Cyrus
Ezra 1:2.—Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth.
XENOPHON.—Cyrus' empire was the noblest and most extensive in Asia. He ruled over the Medes and Hyrcanians, Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both Phrygias, the Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, Scythians, Paphlagonians, Megadinians, and many other nations, the Greeks inhabiting Asia, and the Cyprians and Egyptians; the borders of his kingdom were to the East of the Red Sea, to the North the Euxine Pontus, to the West Cyprus and Egypt, and to the South Ethiopia; and though of such an extent, was governed by the single will of Cyrus.—Cyropœdia, 1. viii., c. 8.
PROF. G. RAWLINSON, M. A.—The character of Cyrus, and his actions, as indicated by Ezra (and Daniel), are in remarkable agreement with the notices which we possess of him in profane authors. Of all the Persian monarchs, he was the most distinguished for mildness and clemency; the one to whom the sufferings of a captive nation, torn violently from its home and subjected to seventy years of oppression, would most forcibly have appealed. Again, he was an earnest Zoroastrian, a worshipper of the “Great God, Ormazd," the special, if not the sole, object of adoration among the ancient Persians; he was a hater of idolatry, and of the shameless rites which accompanied it, and he would naturally sympathize with such a people as the Jews-a people whose religious views bore so great a resemblance to his own. Thus the restoration of the Jews by Cyrus, though an act almost without a parallel in the history of the world, was only natural under the circumstances; and the narrative of it, which Ezra gives us, is in harmony at once with the other Scriptural notices of the monarch, and with profane accounts of him. The edicts which he issued on the occasion (Ezra 1:2-4, and 6:3-5) are alike suitable to his religious belief and to the generosity of his character. His acknowledgment of one "Lord rod of Heaven " (1, 2); his identification of this God with the Jehovah of the Jews; and his pious confession that he has received all the kingdoms over which he rules from this source, breathe the spirit of the Old Persian religion, of which Cyrus was a sincere votary; while the delivery of the golden vessels from out of the treasury (1:7-It, and 6:5); the allowance of the whole expense of rebuilding the Temple out of the royal revenue (6:4); and the general directions to all Persian subjects to " help with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts " (1: 4), accord well with the munificence which is said to have been one of his leading characteristics.—Hist. Illust. of O. T., p. 193.
The Cedars of Lebanon
Ezra 3:7.—They gave... meat and drink and oil unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant they had of Cyrus king of Persia.
REV. GEORGE E. POST, M. D.—For a long time it was contended that the cedar was not found in any part of Lebanon except the famous grove near Besherreh, and that any trees resembling it in other localities were only cognate species, but not the true Larix Cedrus. I have, however, settled this point by a laborious search and botanical examination. There are certainly in existence the following groves: 5. An extensive one near el-Hadet, consisting of many thousand small trees. 2. A small grove east of 'Ain Zehalta. 3. A large grove of very young trees east of 'Ain Zehalta, in the valleys and on the western slopes of Lebanon; I estimated the number at 50,000 trees. 4. A grove above Barak, and stretching southward two or three miles, terminating in a cluster of noble trees overhanging the village el-Measir; this may number from 20,000 to 30,000 in all, both small and large trees. The southernmost portion is a grand collection of about 250 trees. One measures 27 feet in circumference, another 23, and many from 15 to 20. Some of them spread widely their horizontal branches, and bear numerous cones. The grandeur of their situation on the declivity of a deep gorge enhances the interest which always attends the sight of this venerable tree.—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, p. 1624.
House of the Rolls
Ezra 6:1, 2.—Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And 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: In the first year of Cyrus the king, etc.
AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P.—I shall call these chambers " the chambers of records," for, like " the house of the rolls," or records, which Darius ordered to be searched for the decrees of Cyrus, concerning the building of the temple of Jerusalem, they appear to have contained the decrees of the Assyrian kings as well as the archives of the empire. I have mentioned elsewhere that the historical records and public documents of the Assyrians were kept on tablets and cylinders of baked clay. Many specimens have been brought to England,... These chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository in the palace of Nineveh for such documents. To the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building. They were of different sizes; the largest tablets were flat, and measured nine inches by six and a half inches; the smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long, with hut one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were singularly sharp and well defined, but so minute in some instances as to be almost illegible without a magnifying glass. These documents appear to be of various kinds. Many are historical records of wars, and distant expeditions undertaken by the Assyrians; some seem to be royal decrees, and are stamped with the name of the king, the son of Esar-haddon; others again, divided into parallel columns by horizontal lines, contain lists of gods, and probably a register of offerings made in their temples.
Many are sealed with seals, and many prove to be legal documents, contracts, or conveyances of land. Others bear rolled impressions of those engraved cylinders so frequently found in Babylonia and Assyria.—Nineveh and Babylon, p. 295-298.
Ezra 6:2.—And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was recorded, etc.
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—The discovery of the original decree of Cyrus, early in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, at Achmetha (Ecbatana), is one of those little points of agreement between sacred and profane history which are important because their minuteness is an indication that they are purely casual and unintentional. When Ezra wrote, the Persian kings resided usually at Susa or Babylon; these cities, as the ordinary stations of the court, were, therefore, the places at which the archives were laid up. But Cyrus (one hundred years before) seems to have held his court permanently at Ecbatana (Herod. I., 153), and consequently it was there that he kept his archives, and there that his decree was found.—Hist. Illust. of O. T., p. 196.
PROF. G. RAWLINSON, M. A.—This Darius died B. C. 486. He had prepared his tomb in the neighborhood of Persepolis, where it may still be seen. It is placed in a recess 'of the rock, sculptured as in the annexed figure, bearing an inscription which is yet legible.—Rawlinson's Herodotus. iv. 4, 395.
Decreed Penalty
Ezra vi have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged, thereon; and let hi., house be made a dunghill for this.
HERODOTUS.—Leutychides being brought to public trial for having received a bribe, was driven from Sparta, and his house rased.—Herodt., 1. vi., c. 72.
LIVY.—Spurius Cassius being prosecuted for treason by the Quæstors, Cæso Fabius and Lucius Valerius, was found guilty on a trial before the people, and his house was rased by public decree.—Livy, 1. ii., c. 41.
QUINTILIAN.—Ignominy follows some men, even after death. Thus the house of Mælius, when he was dead, was demolished; and none of the posterity of Marcus Manlius was suffered to carry their family's name.—Quintilian, lib. iii., cap. 7.
Expressions of Grief
Ezra 9:3.—And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.
REV. JOSEPH ROBERTS.—In great disappointment, fury, or distress, the people of the East tear out their long hair. They also bite their lips and arms.—Orient. Illust., p. 242.
Cold and Rain
Ezra 10:9.—It was the ninth month, and the twentieth day of the month: and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and' for the great rain.
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—The “ninth month" answered to our December; this is the coldest and most rainy part of the year in Palestine.—Note, In loco.
REV. JOSEPH ROBERTS.—On court days in Hindustan, during a wet Monsoon, the half-naked people sit huddled together under the nearest tree shivering for the great rain.—Orient. Illust., p. 243.