Ezra 6:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezra 6:16
And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.
a remainder · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular construct
children
בֵּןbên
H1123
a son (as a builder of the family name)
captivity
גָלוּתָ֗אga.lu.Ta'
H1547
captivity · noun, common feminine singular determined + particle of affirmation
kept
וַעֲבַ֣דוּva.'a.Va.du
H5648
to do · conjunction + verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine plural
dedication
חֲנֻכַּ֛תcha.nu.Kat
H2597
consecration · noun, common feminine singular construct
this
דְנָ֖הde.Nah
H1836
this · demonstrative particle
house
בֵּיתbeit-
H1005
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common both genders singular construct
God
אֱלָהָ֥א'e.la.Ha'
H426
God · noun, common both genders singular determined + particle of affirmation
joy
בְּחֶדְוָֽהbe.ched.Vah
H2305
rejoicing · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
2 Chronicles 7:5 And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the peop…
1 Kings 8:63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty…
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
Ezra 6:22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria u…
Psalms 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
John 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
Deuteronomy 12:7 And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the…
1 Chronicles 9:2 Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 6:13–end
Here we have, I. The Jews' enemies made their friends. When they received this order from the king they came with as much haste to encourage and assist the work as their predecessors had done to put a stop to it, Ezr 4:23. What the king ordered they did, and, because they would not be thought to do it with reluctance, they did it speedily, Ezr 6:13. The king's moderation made them, contrary to their own inclination, moderate too.
II. The building of the temple carried on, and finished in a little time, Ezr 6:14, Ezr 6:15. Now the elders of the Jews built with cheerfulness. For aught I know, the elders themselves laboured at it with their own hands; and, if they did, it was no disparagement t…
FEASTS OF THE DEDICATION. (Ezr 6:16-18)
the children of Israel . . . kept the dedication . . . with joy--The ceremonial was gone through with demonstrations of the liveliest joy. The aged who had wept at the laying of the foundation [Ezr 3:12] were most, if not all of them, now dead; and all rejoiced at the completion of this national undertaking.
Adam Clarke on Ezra 6:15
This house was finished - The sixth year of Darius mentioned here was about A.M. 3489, twenty years after the foundation had been laid by Zerubbabel, under the reign of Cyrus.
John Gill on Ezra 6:16
And the children of Israel,.... Those of the ten tribes that remained after the body of the people were carried captive, or came with the Jews at their return:
the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity; those of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:
kept the dedication of this house of God with joy; they set it apart for sacred use and service, with feasting and other expressions of joy and gladness, as follows.
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezra 6:13-18
The execution of the royal decree, the completion of the building, and the dedication of the new temple. - Ezr 6:13 Tatnai and his associate diligently executed the commands of Darius. "Because Darius the king sent (i.e., despatched to them the letter, whose contents have just been given, Ezr 6:6), they speedily acted accordingly in the manner stated" (כּנמא).
Ezr 6:14
The elders of the Jews, moreover, built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, who thereby effected the resumption of the work, and promised them success. ב is used of the rule by which, or manner in which anything is done. "They built and finished (the building) according to the commandment of th…
The Church Fathers
Now the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, etc. The sons of the captivity rightly rejoice that they are worthy to both cast off the yoke of captivity and to build the house of God, which was destroyed. They offer a great number of sacrifices in the dedication of His house as devout servants to God. They also offer sacrifices for the sin of all Israel, not only for those who could be present, but also for those who were still placed in Babylon or in other provinces, living among enemies outside the promised land. They pray to God to be merciful to them as well and to protect them from evils among the enemies or to bring them back to the desired homeland. Because the rebuilding of the house after their captivity, as often said, signifies the correction of those who have strayed from the path of truth through sin after having initially started it, the well-restored temple is rightly dedicated by the priests and Levites and the other sons of the captivity in joy. For when those who have sinned are corrected, there is great joy in heaven before the angels of God (Luke XV). There is joy also for the teachers who have labored for the salvation of the erring; and for all those who have migrated from Babylon, that is, the confusion of sins, to the height of virtues—the promised land in thought and deed. Therefore, both the priests and Levites and all the people rejoice in the dedication of the restored house of the Lord because all orders of the holy Church must rejoice together in the reconciliation through penance of those who have sinned. They offer sacrifices in this dedication when they render thanks to God for the conversion of the erring, when many, seeing their devout life to God, also gird themselves to works of greater virtues, not wanting to be slothful in good works, in which they had remained more innocent, by sinning less. This can equally be understood of those who have recently come to faith, to receive the sacraments of Christ, that many who were advanced in the faith often emulate the more fervent zeal of the newcomers and follow their examples in good works. Not only do the priests, Levites, and the people offer sacrifices for the dedication of the house of the Lord which they had renovated, but also for the sin of all Israel. For just as it is fitting to favor the good deeds of those who are with us, and to make their good deeds…
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
Dedication, Feast of the — (John 10:22, 42), i.e., the feast of the renewing. It was instituted B.C. 164 to commemorate the purging of the temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 167), and the rebuilding of the…
Israel — The name conferred on Jacob after the great prayer-struggle at Peniel (Gen. 32:28), because “as a prince he had power with God and prevailed.” (See JACOB.) This is the common name given to Jacob’s…
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…
Dedication · Second temple — Second temple
Temple, The Second · Dedication of, celebrated with joy and thankfulness — Dedication of, celebrated with joy and thankfulness
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).
Israel’s second Temple was finished approximately seventy years after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. Herod the Great remodeled and expanded this Temple at the time of Christ. The Temple stood for approximately 585 years until the Roman army of Titus destroyed it in AD 70.
Rashi on Ezra 6:15
And the completion of this House And the end of the completion of this House was until the third day of the month of Adar, which is the sixth year of King Darius; hence the building of the House took four years.
