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Esdras 6

VBL · Chapter 6/10

1Así, el rey Darío ordenó que se buscara en los archivos que se encontraban en el tesoro de Babilonia.

2Pero en realidad fue en la fortaleza de Ecbatana, en la provincia de Media, donde se encontró un pergamino que registraba lo siguiente

3En el primer año del rey Ciro, éste emitió un decreto relativo al Templo de Dios en Jerusalén: “Que se reconstruya el Templo como lugar donde se ofrezcan sacrificios, y que tenga unos cimientos fuertes y firmes. Hazlo de sesenta codos de alto y sesenta codos de ancho,

4con tres capas de bloques de piedra y una de madera. Los gastos se pagarán con el tesoro real.

5Además, los objetos de oro y plata del Templo de Dios, que Nabucodonosor tomó del Templo de Jerusalén y llevó a Babilonia, también deben ser devueltos al Templo de Jerusalén y colocados allí.

6“Estas son mis instrucciones para ti, Tatnai, gobernador de la provincia al oeste del Éufrates, Setar-boznai, y para tus compañeros y funcionarios de la provincia: ¡Aléjate de allí!

7¡Deja en paz esta obra en el Templo de Dios! Dejen que el gobernador y los líderes de los judíos continúen con la reconstrucción de este Templo de Dios en su sitio original.

8Además, este es mi decreto en cuanto a lo que debes hacer por estos líderes judíos en cuanto a la reconstrucción de este Templo de Dios. El gasto total de la obra se pagará con los ingresos reales, el tributo de la provincia al oeste del Éufrates, para que la obra no se retrase.

9Proporciona todo lo que necesiten los sacerdotes de Jerusalén: novillos, carneros y corderos para los holocaustos al Dios del cielo, y trigo, sal, vino y aceite de oliva. Asegúrate de darles esto cada día sin falta.

10De esta manera podrán ofrecer sacrificios aceptables al Dios del cielo, y pedir por la vida del rey y de sus hijos.

11Además, declaro que si alguien interfiere con este decreto, se arrancará una viga de su casa y se clavará en el suelo, y él será empalado en ella. Su propia casa se convertirá en un montón de escombros por desobedecer este decreto.

12Que Dios, que eligió la ciudad de Jerusalén como el lugar donde sería honrado, destruya a cualquier rey o pueblo que intente alterar lo que he dicho o que destruya este Templo. Yo, Darío, emito este decreto. Que se cumpla fielmente”.

13Tatnai, el gobernador de la provincia al oeste del Éufrates, Setar-boznai, y sus compañeros oficiales cumplieron fielmente lo que el rey Darío había decretado.

14Como resultado, los líderes judíos siguieron construyendo, y se sintieron alentados por los mensajes del profeta Ageo y de Zacarías, hijo de Iddo. Terminaron de construir el Templo siguiendo el mandato del Dios de Israel y los decretos de Ciro, Darío y Artajerjes, reyes de Persia.

15El Templo fue terminado el tercer día del mes de Adar, en el sexto año del reinado del rey Darío.

16Entonces el pueblo de Israel, los sacerdotes, los levitas y el resto de los que habían regresado del exilio, celebraron con alegría la dedicación del Templo de Dios.

17Para dedicar el Templo de Dios sacrificaron cien toros, doscientos carneros, cuatrocientos corderos y una ofrenda por el pecado para todo Israel compuesta por doce machos cabríos, uno por cada tribu israelita.

18Organizaron a los sacerdotes y a los levitas por sus divisiones para servir a Dios en el Templo de Jerusalén, de acuerdo con el Libro de Moisés.

19Los exiliados que habían regresado celebraban la Pascua el día catorce del primer mes.

20Los sacerdotes y los levitas se habían purificado para estar limpios según la ley ceremonial. Así que mataron el cordero de la Pascua para todos los exiliados que habían regresado, para sus compañeros sacerdotes y para ellos mismos.

21La Pascua la comían el pueblo de Israel que había regresado del exilio y los que se habían unido a ellos y habían rechazado las prácticas paganas de los pueblos de la tierra para adorar al Señor, el Dios de Israel.

22Entonces celebraron la Fiesta de los Panes sin Levadura durante siete días. Todos los habitantes del país estaban muy contentos porque el Señor había hecho que el rey de Asiria les fuera favorable, ayudándoles a reconstruir el Templo de Dios, el Dios de Israel.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

King Darius has the royal archives searched and finds Cyrus's original decree, confirming the authorization to rebuild the temple. He orders the work to continue with financial support, and the temple is finally completed and dedicated with great joy.

