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Journey of a Passage

Ezra 6:19–22

Back to Hebrew, the Passover and "the king of Assyria"

At 6:19 Ezra returns to Hebrew. The Passover is eaten by the returned exiles "and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen." God turns the heart of "the king of Assyria" to them: so every library witness, of a Persian king.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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 it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ 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.

    il avait incliné le cœur du roi d'Assyrie en leur faveur

    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).

    converterat cor regis Assur ad eos

  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.

    וְהֵסֵב לֵב מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר עֲלֵיהֶם

    and turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them

  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).

    turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them

What changed, and why

Persian kings ruled the old Assyrian lands, and Athura ("Assyria") was a Persian province name covering Mesopotamia and Syria. The phrase may also be a deliberate reversal: the empire that once deported Israel now strengthens it (compare Nehemiah 9:32, "since the time of the kings of Assyria"). 6:21 welcomes those who separate themselves from the nations' impurity to join, a contrast with Ezra 9–10.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedEvery library witness reads "king of Assyria" in 6:22.
  • Strongly supportedThe phrase refers to the Persian king.

Sources

  • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)

Related lessons

  • The Memorandum, the Finished Temple and the Passover →Darius has the archives searched, and a scroll is found at Ecbatana: Cyrus' memorandum ordering the house rebuilt, sixty cubits high and wide, paid for by the crown, with the vessels returned. Darius orders his officials not to interfere, to fund the work and the sacrifices from the region's tribute, and to pray for the king. The temple is finished in his sixth year (515 BC). It is dedicated with joy, and the returned exiles, with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations, keep the Passover.