with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.
Parallel translations
- WEB with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house.
- KJV With three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of the king’s house:
- NKJV with three rows of heavy stones and one row of new timber. Let the expenses be paid from the king’s treasury.
- NASB with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. And the cost is to be paid from the royal treasury.
- NLT Every three layers of specially prepared stones will be topped by a layer of timber. All expenses will be paid by the royal treasury.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The decree specified building materials and that costs be paid from the royal treasury. The king himself was to fund God's house.
Overview
Cyrus had ordered the temple built with great stones and timber, with expenses covered by the crown. This royal funding showed extraordinary favor toward God's people. That a pagan king would pay for the Lord's house testifies to God's sovereign rule over rulers and nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 1 Kgs 6:36Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams.
- Ps 68:29Because of Your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring You gifts.
- Isa 60:6–10Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
- Isa 49:23Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”
- Ezra 7:20–23And if anything else is needed for the house of your God that you may have occasion to supply, you may pay for it from the royal treasury.
- Rev 12:16But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth.
- Ps 72:10May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
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Christ at the center
The return from exile and the rebuilt altar keep alive the hope of a greater restoration — the true return from our deeper exile of sin accomplished by Christ.
How Ezra 6:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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