Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

In the house of the rolls - ספריא בית beith siphraiya, the house of the books, the king's library. This is the first time we hear of a library.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

A “house of the rolls” was discovered at Koyunjik, the ancient Nineveh, in 1850 - a set of chambers, i. e., in the palace devoted exclusively to the storing of public documents. These were in baked clay, and covered the floor to the depth of more than a foot. Such a “house” was probably that at Babylon.

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible

THE SECOND TEMPLE WAS COMPLETED AND DEDICATED

"Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, a roll, and therein was thus written for a record: in the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be builded, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; with three courses of great stones, a course of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of the king's house. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to its place; and thou shalt put them in the house of God."

"In the house of the archives where the treasures were stored up" (Ezra 6:1). This verse is another example of scholarly tampering with the sacred text in order to make it say what the scholars suppose it SHOULD have said. The RSV renders this line, "in the house of the archives where the documents were stored"; but Bowman rejects this as "unnecessary,"[1] because archaeological discoveries have proved that such decrees were kept in the same vaults where the treasures were also kept.

It is to Darius' great credit that when Cyrus' decree was not found in Babylon, he did not abandon the search, which he might well have done unless he had been motivated by a favorable inclination toward the Jews. Also, he might well have heard about that decree and thus had personal knowledge that it certainly existed.

"And there (it) was found at Achmetha (Echbatana)" (Ezra 6:2). "This was in Media, the summer residence of Persian kings."[2] "Echbatana is the Persian name for this place, as it came to light in the discovery of the Behistun Inscription."[3]

"The Behistun Inscription was discovered in 1835 by Sir Henry Rawlinson, a British army officer. On Behistun mountain, 200 miles northeast of Babylon, there was a great isolated rock rising 1700 feet out of the plain; and on the face of that rock, on a perpendicular cliff, 400 feet above the road, Rawlinson noticed a large smoothed surface upon which there were carvings and inscriptions. These had been inscribed there by Darius I (Hystaspes) in the yearr 516 B.C., the very year that the Second Temple was finished in Jerusalem. These inscriptions were written in the Persian, Elamitc, and Babylonian languages; and Rawlinson, standing on a narrow 1-foot ledge at the base of these writings, made squeezes of them. The inscriptions were an account, the same account, of the conquests of Darius, written in three languages; and Sir Henry Rawlinson had found the key to the ancient Babylonian language, which unlocked for the world the vast treasures of the ancient Babylonian literature."[4]

Regarding this edict of Cyrus, "The old (critical) objections against the authenticity of this edict, on the supposition that Cyrus would not have concerned himself with the details and size of the temple, can no longer be sustained."[5]

"The variations between this decree of Cyrus and that report of it in Ezra 1 is due to the fact that this one was an official document relating to the expenditure of public money, and that one was an oral, public proclamation."[6]

There is no disharmony whatever between them!

The dimensions for the temple listed by Cyrus area problem. There are different accounts of the size of Solomon's temple, in 2 Chronicles 3 and in 1 Kings 6; and, "It it is difficult to reconcile the dimensions given here with the statements made in Zechariah 4:10 and Haggai 2:3, implying that the second temple was smaller than the first. Perhaps the dimensions here are those which Cyrus required the Jews not to exceed."[7] Keil solved the problem with the suggestion that Cyrus' dimensions included the external structures,[8] and others have suggested that the smaller size of the second temple was due to the fact that it was the largest the returnees could afford, due to their impoverished condition.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then Darius the king made a decree,.... To make inquiry after the edict of Cyrus, to search the public records for it:

and search was made in the house of the rolls; or "books"^F18בבית ספריא, εν ταις βιβλιοθηκαις, Sept. "in bibliotheca", V. L. "in bibliotheca librorum", Tigurine version; "in domo librorum", Pagninus, Montanus. , in a public library or museum:

where the treasures were laid up in Babylon; where things of worth and value were reposited; not only gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones, and things rare and curious, but all sorts of writings relating to the monarchy, and the dominions belonging to it; but it seems it could not be found here, and therefore the king ordered search to be made elsewhere.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Ezra 6:1-12. Darius‘ decree for advancing the building.

