Ezra 3:1

THE ALTAR ERECTED;

THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEMPLE LAID; AND THE PEOPLE'S RESPONSE;

THE ALTAR ERECTED AT ITS OLD PLACE

"And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man in Jerusalem. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they set the altar upon its base; for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the countries: and they offered burnt-offerings thereon unto Jehovah, even burnt-offerings morning and evening. And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required; and afterward the continual burnt-offering, and the offerings of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of Jehovah that were consecrated, and of every one that offered a freewill-offering unto Jehovah."

"And when the seventh month was come" (Ezra 3:1). "This was the month Tishri, corresponding to our September-October."[1] "This was the first day of the month (Ezra 3:6), The Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:1-6), a foreshadowing of Israel's final regathering. Assuming a two-year delay in the beginning of the journey from Babylon after Cyrus' decree, this would have been September 25,536 B.C. The laying of the temple foundation the following spring would thus have brought to an official close the seventy-year captivity prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:1-12), from 605 to 535 B.C.[2]

"And builded the altar of God" (Ezra 3:2). "This altar was hastily constructed in less than a day (Ezra 3:6) of field stones in accordance with the earliest prescriptions for altars in the law of Moses (Exodus 2:25)."[3]

Scholars are in disagreement over the date of the foundation's being laid because "Both Haggai and Zechariah date the beginning of the building activity of Zerubbabel in the second year of Darius I (520 B.C.)." The writings of Josephus, however, are ambiguous on this point, for he placed the laying of the foundation in the period prior to the hostility of the Samaritans, or at least, at the very beginning of it, but went on to mention it later as taking place in the reign of Darius I.[4] Since the "foundation" of any building may be: (1) the excavated earth where it will be constructed; (2) the basic masonry; or (3) the support of the whole structure on top of the masonry, there can be no criticism of the two mentions of the foundation as being laid in the second year of Israel's return while Cyrus was still living, and again in the reign of Darius Hystaspes (Darius I), who was the second ruler after Cyrus' death. Critics will have to come up with something harder to explain than this in order to establish what some of them call the "unhistorical" statements in Ezra.

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The Persian Rulers from 559-358 B.C.[5]

559-530 Cyrus

530-522 Cambyses

522-486 Darius I (Hystaspes)

486-465 Xerxes I (Ahashuerus)

465-424 Artaxerxes (Longimanus)

424-423 Xerxes II

423-404 Darius II (Nothus)

404-358 Artaxerxes (Mnemon)MONO>

"And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written" (Ezra 3:4). This feast was kept on the fifteenth of Tishri (See Leviticus 23:34-42 and related passages of the law of Moses). "The Hebrew name of it was Sukkoth (Booths), a reference to the way in which the Israelites dwelt in booths during their journey through the wilderness."[6] The day of Atonement was also held on the tenth day of this month; but no mention of it is made here. The observance of that solemn occasion would have to wait upon the building of the second temple.

"As it is written" (Ezra 3:4). The inspired author is making it clear that Israel, upon their return to Palestine, were determined to do everything exactly according to the instructions in the law of Moses.

"They kept ... all the set feasts of Jehovah" (Ezra 3:5). These were the Passover, the Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) and Tabernacles.