. What are the names of the men] They that are minded to do mischief unto others will do what they can to know their names. I have heard of one (saith Master Fox) who being sent to the Christian congregation in Queen Mary’ s days in London to take their names, and to espy their doings, yet in being among them was converted, and cried them all mercy (Acts and Mon. fol. 1881). Tremellius readeth this text otherwise. Then answered we them thus, and [told them] what were the names of the men who built this building. He means, as I conceive, We were not ashamed or afraid to make them around and ready answer; and to give them the names of our chieftains, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai, Zechariah, &c. This was better than that of those cold friends to religion, 1 Kings 18:11, who (when the prophet had said, If the Lord be God, follow him) held their peace, and thought it good policy to reserve themselves. Better also than that of the bondslaves of Antichrist, who receive his mark in their hand, the which they may, as occasion serveth, cover or discover, Revelation 13:16. The servants of the God of heaven and earth (such as were these in this chapter, Ezra 5:11) receive his mark in their foreheads, where it may be seen and read of all, Revelation 7:3. The primitive Christians were called in derision Confitentes; and Chrysostom saith of them, that they would not be kept from visiting the martyrs in prison, tametsi multis terroribus, &c., though they were much threatened, and punished for so doing (Hom. Deuteronomy 2:1-37 Martyr.).

(4) Then said we.—The LXX. must here have read, “then said they.” But there is no need to change the text; the sentence is not a question, but a statement: “we said to the effect, what the names were.” What are the names of the men . . .?—It is clear that this graphic account is much compressed. We must understand (see Ezra 5:10) that the authorities demanded the names of the chief promoters of the building in order to make them responsible.

Verse 4. What are the names] It is most evident that this is the answer of the Jews to the inquiry of Tatnai, Ezra 5:3, and the verse should be read thus: Then said we unto them after this manner: THESE are the names of the men who make this building.

4. Then said we unto them, &c.] R.V. Then spake we unto them after this manner, What, &c. Margin, ‘Or, Then spake we unto them after this manner. What, said they, are the names’, &c. ‘Or, according to some ancient versions, Then spake they unto them, &c. See Ezra 5:10.’ (a) The reading followed in the A.V. and R.V. is practically unintelligible. ‘Then spake we’ would naturally introduce the Jews’ reply (the first person being remarkable, but quite intelligible): but the question, ‘What are the names of the men that make this building?’ is as obviously the question of the governor. It is equally impossible to apply ‘we’ to the governor and his companions, and to see in ‘Then spake we unto them’, &c. a continuance of ‘came Tattenai’, &c. The only possible rendering is, ‘Then spake we unto them after this manner (with reference to the question), What are’, &c. But the ellipse is so harsh as to make this, even if it were grammatically possible, inadmissible. (b) On the other hand, the alternative reading, given as the second alternative in the Margin of the R.V., supplies the sense needed by the context, i.e. ‘They said’. This is supported by the LXX. (τότεταῦταεἴποσαναὐτοῖς) and the Peshitto Syriac. It is also supported by internal evidence. In Ezra 5:3, Tattenai and his friends ask the first question relating to official permission; in Ezra 5:4 (according to the emended reading) they ask a further question, as to the names of the Jewish leaders. To neither question is the answer of the Jews directly recorded, since the substance of their answers is reported in the letter to Darius (2–16). That letter mentions also the interrogatories. The first interrogation is repeated verbatim (Ezra 5:9). The second is described (Ezra 5:10), ‘We asked them their names also’, in a manner exactly corresponding to the present verse, Then spake they unto them after this manner, What are the names? The emendation, it must be admitted, is the easier reading, and is therefore perhaps to be suspected as a correction. But it is impossible to accept the A.V. text as representing the original. It is best to receive the reading of the LXX. ‘They said’, and to regard the reading ‘we said’, as a very early error of a scribe who by a natural mistake began to write the 4th verse as the answer in a dialogue. What are the names, &c.] Cf. Ezra 5:10, ‘the names of the men that were at the head of them’. This enquiry would hardly have been made if the correspondence recorded in Ezra 4:7-23 had taken place in the seven months’ reign of Pseudo-Smerdis, and had brought official investigation so recently to bear upon the affairs of Jerusalem.

Then said we - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions have “Then said they,” which brings this verse into exact accordance with Ezra 5:10.

4. Then said we — The elders of the Jews. From the use of the first person here, it is evident that this account was written by an eye-witness.