to stop · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
work
עֲבִידַ֣ת'a.vi.Dat
H5673
labor or business · noun, common feminine singular construct
house
בֵּיתbeit-
H1005
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common both genders singular construct
God
אֱלָהָ֔א'e.la.Ha'
H426
God · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
Jerusalem
בִּירוּשְׁלֶ֑םbi.ru.she.Lem
H3390
Jerusalem · preposition + proper noun, a place name
ceased
וַהֲוָת֙va.ha.Vat
H1934
to exist · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
unto
עַ֚ד'ad
H5705
as far (or long · preposition
second
תַּרְתֵּ֔יןtar.Tein
H8648
two · cardinal number, feminine dual absolute
year
שְׁנַ֣תshe.Nat
H8140
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine singular construct
reign
לְמַלְכ֖וּתle.mal.Khut
H4437
dominion (abstractly or concretely) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Darius
דָּרְיָ֥וֶשׁda.re.Ya.vesh
H1868
Darejavesh · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4430
a king · noun, common both genders singular construct
Persia
פָּרָֽסpa.Ras
H6540
Paras (i.e. Persia) · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Haggai 1:15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
Ezra 5:5 But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then…
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.
Nehemiah 6:3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it,…
Nehemiah 6:9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my h…
Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
1 Thessalonians 2:18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 4:17–end
Here we have,
I. The orders which the king of Persia gave, in answer to the information sent him by the Samaritans against the Jews. He suffered himself to be imposed upon by their fraud and falsehood, took no care to examine the allegations of their petition concerning that which the Jews were now doing, but took it for granted that the charge was true, and was very willing to gratify them with an order of council to stay proceedings. 1. He consulted the records concerning Jerusalem, and found that it had indeed rebelled against the king of Babylon, and therefore that it was, as they called it, a bad city (Ezr 4:19), and withal that in times past kings had reigned there, to whom all the cou…
Then ceased the work of the house of God--It was this occurrence that first gave rise to the strong religious antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans, which was afterwards greatly aggravated by the erection of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim.
Next: Ezra Chapter 5
Adam Clarke on Ezra 4:24
So it ceased unto the second year of - Darius - They had begun in the first year of Cyrus, b.c. 536, to go up to Jerusalem, and they were obliged to desist from the building b.c. 522; and thus they continued till the second year of Darius, b.c. 519. See the chronology in Hag 1:1 (note) and Zac 1:1 (note) and the following chapter, Ezra 5 (note).
John Gill on Ezra 4:24
Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem,.... How far they had proceeded is not said, whether any further than laying the foundation of it; though probably, by this time, it might be carried to some little height; however, upon this it was discontinued:
so it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia; not Darius Nothun, as some think, for from the first of Cyrus to the sixth of his reign, when the temple was finished, was upwards of one hundred years; yea, according to some, about one hundred and forty; which would carry the age of Zerubbabel, who both laid the foundation of the temple, and finished it, and the age of those who saw the first te…
The Church Fathers
The Jews said, "This temple was built in forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" They answered as they understood. But lest we too should perceive our Lord's spiritual word in a carnal way, the Evangelist subsequently explained what temple it was of which he was speaking. As for their stating that the temple was built in forty-six years, they meant not its first but its second building. For Solomon, the first [builder], finished the temple very rapidly within seven years, during a time of great peace in his kingdom. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans, but after seventy years it began to be rebuilt, at the bidding of Cyrus the Persian, when the captivity was lightened. But the descendants of those who were deported were unable to finish the work that they were doing under the rulers Zerubbabel and Jeshua before forty-six years had passed, on account of the resistance of the neighboring nations.This number [forty-six] of years is also most apt for the perfecting of our Lord's physical body. Writers on natural history tell us that the form of the human body is completed within this number of days. During the first six days after conception it has a likeness to milk; during the following nine days it is changed into blood; next, in twelve days, it becomes solid; during the remaining eighteen days it is formed into the perfect features of all its members; and after this, during the time remaining until birth, it increases in size. Six plus nine plus twelve plus eighteen makes forty-five. If to this we add one, that is, the day on which the body, divided into its separate members, begins to grow, we find the same number of days in the building up of our Lord's body as there were years in the construction of the temple.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Rehum — Merciful. (1.) One of “the children of the province” who returned from the Captivity (Ezra 2:2); the same as “Nehum” (Neh. 7:7). (2.) The “chancellor” of Artaxerxes, who sought to stir him up against…
Artaxerxes · .Prohibits the rebuilding of — .Prohibits the rebuilding of
Bishlam · A Samaritan who obstructed the rebuilding of the temple at — A Samaritan who obstructed the rebuilding of the temple at
Persia · Artaxerxes I — Artaxerxes I
Temple, The Second · The Samaritans: Procured its interruption for fifteen years — The Samaritans: Procured its interruption for fifteen years
Zechariah (Zecharias) · .Prophesied during the reign of Darius — .Prophesied during the reign of Darius
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
"Then ceased the work of the house of God at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of Darius king of Persia." With this statement the narrator returns to the notice in Ezr 4:5, that the adversaries of Judah succeeded in delaying the building of the temple till the reign of King Darius, which he takes up, and now adds the more precise information that it ceased till the second year of King Darius. The intervening section, Ezr 4:6, gives a more detailed account of those accusations against the Jews made by their adversaries to kings Ahashverosh and Artachshasta. If we read Ezr 4:23 and Ezr 4:24 as successive, we get an impression that the discontinuation to build mentioned in Ezr 4:24 w…
Ezra now returns to telling about the building of the Temple in 520–515 BC.
4:24 The events of the following verses occurred approximately sixteen years after the events up through 4:5.
Rashi on Ezra 4:24
Then Then the work of the building of the House of God, which was in Jerusalem, was suspended until the second year of Darius, the king of Persia; for after Cyrus, Ahasuerus, who married Esther, reigned, and after Ahasuerus, Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, who was the son of Esther, reigned. And from the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, until the second year of Darius were eighteen years, which completed the seventy years from the destruction of Jerusalem. For from the destruction of the Temple, when Zedekiah was exiled, until the first year of Cyrus, were fifty-two years, as is explained in Seder Olam (ch. 29). There were then eighteen years from the first year of Cyrus until the seco…
