God’s Word for You

Ezra 4:11-16 Told on by the Trans-Euphrates

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, July 9, 2025

And now 11 this is a copy of the letter that they sent:

    “To Artaxerxes the King:
    Your servants, the men of Trans-Euphrates, send greeting.
    And now 12 the king should know that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are rebuilding the walls and repairing the foundations. 13 Now be it known to the King that, if this city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tributes, custom tariffs, or tolls, and kings will assuredly be harmed. 14 Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor, therefore we are sending this letter to inform the king, 15 in order that a search may be made in the book of the records of your predecessors. In the book of the records you will see and learn that this city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces, and that rebellion was stirred up there from days of old. That was why this city was laid waste. 16 We are informing the King so that, if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, then you will have possession of no taxable portion in the Trans-Euphrates.”

This letter is from quite a bit later than the history we’ve read from the beginning of the book, but I think that Ezra includes it here to show that opposition was ongoing, from the first return in the 530s BC to the time of Artaxerxes, fifty years later.

The letter is from a delegation from the Trans-Euphrates, that is, the people who lived “across the river” from Babylon or Persia. It was the name of their province, and it is used consistently by them. We might think of it in New Testament terms as Syria, although the two areas were not quite identical. The term is used eighteen times in the Bible, always in Ezra or Nehemiah, and once in the Apocrypha in 1 Maccabees 7:8.

These neighboring people were not complaining here about the temple. The temple by this time had been completed for at least thirty years. Their concern was that the city walls were now being raised to completion. Nehemiah came to Jerusalem with the permission of this same king to make repairs to the city walls. He, too, found opposition (Nehemiah 4:7-8). But the tone of the letter before us is almost hysterical. The argument that if the Jews could rebuild their walls, that there would no longer be anyone to pay taxes, was overstating things. Wouldn’t these very men, the leaders of the Trans-Euphrates, still pay taxes? Before we continue that thought, we might take a moment to examine the three terms for “taxes” here.

Tributes, mindah. “tribute of payment in kind.” This is an Assyrian loanword (mandattu). A tribute is not a regular tax, but a contribution of wealth made to a conqueror once, or more often if the victor decides to press his need. The burden of paying tribute too often led some ancient kings into rebellion, either intentionally or simply out of bankruptcy (2 Kings 17:4).

Custom tariffs, b’lo. An old Persian term (biltu, bari, “payment in kind”). It was a tariff paid usually in goods or even in military service rather than in money.

Tolls, halak. This was a nation’s “feudal duty” to the overlord, a kind of protection payment. If it has you thinking of a kind of Mafia arrangement, you’re not far off.

“Salt of the palace” is an interesting phrase. It means that the people were in a sacred agreement with the King, shown by eating the salt that came from the King’s supply. He did not only share the basic necessities with them but also the niceties. This mention of salt is not necessarily linked to the idea of salt or “salary” that the Romans took as pay for military service, although our word “salary” comes from the Latin term for their payment in salt. Instead, this is a religious term, almost akin to a Hebrew covenant term, used by the Persians.

Israel’s enemies suggest that Artaxerxes look this up in the records of the kingdom. Those Israelites, they’ll become rebellious! Just you see! And to add a little incentive, they also suggest that if Jerusalem’s walls get completed, it will be an end to a big chunk of the king’s income. However anyone wants to translate the last sentence of verse 16, it means the same thing: “You will have possession of no taxable portion in the Trans-Euphrates.” This was hitting the King in his wallet. This is what would spur him on to search those records.

The librarians who maintained those ancient records had quite a task. These things were usually clay tablets, about the size of a paperback book, and usually stored with two copies. One was out in the open and easy to read; the other was sealed in a thin clay case but connected to the readable copy with a fabric cord. They had to be stored together. The purpose for this was to prevent forgeries. They were sealed by the original king’s seal, which could not be duplicated on pain of death. But if someone got the idea of making a forgery and making it look as if it were cracked and broken as if the seal signature were lost, it was still connected to the sealed copy.

Someone might wonder, if they broke the sealed copy, then it was no longer sealed, and what would stop someone from forging it again later on for some reason? Well, there are examples of this kind of opening and closing, and another case would be made with a record of the king who ordered the seal broken and the new copy and case being made, and so on.

The devil will use any means, even human laws, to stop the work of the church, but he is far more interested in ruining the faith of individual Christians. James calls out to us like a coach: “Resist the devil! He will flee from you!” (James 4:7). And Paul says, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and don’t give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27).

But the devil has allies. Some were in the Trans-Euphrates and some are throughout the rest of the world today. But our own sinful flesh works against us as the devil’s servant, and this is a plague and a curse we carry all our lives. As one ancient pastor put it, “I am altogether sinful. I have never yet escaped temptation. And I am still in the midst of the devil’s tools, yet I am trying to follow after righteousness.” The wreckage of sin in us, especially that of original sin, “is so unspeakable that it may not be recognized by a rational process, but only from God’s word” (Formula of Concord).

So while Ezra reminds us of enemies all around, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the enemy within our own flesh. No matter what man does, we cannot rid ourselves of sin. We cannot, as King Lear says, “plate sin with gold” to turn the lance of divine justice (King Lear IV:6). We turn to the Word of God only. The Psalm teaches us where to go: “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).

God loves us and preserves us. He has had us in mind to be his dear children of faith since before the creation of the universe. For just as Christ and the Gospel were promised in advance before he entered into the world (Romans 1:3-4), so also God’s plan for us was already in place before the world itself came into being, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 1:4. Jesus came to destroy all of the power of the devil, including that of original sin, by his death on the cross. The devil has no ally left as he lies crushed and ruined among the stones of Golgotha, a serpent’s tail twitching in the dust; the head destroyed; with no power left.

Just as Christ rose, so we will rise, without any sin or product of sin as any part of us anymore, forever. Through Jesus, we will be cleansed to perfection. Praise his holy name.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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