Ezra 3:7

7 And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.

Ezra 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 3:7

They gave money also to the masons, and to the carpenters
To buy stone and timber with for the building of the temple:

and meat and drink and oil unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre;
which were more agreeable to them than money, because there was not plenty of such things in their country, as in the land of Israel:

to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa;
as they did at the first building of the temple by Solomon; they cut down cedars at Lebanon, which belonged to them, and sent them by sea to Joppa, the nearest seaport to Jerusalem, about forty miles from it: see ( 2 Chronicles 2:16 ) ,

according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia;
for Tyre and Zidon being under his dominion as well as Judea, he not only gave leave to the Jews to get cedar wood from Lebanon, but gave orders to the Zidonians and Tyrians to furnish them with it, paying a valuable consideration for it; and so some ^F1 render the word, "according to the commandment of Cyrus".

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Nwyvrk) "juxta praeceptum", Vatablus; "juxta quod praeceperat", V. L. So Ben Melech.

Ezra 3:7 In-Context

5 And afterwards the continual holocaust, both on the new moons, and on all the solemnities of the Lord, that were consecrated, and on all in which a freewill offering was made to the Lord.

6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of God was not yet founded.

7 And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.

8 And in the second year of their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, the second month, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue the son of Josedec, and the rest of their brethren the priests, and the Levites, and all that were come from the captivity to Jerusalem began, and they appointed Levites from twenty years old and upward, to hasten forward the work of the Lord.\par

9 Then Josue and his sons and his brethren, Cedmihel, and his sons, and the children of Juda, as one man, stood to hasten them that did the work in the temple of God: the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brethren the Levites.