4Q117
Ezra
Language:
Hebrew (4:2-6) and Aramaic (4:9-6:6)
Date:
About 50 B.C.
Location:
Qumran Cave 4
Contents:
Ezra 4:2-6; 9-11; 5:17; 6:1-6
Ezra
4
2 they
came near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ households, and said to
them, “Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as you do; and we
have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who
brought us up here.”
3 But
Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’
households of Israel, said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in
building a house to our God; but we
ourselves together will build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as king
Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4 Then
the people of
the land weakened the hands of the people
of Judah, and troubled them in building. 5 They hired counselors against
them, to frustrate their purpose, all
the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of
Persia. 6 In the reign of Ahasuerus, in
the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the
inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
[..]
9 then
Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their
companions,
the Dinaites, and the Apharsathchites,
the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the
Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites,
10 and the rest of the nations
whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over, and set in the city of Samaria,
and in the rest of the country beyond the River,
and so forth, wrote.
11 This
is the copy of the letter that they sent:
To King
Artaxerxes,
From
your servants the men beyond the River.
[..]
Ezra
5
17 Now therefore, if it
seems good to the
king,
let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon,
whether it is so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this
house of
God at Jerusalem; and let the king send
his pleasure to us concerning this matter.”
Ezra
6
1 Then Darius the king
made a decree,
and the house of the archives, where the
treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. 2 A
scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this
was written for a record:
3 In the first year of
Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s
house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer
sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid; with its height sixty
cubits, and its width sixty cubits; 4 with three courses of
great stones and a course of new timber. Let the
expenses be given out of the king’s house. 5 Also
let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the
temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to
the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put
them in God’s house.
6 Now therefore,
Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the
Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, you must stay far from there.