Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ezra · About this commentary
The Prophets Helped Them
Ezra 5:1-5
1 Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied to them in the name of the God of Israel. · WEB
Two prophets restart a project that a royal order had stopped, and the work proceeds while the legality is still unsettled.
Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem.
Nothing else has changed. No new decree has been issued, the prohibition of the previous chapter still stands Ezra 4:21, and the neighbors are still watching. What arrives is preaching, and the effect of it is construction: then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build.
The prophets are then described in an unexpected role: with them were the prophets of God, helping them. Not directing the work and not merely announcing it — present at it. Both men's books survive, and both press the building Haggai 1:8 Zechariah 4:9.
So the resumption is illegal on its face. That is worth stating plainly, because the book does not hide it and does not defend it either.
The challenge comes at once, and it is polite. Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, came to them... and asked them, "Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?" A fair question from the responsible official, and the answer they had was a document filed two reigns earlier in another country.
Verse 4 adds the detail that would frighten anyone in that position: they also asked for the names of the men who were making this building. A list of names in an official's hands is how individuals become liable.
And then verse 5 gives the reason the project survived the interview: the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they didn't make them cease.
The intervention is described as attention rather than action — an eye rather than a hand, in a book that usually reaches for the hand. What it produced was not a ruling but a delay: the officials let the work continue until the matter should come to Darius, and an answer should be returned by letter.
That is the whole mercy of the chapter. Nobody is vindicated and nothing is settled. They are simply permitted to keep building while the paperwork travels — and the building will be finished before the file closes.
settled What this mark means