to hire · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
counsellors
יוֹעֲצִ֖יםyo.'a.Tzim
H3289
to advise · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
frustrate
לְהָפֵ֣רle.ha.Fer
H6565
to break up (usually figuratively) · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
purpose
עֲצָתָ֑ם'a.tza.Tam
H6098
advice · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
days
יְמֵ֗יye.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Cyrus
כּ֚וֹרֶשׁKo.resh
H3566
Koresh (or Cyrus) · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶ֣לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Persia
פָּרַ֔סpa.Ras
H6539
Paras (i.e. Persia) · proper noun, a place name
reign
מַלְכ֖וּתmal.Khut
H4438
a rule · noun, common feminine singular construct
Darius
דָּרְיָ֥וֶשׁda.re.Ya.vesh
H1867
Darejavesh · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Persia
פָּרָֽסpa.Ras
H6539
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
Nahum 1:11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
Ezra 5:5-6:18 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…
Psalms 2:1-2 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Acts 24:1-27 And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor…
Ezra 4:24 Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 4:1-5
We have here an instance of the old enmity that was put between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. God's temple cannot be built, but Satan will rage, and the gates of hell will fight against it. The gospel kingdom was, in like manner, to be set up with much struggling and contention. In this respect the glory of the latter house was greater than the glory of the former, and it was more a figure of the temple of Christ's church, in that Solomon built his temple when there was no adversary nor evil occurrent, (Kg1 5:4); but this second temple was built notwithstanding great opposition, in the removing and conquering of which, and the bringing of the work to perfection at last i…
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, &c.--Exasperated by this repulse, the Samaritans endeavored by every means to molest the workmen as well as obstruct the progress of the building; and, though they could not alter the decree which Cyrus had issued regarding it, yet by bribes and clandestine arts indefatigably plied at court, they labored to frustrate the effects of the edict. Their success in those underhand dealings was great; for Cyrus, being frequently absent and much absorbed in his warlike expeditions, left the government in the hands of his son Cambyses, a wicked prince, and extremely hostile to the Jews and their religion. The same arts were assidu…
Hired counsellors - They found means to corrupt some of the principal officers of the Persian court, so that the orders of Cyrus were not executed; or at least so slowly as to make them nearly ineffectual.
Until the reign of Darius - This was probably Darius the son of Hystaspes.
John Gill on Ezra 4:5
And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose,.... Either to advise and persuade the king of Persia's officers in those parts not to supply them with money, or to influence the great men at his court to get the edict revoked: and this they did
all the days of Cyrus king of Persia; who, though the hearty friend and patron of the Jews, yet being engaged in wars abroad with the Lydians and Scythians, and leaving his son as viceroy in his absence, who was no friend unto them, the work went on but slowly, attended with interruptions and discouragements:
even until the reign of Darius king of Persia; who was Darius Hystaspis, between whom and Cyrus were Cambyses the son of Cyrus…
The Church Fathers
But they hired counselors against them, etc. The distinction of the words is noteworthy; because they indeed hired counselors against the builders of the temple with a price given, in order that their plan might be destroyed; yet he does not say that their plan was destroyed, nor that they ceased from their work, until the letter of accusation was written to Artaxerxes, and by his command, as the Scripture says, with arm and strength. For it follows there: Then the work of the house of God in Jerusalem was stopped, and it did not continue until the second year of Darius, king of Persia (I Esdr. IV). Whence it is gathered, that indeed during the whole time of Cyrus, they pursued the work, although more slowly than justly, but upon his death, not being hindered by wicked counsel, they were openly repelled from working. For the enemies did not dare, while Cyrus was still living, who had ordered that work to be done, to openly oppose, although covertly suggesting or counseling, to go against his decrees. The allegorical sense, however, is readily apparent: because heretics, as the opportunity of the time permits, now pursue the Church with the counsel of wicked doctrines, now with the more bitter fight of swords, and sometimes even do not fear to harass it with the support of gentile rulers. For they impede the hands of the people of Judah, when they delay the Church in its weaker members from the works of pious profession. They strive to destroy the plan of working when they also endeavor to divert their spirits from the very intention of good action. They accuse them to kings, when they also seek the protections of earthly rulers against the Church. How much this harms the faith became as clear as light during the time of the Arian perfidy.
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
Temple, the Second — After the return from captivity, under Zerubbabel (q.v.) and the high priest Jeshua, arrangements were almost immediately made to reorganize the long-desolated kingdom. The body of pilgrims, forming…
Lobbying · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Temple, The Second · The Samaritans: Weakened the hands of the Jews in building — The Samaritans: Weakened the hands of the Jews in building
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).
And they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose (of building the temple). וסכרים still depends on the ויהי of Ezr 4:4. סכר is a later orthography of שׂכר, to hire, to bribe. Whether by the hiring of יועציט we are to understand the corruption of royal counsellors or ministers, or the appointment of legal agents to act against the Jewish community at the Persian court, and to endeavour to obtain an inhibition against the erection of the temple, does not appear. Thus much only is evident from the text, that the adversaries succeeded in frustrating the continuance of the building "all the days of Koresh," i.e., the yet remaining five years of Cyrus, who was for the space of s…
The people paid a heavy price for their uncompromising commitment to holiness. • King Cyrus reigned until 530 BC. Darius (Darius I) took the throne of Persia in 521 BC. Work on the Temple resumed in 520 BC and was finished in 515 BC (see 6:15).
Rashi on Ezra 4:5
And they would hire Heb. וְסֹכְרִים. This is written with a “sammech,” but its meaning is as though it was written with a “sin,” [meaning] that they would hire advisors to disrupt the work.
all the days of the reign of Cyrus and the reign of Ahasuerus, who reigned after Cyrus, until the second year of Darius, who reigned after Ahasuerus, the work was stopped.
