Ezra 6:22 - Exposition

Kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days . As required by the law ( Exodus 12:15 ; Exodus 13:7 ; Leviticus 23:6 , etc.). On the spiritual meaning of the feast, see 1 Corinthians 5:8 . The Lord had … turned the heart of the king of Assyria . It has been generally supposed that Darius is personally meant here, and surprise has been expressed at his being called "king of Assyria. " That title is never elsewhere given in Scripture to a king of Persia. Perhaps the writer's real intention in this place is to express in a general way the thankfulness of the Jews that God had turned, the hearts of their civil rulers, whether Assyrians, Babylonians, or Persians, from hostility to friendship, having replaced the bitter enmity of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar by the hearty good-will of Cyrus and Darius. On this view, Assyria would represent merely the great power of Western Asia, and "the king" would not be Darius personally, but the lord of Western Asia in a more general way, who by God's goodness had become the permanent friend of Israel instead of her oppressor and enemy.