king artaxerxes' decree to rebuild jerusalem

And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. This fact emphasizes that the sabbatical years significance was fundamentally a spiritual matter, a sign of the people keeping covenant with their God, rather than simply giving the land a break. Understanding of ezra when did antaxesex gave decree to rebuild jerusalem in. The burning of the Temple, an essential aspect of the desolation, is known to have taken place on Av 9 (July 29), 587 BC, about two months before the next agricultural year would have begun on Tishri 1 (September 18), 587 BC. Besides, if the creditor had waited until the end of the seventh year, the debtor would have given him seven years of service, not six! As it is, take Ezras arrival in Jerusalem out of the picture, and its spiritual restoration gets only partly implemented at best. Nothing is said about rebuilding the city of Jerusalem, only the Temple. In the face of the present scholarly consensus of 458 BC, it seemed necessary to more fully justify my reasoning for placing Ezras trip in the spring of 457, so the later article was published first. Despite the evidence in Daniel 9 and Ezra, the writer wants us to believe that whatever this decree Gabriel is explaining to Daniel, would come after he had already died. It would encompass the restoring and rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, not restricted to rebuilding the Temple, so the decree as narrowly issued by Cyrus and Darius would not qualifyArtaxerxes broadened decree would. Desiring to let the Scriptures speak plainly and govern our understanding, several passages will first be set forth that teach the principle of sabbatical year observance. Although the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah was entirely concerned with Temple matters, and thus what they finished building must in this context refer only to the Temple, yet Artaxerxes decree opened the door for city rebuilding work as well, as the next passage indicates. Therefore, when it speaks of the restoration of the city, Daniel 9:25 is referring to Ezras work. 201218 (online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/23506873), Ben Zion Wacholder discussed evidence that the sevens of Daniel 9:25 must be understood as referring to sabbatical year cycles. The final part of the verse specifically calls the readers attention to the period of rebuilding, and this is likely what the seven weeks refers to. In his 7th year this monarch issued a decree to . Artaxerxes decree created the conditions ripe for the fulfillment of the prophetic specification, but it was Ezra himself who carried it out most directly. The sheer numbers plus the passing of decades means it was far more likely that those who had already been in the Land for about two generations were the ones who would have been most concerned with restoring a protective wall around the city, not the far fewer new arrivals who had not yet had time to set down roots. Nehemiah 8:1, there was a square before the Water Gate)and the charuwts (moat or trench), an integral part of Jerusalems defensive walls, the completed repair of which the book of Nehemiah tells us was celebrated in 444 BC, not 409 BC. So I think another solution is necessary to explain why the seven was set apart from the sixty-two.. One was that the initial seven weeks signified forty-nine years spent rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. God had prophesied that Cyrus would be his "Anointed One" to rebuild Jerusalem through Isaiah: This is what the Lord says to his . Isaiah 44:24, 26, 28: Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I, the LORD, am the maker of all things It is I who says [Heb. The Persian king, Artaxerxes, gave Nehemiah permission to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem that lay in ruins. The principle of release at the beginning of year seven, not at its end, is also given by several Scriptures: Exodus 21:2: If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment., Deuteronomy 15:9, 12, 18: Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of remission, is near. The NASB is used throughout, except as noted. Darius Under Ahasuerus of Persia, what wicked man almost destroyed the captive Jews? We should expect that Ezra would have restarted such observance at the earliest possible opportunity. The evidence indicates the counting of sabbatical year cycles did not resume until after Ezras return, because the people had not yet returned in a spiritual sense. Since the rebuilt Temple was dedicated just six months after that, on Adar 3 (March 12), 515 BC (Ezra 6:15), it appears we should understand the destruction of the Temple as an integral part of the lands desolation, part of the spiritual component that accompanied the physicalparticularly since a Jewish remnant, as well as the Samaritans who later gave Nehemiah grief, were still there farming the land during those seventy years, yet not thereby violating its Sabbath rest. He gave them permission - as a messenger . and this was written on it: Memorandum: In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its . Ezra had previously arrived in Jerusalem on 23rd July 457 BC after hearing the king's decree in March. Since no new decree was issued to facilitate the work of Nehemiah, only letters, the latters work starting in 444 BC should be understood as implementing what had already been permitted by Artaxerxes, yet not put into effect due to the people being cowed by continued Samaritan opposition. The Jews were in exile. Given how clear Cyrus permission had been to rebuild the Temple, this complaint must have focused on something other than Temple construction. As Jacob Myers points out in the Anchor Yale Bible Commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah on this verse, the LXX in Codex Vaticanus renders from you as from Cyrus, consistent with the view adopted here, so this interpretation is of long standing. dabar, usually rendered word] to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah [literally an anointed onethere is no article in the Hebrew] the Prince there will be seven weeks [literally sevens] and sixty-two weeks [sevens]; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. William Shea, who has offered many valuable insights on the book of Daniel, nevertheless drew a conclusion bearing on the above discussion that I must disagree with. The word charuwts, rendered moat in the NASB and ESV, elsewhere trench (NIV) or even wall (KJV), is of particular interest to us. charuwts), even in times of distress. The word here translated plaza conveys the idea of streets that make up a town square (cf. Moreover, the observance of these regular cycles was a non-negotiable requirement of the Law laid upon the Jews: You shall do these things, said the Almighty. Due to this contextual connection with the repairs of the wall of Jerusalem, some exegetes have unfortunately, and in my opinion mistakenly, viewed that wall-related rebuilding work as reason to suppose that the motza' (going forth) of the dabar in Daniel 9:25a must be placed at Nehemiahs arrival in 444 BC, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I Longimanus. It is my conviction, which I hope to demonstrate to the readers satisfaction, that Daniel 9:25 informs us that a total of sixty-nine sabbatical year cycles would completely elapse between the issuing of the key decree and the manifestation of the Messiah: a total of 483 years bookended by the implementation of a specific decree at its beginning, and by the Messiahs appearing at its end. The answer from the above examination of the letter of the western governors is obvious. 'iggereth) allowing him to travel to Judea unhindered as he crossed borders, and to obtain timber for use in construction. . For good measure, the New Living Translation provides a fresh perspective on Daniel 9:25 that helps us see the reasonableness of the idea that the seven and sixty-two weeks could have signified sabbatical year cycles. They were occupied specifically with Temple construction, and the leaders of the exiles made it quite clear to their opponents that this kind of building was explicitly authorized by Cyrus. To any ancient Jew, the weeks of Daniel 9:25, which were periods of seven years, would immediately bring to mind the sabbatical year cycles the LORD established in Exodus 23:1011 and Leviticus 25. Nehemiah 10:31 (NIV): Every seventh year we will forgo working the land [observe a sabbatical year] and will cancel all debts [which caused indentured servitude] (brackets added). Nehemiah was a high official in the Persian court of King Artaxerxes I at the capital city of Susa, which lay 150 miles east of the Tigris River in what is now modern Iran. These and similar passages allude to the sabbatical cycles known to have been observed in Palestine from the post-exilic period to the fifth or sixth Christian century. And The Command To "Restore And Build Jerusalem". Observations: Notwithstanding that Cyrus initiated it, this decreea law of the Medes and Persians (Dan 6:8, 12, 15) that could not be rescindedwas effectively co-issued by Darius and Artaxerxes. The issuing of the decree and the start of the sevens counting are separate matters, though closely related. Why is this significant? By extension, the idea that the complaint of Tabeel et al was not submitted to Artaxerxes until after Ezra arrived in 457 BC with his small group is unworkable. Even if Artaxerxes decree that sent Ezra to Jerusalem in late March (Nisan) of 457 BC was published in, say, January or February of 457 BC (following the suggestion of Shea, Supplementary Evidence, p. 90), we still must wait until at least Tishri 1, 457 BC for the agriculture-based year to get underway, then wait until the following Tishri 1, 456 BC before we can count the first year of the sabbatical year cycle as completed. 12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the [singular] decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia (brackets added). Ezra 10:9, Neh 8:1, 3, 16). This conclusion is an undemonstrated leap of logic. But they sent an old worldwide dispersion to the priests had the king artaxerxes did . 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