God’s Word for You

Ezra 4:6-10 Something in Aramaic

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, July 8, 2025

6 And then in the reign of Xerxes, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the people who lived in Judah and Jerusalem. 7 And even later, in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. That letter was written in Aramaic and translated. The Aramaic says:
    8 Rehum the high commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows—9 then wrote Rehum the high commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, the judges, the governors, the officials, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa (that is, the Elamites), 10 and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and in the rest in the Trans-Euphrates.

The book takes a detour at this point to present some of the history of the objections to the building of the temple, and a legal record of some of those objections. Ezra actually quotes from the official records of Persia to do this. The book so far has dealt with the early history of the return in the days of Cyrus the Great (550-530 BC) and his successors, Cambyses and Pseudo-Smerdis (530-522, and a few more months in 522). Now Ezra describes accusations from the reign of Xerxes (486-465, the husband of Esther), and from his son Artaxerxes (465-424), who reigned into the ministry years of Malachi, the last of the Hebrew prophets.

The documents (beginning here with verse 8) are not in Hebrew. They are presented in the third language of the Bible, which is Aramaic. Biblical Aramaic is similar to Hebrew in the way that German is similar to English. There are many words that are similar, but someone who has learned one but not the other won’t be able to understand what is said. Recall the words of the palace officials to the Assyrian commander: “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall” (Isaiah 36:11). The Aramaic here in Ezra runs from this point to near the end of chapter 6, and another portion in chapter 7. About half of the book of Daniel is also in Aramaic, along with a verse in Jeremiah. For this translation, I considered altering my vocabulary somewhat to show the difference, such as shifting to the pronouns thee and thou. But that would be a false comparison, and would have supported the misunderstanding many people have about those pronouns already.

The titles of the officials raise a question: are they titles, or are they the names of peoples? The NIV takes almost all of the terms in verse 9 as places, but this is not necessarily the case.

Judges is Danites or Dinaites. “Dan” means “judge” in Semitic languages (Genesis 30:6). The word here is surely not related to the tribe of Dan, even though they ended up as the northernmost tribe of Israel and were the closest, geographically, to Persia (Joshua 19:47).

Governors could also be “emissaries.” If this were a nation, they would be the Parsakites or something along those lines—an unknown people or land. “Governors” is probably the best translation.

Officials can also be “Tripoli.” The Greek name means “three cities” and was coined prior to the time of Ezra, but there was also the city of “Tripoli of the Levant,” or Tarabulus al-Ghard (Mermaid of the Mediterranean) in Lebanon. Another view is that a Tarabulus (Tripoli) was the top-level administrative district of a region, according to the governmental system of the Tripoli in Libya (it was the Libyan Tripoli that is commemorated in the Marine Hymn, on account of the Battle of Derna in 1805).

Persians, which could be administrators or consuls. Administrators are those who make fair divisions, and this term, “division,” brings the word use here (Parsin / Pharsin) into the Biblical account of the handwriting on the wall. There we are told that “Parsin means that your kingdom has been broken in two and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:28).

Men of Erech or Uruk. The city of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia was the capital city of Gilgamesh in ancient times. It was near (not identical with) Abraham’s home of Ur (Genesis 11:31). Uruk is generally thought to be the place where writing was invented, a form of hieroglyphics to convey the ancient Sumerian language (see Genesis 11:6-8).

Babylonians is certainly the sixth term in the list, but it could be a reference to Babylonians as religious leaders, “theologians,” rather than as a nationality. In the New Testament, Peter used “Babylon” as a sort of cryptogram for Rome, a city of cruel exile for Christians. John used the same term for the center of all opposition to God and to God’s people (Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2,10,21).

Men of Susa. Susa was the winter palace of the Persian kings (Esther 1:2), on a magnificent hill overlooking the Ulai Canal (Daniel 8:2). It was known as a center of artistry and craftsmanship, with remarkable pottery decoration and some of the most ancient copper work known in the world. It is possible that “men of Susa” is a term for skilled craftsmen rather than the people of this region.

In these verses we have a proclamation of law rather than gospel. It is law because it shows opposition to people serving God; it is no different in this sense from any speech in the Bible hissed out by Satan or any of his actions to oppose the spread of the gospel. Recall Paul’s words: “We wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). “The children of the devil are anyone who does not do what is right and is not a child of God, nor anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10).

Luther teaches: “The devil baits and badgers us on all sides, but especially exerts himself where the conscience and spiritual matters are at stake. His purpose is to make us scorn and despise both the Word and the works of God, to tear us away from faith, hope, and love, to draw us into unbelief, false security, and stubbornness, or on the contrary, to drive us into despair, atheism, blasphemy, and countless other abominable sins. These are snares and nets, indeed, they are the real ‘flaming darts’ (Ephesians 6:16) which are venomously shot into our hearts, not by flesh and blood but by the devil” (Large Catechism, III:104).

What is the answer? Christ himself protects us, beginning with the very childhood protection and covering of our holy baptism. “Let your baptism be your shield, your faith a helmet, your love a spear, your endurance a suit of armor; let your deeds be your deposit so that you can receive the back pay that is due. Be patient with one another in gentleness, as God is with you.”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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