Kommentar zu Esra 3:17

arrived Heb. וַיִגַע like וְהִגִיעַ, it reached.

The seventh month That is the month of Tishri, and the Children of Israel who were in the cities, what did they do? They all gathered as one to Jerusalem.

And they set the altar on its bases in order to offer up sacrifices upon it, because they were afraid of the peoples of the land, lest they taunt them and lest they slander them to the king. And they built the altar to offer up burnt offerings upon it, in order that the peoples hear and understand the matter, that they did it with the sanction of the king and therefore they would hesitate to taunt them about the building of the Temple.

for the morning and for the evening the daily sacrifice of the morning and the daily sacrifice of twilight.

and the burnt offering of each day in its day, in the number the sacrifices of the Festivals in their number, according to their ordinance.

And afterwards And after Succoth they would offer up sacrifices every day, for the morning and for the evening.

and for the New Moon lit. and for the months. And at the beginning of the months they would offer up the sacrifices of the New Moon.

and for all the appointed seasons of the Lord and for the rest of the appointed seasons of their sacrifices.

and for everyone who willingly offered And for all those who willingly offered their free-will offerings, the priests would accept them to sacrifice them, and from the first day of Tishri they commenced to offer up sacrifices, but the foundation of the Temple was not yet built.

to the Zidonians and to the Tyrians the people of Tyre and Zidon, who were the artisans who built the Temple.

to the sea of Jaffa By way of the sea they would bring them.

according to the sanction of Heb. כְּרִשְׁיוֹן as the sanction of the king was upon them to build the Temple. כְּרִשְׁיוֹן is an expression of permission (רְשּׁוּת) derived from רשּׁה ; since from אבה to want, he says [i.e., derives] אֶבְיוֹן, a needy person; and from צבה, to desire, צִבְיוֹן, desire; and from חזה to see, חִזָיוֹן, a vision; and from רעה, רַעְיוֹן, thought; from חבה, חֶבְיוֹן, hiding; and from רשּׁה, he says רְשּׁוּת, permission; like from, ענה, עֱנוּת, affliction; and from שּׁבה, שְּׁבוּת,captivity; and from ראה, רְאוּת, a sight; and from זנה, זְנוּת, harlotry. The result is that רְשּׁוּת and רִשְׁיוֹן are derived from the same root according to the gauge of grammar, and they are the same expression. Menahem, (p. 34) however, associated it with (Ps. 21:3): “and the speech of his lips (וַַַַַאֲרֶשֶּׁת),” but he was not exact with its root. Nevertheless, these two manners [of defining words] are close to each other in their meanings.

in the second month That is the month of Iyar.

from the captivity all those who came from the captivity to Jerusalem.

and they stationed They stationed the Levite singers to harmonize and to recite a song before the builders at the time of the building of the foundation of the Temple.

to conduct Heb. לְנַצֵחַ. These two expressions of נִצוּחַ are harmonies of song, like (Ps. 4:1): “To the conductor (לַּמְנַצֵחַ), a song of David.”

And Jeshua...stood They stood and recited the song together around the ones who did the work of the foundation of the Temple.

And...laid the foundation וְיִסְדוּ This is the strong conjugation of יְסוֹד, like (Ezek. 25:4): “and they will settle (וְיִשְּׁבוּ) their palaces.” Just as וְיִשְּׁבוּ is derived from ישּׁב so is וְיִסְדוּ derived from יסד, and their meaning is, וְיִסְדוּ וְיִשְּׁבוּ in the intensive conjugation with two “yud”s, one for the [continuous] action and one for the radical, and their meaning is that they were laying the foundation, they were settling.

And the builders laid the foundation And the builders were laying the foundation [see above] of the Temple of the Lord at the time [that] they were harmonizing in their song, and they stationed the priests attired with elegant garments with trumpets in their hands to sound them.

and the Levites the sons of Asaph were the singers.

with cymbals Heb. בַּמְצִלְתַּיִם, like (Ps. 150:9): “with loud sounding cymbals (בְּצִלְצְלֵי שָּׁמַע).” They are musical instruments.

through David for they were harmonizing and singing songs of David, the king of Israel.

And they sang aloud Heb. וַיַעֲנוּ, an expression of raising the voice in song, like (Exod. 15: 21): “And Miriam raised her voice in song to them.”

and with thanks and with thanksgivings.

for it is good to give thanks to the Lord.

and the entire people the rest of the people of Israel.

because...was laid They acted with all these rejoicings because of the building of the foundation, which was laid in the House of the Lord.

when its foundation was laid Heb. בְּיָסְדוֹ, with its foundation. With the noun of יוֹסֶד and from יסד, he says בְּיָסְדוֹ, like from חדֶשּׁ, בְּחָדְשּׁוֹ, and from קדֶשּׁ, בְּקָדְשּׁוֹ.

this Temple When they would see the building of this Temple, they would weep because they remembered the large building of the First Temple.

and many who had not seen the building of the First Temple, were rejoicing and shouting for joy with a loud voice, out of their great joy that they had emerged from their exile.

And the people did not recognize Those listeners did not recognize the voice of the shout of joy, because of the voice of the people’s weeping, for the rejoicing people were shouting with a great shout, and the voice of weeping was heard farther and farther away.