Explanation

The search of the royal archives in Ecbatana reveals that the written memory of an old promise can, years later, become the proof that rescues a stalled project. Darius not only confirms Cyrus's order but goes further, decreeing that the royal treasury fund the work and the temple's offerings — quite a turnaround for a people who had faced opposition. The dedication of the temple, followed by the celebration of Passover, marks the symbolic end of the exile and the resumption of organized religious life in Jerusalem. The lesson is that God's promises, even when filed away and forgotten for a time, can be recovered at just the right moment.

Fun facts

  • Ecbatana, where the decree was found, was the summer capital of the Persian kings, located in what is now the region of Iran — showing that the Persian royal archives were organized and kept in different cities across the empire.
  • The temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius's reign, about 20 years after the rebuilding began, showing how the project endured decades of ups and downs.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Esdras 6:1Darius grants the request and has his archivists search the official record houses in Babylon for any trace of Cyrus's old decree.
  2. Esdras 6:2The document turns up not in Babylon but in Achmetha, another capital of the Persian empire in the region of Media, where it had been kept for decades along with other official records.
  3. Esdras 6:3Darius has the royal archives searched and the original record of Cyrus's decree is found, with exact measurements for the temple. This discovery shows how the Persian empire kept administrative documents for decades, and it is precisely this record that settles the dispute in the Jews' favor.
  4. Esdras 6:4Cyrus's original decree spelled out even the building materials, stone and timber, and ordered that the expenses come out of the royal treasury, not out of the people's own pockets.
  5. Esdras 6:5The document confirms that the sacred vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar were to be restored to their place of origin, the temple in Jerusalem, exactly as Cyrus had ordered.
  6. Esdras 6:6After confirming the old decree, Darius orders Governor Tatnai and his companions to simply stay away and stop interfering with the work.
  7. Esdras 6:7Darius explicitly orders the construction to continue without interruption, letting the Jews and their own governor carry on the work at its usual site.
  8. Esdras 6:8More than just permitting the work, Darius decrees that the royal treasury itself fund the rebuilding, drawing the money from the tribute collected in the region west of the Euphrates.
  9. Esdras 6:9Darius orders the royal treasury itself to fund the Jews' daily sacrifices, including animals, wheat, salt, wine, and oil. A foreign king paying for another people's worship shows how Persian policy favored religious autonomy in conquered provinces, so long as it kept the peace.
  10. Esdras 6:10In exchange for the funding, Darius asks for something quite practical: that the priests also pray for his life and his sons' lives during the sacrifices.
  11. Esdras 6:11The penalty for disobedience was brutal: a beam was to be pulled from the offender's own house, set up on end, and used to hang him on it right there.
  12. Esdras 6:12Darius ends the decree by asking that the God of the Jews Himself destroy any king or people who might try to destroy this temple in the future — a pagan king invoking divine protection over a project not his own.
  13. Esdras 6:13As soon as they receive the order, Tatnai and his companions obey without delay, exactly as Darius had decreed.
  14. Esdras 6:14The work advances successfully thanks to the steady encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, with the formal approval of three different Persian kings: Cyrus, Darius, and later Artaxerxes.
  15. Esdras 6:15The temple is finished in the sixth year of Darius's reign, closing out a process that had begun decades earlier with Cyrus. About twenty years passed between the first decree and the completion of the work, with stoppages, accusations, and fresh starts along the way.
  16. Esdras 6:16Priests, Levites, and all the people who had returned celebrate together the dedication of the finished temple, a moment of joy after so many years of the work being stopped and started again.
  17. Esdras 6:17The dedication sacrifices include twelve male goats for a sin offering, one for each tribe of Israel — a symbolic gesture that the temple was for the whole people, even with only a few tribes actually represented there.
  18. Esdras 6:18Priests and Levites are organized into work shifts, following the system of divisions already written down since the days of Moses — worship was resuming not just the building, but also the old routine.
  19. Esdras 6:19In the very same year the temple is finished, the people already celebrate the first Passover there, on the fourteenth day of the first month, just as the law had always required.
  20. Esdras 6:20Before celebrating the Passover, priests and Levites purify themselves together, as one man, so they can prepare the lamb sacrifice for the whole people. It is the first Passover celebrated in the rebuilt temple, and the care taken over purification shows the symbolic weight of this fresh start.
  21. Esdras 6:21The Passover meal is shared both by those who had returned from exile and by some local residents who had decided to leave behind the pagan customs of the region to seek the God of Israel.
  22. Esdras 6:22For seven days they keep the feast of unleavened bread, and the text credits even the goodwill of the Persian king to God, calling him here by the old title king of Assyria, the empire Persia had absorbed.

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