myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Ezra 4:12–23

Rehum's letter and the king's reply: a city, not a temple

The accusation and the royal reply concern Jerusalem's walls and tribute, not the temple. The text is stable across the library's witnesses; the questions are historical: are the letters authentic, and how do they relate to Nehemiah?

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)c. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

    Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

    Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Same contents. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate (1 Esdras = Ezra)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Same contents.

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    קִרְיְתָא מָרָדְתָּא וּבִאישְׁתָּא בָּנַיִן וְשׁוּרַיָּא שַׁכְלִלוּ

    they are building the rebellious and bad city, and have finished the walls

    4:12.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations… until another commandment shall be given from me

    4:12, 21.

What changed, and why

  • 4:8–16 the accusation: the city is rebellious; if rebuilt, it will withhold toll, tribute and custom; search the records.
  • 4:17–22 the reply: the records confirm rebellion; stop the work "until another commandment shall be given from me."
  • 4:23 enforcement "by force and power."
  • Nehemiah 1:3 reports the walls broken down and gates burned: possibly the result of this order.
  • Nehemiah 2:1–8: the same Artaxerxes gives the other commandment.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • Opposition, Letters and a Leap in Time →"The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin" offer to help build, saying they have worshiped Israel's God since Esarhaddon brought them. Zerubbabel and Jeshua refuse. The people of the land then weaken the builders through Cyrus' reign to Darius'. The chapter then leaps forward: accusations under Xerxes, and under Artaxerxes an Aramaic letter about the city's walls and the king's order to stop. Verse 24 returns to the temple and Darius' second year.