Achmetha

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Duration: 1min

Ezra 6:2 • 1 min. read • grade level: 11

This reads in the margin, “Ecbatana, or, in a coffer” (Ezra 6:2²And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: (Ezra 6:2)). The LXX does not treat it as a proper name: the passage there reads “And there was found in the city (πὀλει), in the palace, a volume.” The Vulgate has “Et inventum est in Ecbatanis.” Apparently history alludes to two cities named Ecbatana: one associated with the ruins at Talcht-i-Suleiman, 36° 28' N, 47° 18' E; the other identified with the modern Hamadan, 34° 48' N, 48° 26' E, anciently the summer residence of Persian kings, and where the records of the kingdom were apparently kept. This is most probably the Achmetha of scripture. Travelers state that the Jews exhibit a tomb in their charge in the midst of the city, which is the reputed tomb of Mordecai and Esther.

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