This verse is a key verse in the story of the rebuilding of the Temple. The verse emphasizes a main theme in the book of Ezra, which is the building of the Temple, and the fact that they finished it. The reference to Haggai and Zechariah forms a kind of envelope or frame around the building of the Temple with the beginning in 5.1 and the completion here. The reference to Artaxerxes here also forms a frame with the earlier occurrence of his name marking the beginning of the Aramaic section (Ezra 4.7-8) and here signaling the end of the Aramaic section.
The elders of the Jews built and prospered: The phrase the elders of the Jews, or simply the elders, has occurred several times in relation to the work, first in Ezra 5.5, 9, then in 6.7, 8, and now here. The two verbs built and prospered are participles in the original text stating what the elders were doing. They were building and they were prospering, that is, their work was advancing. The Temple was being rebuilt successfully. The work of the Jewish community was first described as prospering in Ezra 5.8, and now again it prospered.
Through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: See the comments on Ezra 5.1. The emphasis here is on the work being done by the people with the encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. To make the meaning clear translators may need to restructure this prepositional phrase. Good News Translation says “encouraged by…” (also Bible en français courant), while New English Bible says “As a result of the prophecies of….” An alternative restructuring would be to say “Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo spoke from God to them and this encouraged them and they successfully built….” Good News Translation has omitted the phrase the son of Iddo, but this should not be done.
They finished their building: The text is literally “they built and they finished.” The two verbs here are not near synonyms as is often found in the writing style of Aramaic and Hebrew. Here they are consecutive actions, the one leading into the other: first they built, and then they finished. The same verb is used here for “finish” as for finishing the walls of Jerusalem in Ezra 4.12 and finishing the structure of the Temple in 5.3. The repetition of this word draws attention to the fact that what their enemies tried to prevent and what the Persian officials questioned was successfully achieved. This may be translated “They completed the work of building.”
The writer of the narrative emphasizes that the work of rebuilding the Temple is accomplished by the command of the God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia God’s will is accomplished in history through human agencies. Both command and decree are the same word in the original text but in slightly different forms. Some commentators suggest that this is to distinguish between a divine command and a human one. God’s command has been made known through the prophets (Ezra 5.1). Decree is in the singular form, perhaps signifying, according to Eskanazi, that the command of the three kings is the same and corresponds to the will of God. For the last half of this verse, the rendering of Bible en français courant is a good model to follow: “they completed it according to the order of the God of Israel and the decrees of the emperors of Persia, [who were] Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes.”
Artaxerxes is probably mentioned because of the support he later gave to the Temple (Ezra 7.15-24, 27). New English Bible omits the name Artaxerxes and Osty-Trinquet encloses it in brackets because it was considered to have been an early addition to the Aramaic text before the Greek translation. However, Eskanazi suggests that the point of view of the book of Ezra may be that the Temple was not considered to be fully completed until the return of the vessels and its expansion in the time of Artaxerxes. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives the inclusion of the name an A rating and the name should be included by translators.
Although the text identifies only Artaxerxes as king of Persia, Good News Translation uses the plural “emperors of Persia” to refer to Cyrus and Darius also since they all were rulers of Persia in their separate times.
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .