foundations of the temple were laid in the second month of the second year of their return. The words, ”and the children of Israel were in the cities,” are a circumstantial clause referring to Ezr 2:70, and serving to elucidate what follows. From the cities, in which each had settled in his own (Ezr 2:1), the people came to Jerusalem as one man, i.e., not entirely (Bertheau), but unanimously (ὁμοθυμαδόν, 1 Esdr. 5:46); comp. Neh 8:1; Jdg 20:1.[1]
Verse 2
Then the two leaders of the people, Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the prince (see on Jos 2:2), with their brethren, i.e., the priests and the men of Israel (the laity), arose and built the altar, to offer upon it burnt-offerings, as prescribed by the law of Moses, i.e., to restore the legal sacrifices. According to Ezr 3:6, the offering of burnt-offerings began on the first day of the seventh month; hence the altar was by this day already completed. This agrees with the statement, “When the seventh month approached” (Ezr 3:1), therefore before the first day of this month.
Verse 3
They reared the altar על־מכונתו, upon its (former) place; not, upon its bases. The feminine מכונה has here a like signification with the masculine form מכון, Ezr 2:68, and מכוּנה, Zec 5:11. The Keri מכונתיו is an incorrect revision. “For fear was upon them, because of the people of those countries.” The ב prefixed to אימה is the so-called ב essentiae, expressing the being in a condition; properly, a being in fear had come or lay upon them. Comp. on ב essentiae, Ewald, §217, f, and 299, b, though in §295, f, he seeks to interpret this passage differently. The “people of those countries” are the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of the new community; comp. Ezr 9:1; Ezr 10:2. The notion is: They erected the altar and restored the worship of Jahve, for the purpose of securing the divine protection, because fear of the surrounding heathen population had fallen upon them. J. H. Mich. had already a correct notion of the verse when
