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4 - The ‘speeches’ in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

Rex Mason
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Summary

Ezra 1:2–4 The decree of Cyrus

Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, ‘All the kingdoms of the world Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given to me, and it is he who has appointed me to build him a sanctuary in Jerusalem of Judah. Any of you, among all his people, may Yahweh his God be with him and may he go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the sanctuary of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.4 And anyone who is left from among the regions where he sojourns, may he be assisteda by the people of his region with silver, gold, possessions, animals and with free-will offerings for the sanctuary of the God who is in Jerusalem.’

Text

aLit. ‘let them [i.e. the people of the returning sojourner's region] bear him up with …’.

General description

A written ‘royal decree’ making use of the messenger formula. It calls for support of those who return and virtually amounts to ‘An Encouragement for a Task’ formula.

Contents

The decree of Cyrus, with which Chronicles ends and the Book of Ezra begins, has been discussed above (see pp. 118f.). It is verbally identical here with the form in which it occurs in Chronicles except that to the motif of rebuilding the temple is added that of the support in kind of those among the exiles in each region who return to undertake the task.

Type
Chapter
Information
Preaching the Tradition
Homily and Hermeneutics after the Exile
 , pp. 147 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1990

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