Tattenai's Report
6 The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king follows. 7 They sent a letter to him, in which was written: To Darius the king, all peace. 8 Be it known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with great stones and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on with diligence and prospers in their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders, and said to them thus, “Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?” 10 We asked them their names also, to inform you that we might write the names of the men who were at their head. 11 Thus they returned us answer, saying, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are building the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. 12 But after our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away into Babylon. 13 But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree to build this house of God. 14 The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. 15 He said to him, ‘Take these vessels, go, put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let God’s house be built in its place.’ 16 Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem. Since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed. 17 Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was made by Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.”
The official's letter is scrupulously fair, and the Jews' answer to him begins by confessing why the first temple fell.
The second letter in the book is quoted like the first, and the contrast between them is the point.
It opens without hostility: to Darius the king, all peace. And its report of the facts is accurate and even admiring — the house is being built with great stones and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goes on with diligence and prospers in their hands.
Tattenai is not an enemy. He describes what he saw, records the question he asked, notes that he asked for names, and then does something the earlier informers never did: he quotes the answer he received, at length and without editing it.
And the answer is remarkable for what it leads with. We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are building the house that was built these many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.
Then, unprompted, the confession: but after our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away.
A delegation under investigation volunteers that its nation's catastrophe was deserved. They had every incentive to present themselves as victims of a foreign power — the file in the archive already called them rebels Ezra 4:19 — and instead they name their fathers' provocation as the cause and God as the agent. Nebuchadnezzar is reduced to the instrument, the hand something was given into.
Only then do they reach the legal ground: Cyrus made a decree, the vessels were handed to Sheshbazzar, and he came and laid the foundations. And they concede the unfinished state honestly — since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed.
The proposal that closes the letter is theirs, not the governor's: let a search be made in the king's treasure house, which is there at Babylon.
They ask to be checked. The earlier accusers had invited a search of the archives to convict them Ezra 4:15, and the same instrument is now invoked by the accused.
settled What this mark means