Ezra 4:8-10

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ezra 4:8 tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.
2. Ezra 4:8 sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.
3. Ezra 4:8 tn Or perhaps “against.”
4. Ezra 4:9 tn Aram “then.” What follows in v. 9 seems to be the preface of the letter, serving to identify the senders of the letter. The word “from” is not in the Aramaic text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
5. Ezra 4:9 tn For the Qere of the MT (דֶּהָיֵא, dehayeʾ, a proper name) it seems better to retain the Kethib דִּהוּא (dihuʾ, “that is”). See F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 25, §35; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 36.
6. Ezra 4:10 tn Aram “Osnappar” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), another name for Ashurbanipal.sn Ashurbanipal succeeded his father Esarhaddon as king of Assyria in 669 b.c. Around 645 b.c. he sacked the city of Susa, capital of Elam, and apparently some of these people were exiled to Samaria and other places.
7. Ezra 4:10 tc The translation reads with the ancient versions the plural בְּקֻרְיַהּ (b^equryah, “in the cities”) rather than the singular (“in the city”) of the MT.
8. Ezra 4:10 tn Aram “beyond the river.” In Ezra this term is a technical designation for the region west of the Euphrates river.