Darius the king — This was Darius Hystaspes. Great and interesting light has been thrown on the history of this monarch and the transaction of his reign, by the decipherment of the cuneatic inscriptions on the rocks at Behistun.

in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon — An idea of the form of this Babylonian register house, as well as the manner of preserving public records within its repositories, can be obtained from the discoveries at Nineveh. Two small chambers were discovered in the palace of Koyunjik, which, from the fragments found in them, Mr. Layard considers “as a house of the rolls.” After reminding his readers that the historical records and public documents of the Assyrians were kept on tablets and cylinders of baked clay, many specimens of which have been found, he goes on to say, “The chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository in the palace of Nineveh for such documents. To the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building. They were of different sizes; the largest tablets were flat, and measured about nine inches by six and a half inches; the smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long, with but one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were singularly sharp and well-defined, but so minute in some instances as to be almost illegible without a magnifying glass. These documents appear to be of various kinds. The documents that have thus been discovered in the house of rolls‘ at Nineveh probably exceed all that have yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt, and when the innumerable fragments are put together and transcribed, the publication of these records will be of the greatest importance to the history of the ancient world” [Nineveh and Babylon].

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

A decree — To search the rolls in Babylon, where search was first made; but not finding the edict there, they searched in Achmetha, or Ecbatana, and found it.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Ezra 6:1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

Ver. 1. Then Darius the king] DARIUS HYSTASPES, who succeeded Cambyses, being chosen by the princes of the Persians, as saith Herodotus. Plato commendeth him for a restorer of the Persian monarchy, much defaced under Cambyses. Howbeit he discommends him for this, that he bred not his son Xerxes so well as he might have done, and further testifieth, that to him it might be said: O Darius, how little care hast thou taken to shun Cyrus’s slackness! for thou hast bred Xerxes every whit as ill as he did Cambyses, W Dαρειε ως του Kυρου κακον ουκ εμα- Yες..

In the house of the rolls] So called, because rolled up together, volumes rolled up, like the web upon the pin.

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 1. Darius the king— As Darius, the better to fortify his title to the crown, had married two of the daughters of Cyrus, he thought himself bound to do every thing which might tend to the honour of that great prince; and therefore more readily confirmed the decree which he had granted to the Jews. Instead of were laid up in Babylon, Houbigant reads, had been laid up in Babylon.

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

CONTENTS

This Chapter relates an event of great joy to the people of God. Darius commands the building to go on. It is finished. They celebrate the Passover, and make a feast of dedication.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

EZRA CHAPTER 6

Darius answereth the former letter, Ezra 6:1-7; and maketh a new decree, Ezra 6:8-12. By the help of the adversaries, and the directions of the prophets, the temple is finished, Ezra 6:13-15. The feasts of the dedication, Ezra 6:16-18, and of the passover, are kept, Ezra 6:19-22.

Darius made a decree; either,

1. To search the rolls. Or rather,

2. To permit and promote the building of the temple. And so the following words may be rendered, after search was made, &c., the Hebrew particle vau being oft so used, as hath been noted before. In Babylon; either,

1. In the kingdom or empire of Babylon, which he now possessed; or rather,

2. In the city of Babylon, where search was first made, supposing that this edict, which was made presently after Cyrus had taken Babylon, was kept there; but not finding it there, they searched in Achmetha, and found it there.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

1.House of the rolls’ in Babylon — Chaldee: House of books; the royal library, or chamber of manuscripts and archives attached to the palace in Babylon. Layard discovered at Nineveh a series of chambers, the floors of which were covered a foot or more deep with documents written in bricks of baked clay. But it seems the desired document could not be found in Babylon. The archives of the empire had been transferred to Ecbatana. See next verse.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Ezra 6:1. Then Darius the king made a decree — To search the rolls in Babylon, where search was fairly made; but not finding the edict there, they searched in Achmetha, or Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medes and Persians, and found it there. As Darius, the better to fortify his title to the crown, had married two of the daughters of Cyrus, he thought himself concerned to do every thing which might tend to the honour of that great prince, and therefore more readily confirmed the decree which he had granted to the Jews.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Library. Protestants, "house of the rolls, where the treasures were," &c. --- Babylon. In the city, the search was fruitless: (Vatable) but in the kingdom, the record was discovered. (Menochius)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

Darius: i.e. Darius (Hystaspis). See Chronological Structure and notes (pp 617, 618), and App-67.

Babylon. See note on Ezra 5:13.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

Darius the king. This was Darius Hystaspes. Great and interesting light has been thrown on the history of this monarch and the transactions of his reign by the decipherment of the cuneitic inscriptions on the rocks at Behistun.

In the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon [ b

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) Made a decree.—Rather, gave an order.

Were laid up.—In the original, laid down, in a chamber for the storing of documents and other treasures.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

and search

4:15,19; 5:17; Job 29:16; Proverbs 25:2

rolls

Chal. books.

Psalms 40:7; Jeremiah 36:2-4,20-23,29,32; Ezekiel 2:9; 3:1; Revelation 5:1

laid up

Chal. made to descend.