Ezra 6:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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 unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
feast
חַגchag-
H2282
a festival · noun, common masculine singular construct
bread
מַצּ֛וֹתma.Tzot
H4682
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
seven
שִׁבְעַ֥תshiv.'At
H7651
seven (as the sacred full one) · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
days
יָמִ֖יםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
joy
בְּשִׂמְחָ֑הbe.sim.Chah
H8057
blithesomeness or glee · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֗הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
joyful
שִׂמְּחָ֣םsi.me.Cham
H8055
probably to brighten up · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
turned
וְֽהֵסֵ֞בve.he.Sev
H5437
to revolve · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heart
לֵ֤בlev
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Assyria
אַשּׁוּר֙'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · proper noun, a place name
strengthen
לְחַזֵּ֣קle.cha.Zek
H2388
to fasten upon · preposition + verb, piel infinitive construct
hands
יְדֵיהֶ֔םye.dei.Hem
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
work
בִּמְלֶ֥אכֶתbim.Le.khet
H4399
properly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
house
בֵּיתbeit-
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
God
הָאֱלֹהִ֖יםha.'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
God
אֱלֹהֵ֥י'e.lo.Hei
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · 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
2 Chronicles 30:21 And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites…
Ezra 1:1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up th…
Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
2 Chronicles 35:17 And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
Ezra 7:27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is…
Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Exodus 12:15-20 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened brea…
Exodus 13:6-7 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
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…
kept the feast . . . with joy: for the Lord . . . turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them--that is, king of the Persian empire, which now included the possessions, and had surpassed the glory, of Assyria. The favorable disposition which Darius had evinced towards the Jews secured them peace and prosperity and the privileges of their own religion during the rest of his reign. The religious joy that so remarkably characterized the celebration of this feast, was testified by expressions of lively gratitude to God, whose overruling power and converting grace had produced so marvellous a change in the hearts of the mighty potentates, and disposed them, pagans though they were, to aid th…
Turned the heart of the king of Assyria - I am of Calmet's mind, that king of Assyria is here put for king of Persia. Cyrus and his successors possessed all the rights and estates of the ancient kings of Assyria, and therefore the same monarch may be styled king of Assyria as well as king of Persia.
Darius had a very high character, as a wise, just, and merciful prince. To strengthen his title to the crown, he married two of the daughters of Cyrus, and, no doubt, to show his affection to this family, he the more cheerfully confirmed the edict which Cyrus had made in favor of the Jews.
The Church Fathers
They celebrated the feast of unleavened bread for seven days, etc. For this is the greatest joy of the righteous, both in this age and in the future, that the work of the Church is complete, with even the Gentiles who once resisted being converted, aiding its state and confirming peace of the Christian Church's religion throughout the entire world. Thus far, it is written about the return from Babylon to Jerusalem of the people who had been taken captive; the return of the vessels that had been taken away; the restoration and dedication of the temple that had been burned; the celebration of the festivals, and the singing of the songs of the Lord, which could not be sung in a foreign land, under the leaders Zerubbabel and Joshua. All these things contain one and the same knowledge of human salvation in Christ, both those who came into the world with the sin of the first transgression, purified by the sacraments of faith, are saved; and those who corrupted the faith they had received by sinning, repent and return to their senses, and both, through one and the same Savior, the true king and priest, celebrating as if the most blessed Passover, pass from this world to the Father, from death to life. Truly, because the temple was burned and the city of Jerusalem destroyed, the holy Scriptures that were kept there were also destroyed by the hostile calamity, and these, by the mercy of the Lord and his return to his people, had to be restored; so that, having restored the buildings that had been torn down, they would have something from which they, being admonished, might learn to be restored inwardly in the faith and love of their Creator. Hence it well follows:
And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread, etc. The Apostle teaches us how we ought to keep this feast spiritually, saying: "Let us therefore feast not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5). This is to be observed for seven days; because throughout all this world's time, which runs for as many days, we ought to lead our life in sincerity and truth, indeed in the sacrifices and holocausts of all good works. And because our Lord, at the time of the Passover, conquered death, tasted momentarily with the eternal power of resurrection; the celebration of the Passover may be referred typologically to the time of our resurrection; so that the building of the temple designates the present state of the Holy Church, the dedication signifies the future life, which happens in the exultation of the holy souls, when they leave the body. The sacrifice of the Passover hints at the glory of the resurrection, when all the elect, no longer believing in the sacrament, but seeing in reality and truth, will be refreshed by the flesh of the spotless Lamb, that is, of our God and Lord. Hence, in this Passover, it is stated that all the priests and Levites, the entire assembly of the people, all who had flocked to them from the nations, were pure, as if they had all attended as one; for then the Lamb of God truly takes away the sins of the world. And as the Apostle John says: "The blood of Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1). Then there will be true unity when God will be all in all (1 John 1; 1 Cor. 15). Then the true feast of unleavened bread will be celebrated in joy, when no leaven of malice or wickedness remains in the elect, and all will cling to the divine vision in truth and sincerity of heart. And this not in the seven days of the passing world, but in the one day of everlasting life in the courts of the Lord, which is better than thousands in the light of the Holy Spirit, whose sevenfold grace the prophet commends to us (Ps. 84).
Dictionary and topics
Pentateuch — The five-fold volume, consisting of the first five books of the Old Testament. This word does not occur in Scripture, nor is it certainly known when the roll was thus divided into five portions…
Alliance And Society With The Enemies Of God · Examples of forsaking: Israelites — Examples of forsaking: Israelites
Heart, The · God: Influences — God: Influences
Joy · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Medo-Persian Kingdom · Kings of: Called kings of Assyria — Kings of: Called kings of Assyria
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).
John Gill on Ezra 6:22
And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy,.... Which immediately followed upon the passover, Exodus 12:18,
for the Lord had made them joyful; the building of the temple being finished, and the service of it restored to its original purity:
and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel; by giving them leave to go on in building the temple, and by encouraging and assisting them in it till they had finished it; this was Darius Artaxerxes, who, though called king of Persia, was also king of Assyria, being possessed of the Assyrian monarchy, as his predecessors were upon the taking of Babylon,…
Celebration of the feast of the passover, and of the feast of unleavened bread, in the year following the dedication, as an historical testimony to the fact that the worship of God with its festivals was regularly carried on in the new temple.
Ezr 6:19-20
The feast of the passover, on the fourteenth day of the first month, took place only a few weeks after the dedication of the temple. The reason given in Ezr 6:20 - for the priests and Levites had purified themselves without exception (כּאחד, like Ezr 3:9); they were all clean, and they killed the passover for all the sons of the captivity (i.e., the laity who had returned from exile), and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves -…
Passover was the beginning of the seven-day Festival of Unleavened Bread (see Exod 12:15-20; Lev 23:6-8), a time of feasting in remembrance of the unleavened bread eaten when Israel left Egypt. • the Lord had caused: Although Darius I was the powerful king of a vast empire, God directed his heart to help rebuild the Temple of God.
Rashi on Ezra 6:22
and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them And the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward the Israelites who were dwelling under his dominion in the land of Assyria, to strengthen them and to assist in the work of the building.