Ezra 6:2

Ezr 6:2 And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that [is] in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein [was] a record thus written:

Ver. 2. And there was found at Achmetha] Or Ecbatana. This was occasioned by the malice of the Jews’ adversaries, and proved a great furtherance to the finishing of the temple. Sic canes lingunt ulcera Lazari. So dogs licked the sores of Lazarus. All things work together for good to them that love God, Rom 8:28. Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit, At length a poison will be for a medicine. saith Seneca.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6:2 The fortress at Ecbatana, the king’s summer home, was located about 300 miles northeast of Babylon. This suggests that Cyrus wrote the scroll in the summer of 538 BC. • Media was a mountainous area north of Persia and east of Assyria. This area is now inhabited by the Kurds (descendants of the Medes). • Texts introduced by the term Memorandum tended to be summaries that listed the main facts of an event for the royal archives (cp. 1:9-10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Wherein were the acts of the kings of the Medes and Persians.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Achmetha--long supposed to be the capital of Greater Media (the Ecbatana of classical, the Hamadan of modern times), [is] at the foot of the Elwund range of hills, where, for its coolness and salubrity, Cyrus and his successors on the Persian throne established their summer residence. There was another city, however, of this name, the Ecbatana of Atropatene, and the most ancient capital of northern Media, and recently identified by COLONEL RAWLINSON in the remarkable ruins of Takht-i-Soleiman. Yet as everything tends to show the attachment of Cyrus to his native city, the Atropatenian Ecbatana, rather than to the stronger capital of Greater Media, COLONEL RAWLINSON is inclined to think that he deposited there, in his fortress, the famous decree relating to the Jews, along with the other records and treasures of his empire [Nineveh and Persepolis].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. At Achmetha] Ecbatana in India, whither it is probable all the records of Cyrus had been carried. This was a sort of summer residence for the kings of Persia.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) At Achmetha.—That is, Ecbatana, the Median capital of Cyrus. It is probable that the original roll of parchment had been destroyed at Babylon by Smerdis, but a copy of it was found here, probably in a Chaldean transcript.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. And there was found at Achmetha] R.V. margin, That is, Ecbatana. The precious document was not found at Babylon. It has been suggested that valuable records were hastily transferred from Babylon to Ecbatana during the short and disturbed reign of Pseudo-Smerdis, who would wish to destroy the edicts of his predecessors. But whatever the cause may have been, notice of its removal had been duly recorded, and the enquiry at Babylon led to search and identification at Ecbatana.

Achmetha] This is the Aramaic transliteration of the Median capital known to us as ‘Ecbatana’ (Gr. ἐκβάτανα and ἀγβάτανα) of which the Persian pronunciation was something like ‘Hangmatâna’. It was the summer residence of the Persian kings. According to Herodotus it was built by king Deioces (708–655 b.c.) and surrounded with seven walls. Alexander the Great resided there in the autumn of 324. After his death, the city fell into insignificance until under the Parthian monarchy it once more became a royal residence. Under the Mohammedans the name became altered to Hamadan. An unhistorical description of the place is given in Jdt_1:1 ff.

in the palace] The royal palace, which was probably also the citadel (bîrah, Greek βάρις) and the treasury. The Aramaic word is the same as the Hebrew rendered ‘palace’ (marg. or ‘castle’) in Neh_1:1; Est_1:2 &c.; Dan_8:2 in reference to ‘Shushan’, and in 1Ch_29:1; 1Ch_29:19 in reference to ‘the Temple of Solomon’; ‘castle’, Neh_2:8; Neh_7:2 in reference to fortifications of Temple.

in the province of the Medes] R.V. of Media. Literally ‘in the province of Madai’ (see Gen_10:2). Media stretched north and south between the Caspian sea and the country of Elam, being bounded by Mt Zagros on the W. and by Parthia on the E. During the earlier period, of which we have an historical account in the Inscriptions, Media seems to have been a tributary province of the Assyrian Empire. She shook off the yoke probably in the reign of Assurbanipal (666–624); and the Median king Cyaxares joined with the Babylonian king Nabopolassar in the overthrow of Nineveh. Cyrus by his defeat of Astyages (550 b.c.) gained possession of Media, which he united with the Persian kingdom.

was a record thus written] R.V. was thus written for a record. More literally accurate: the roll was to serve as the official memorandum.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And there was found at Achmetha,.... Which Jarchi and Aben Ezra take to be the name of a vessel in which letters and writings were put for safety; but it was no doubt the name of a place; the Vulgate Latin version has it Ecbatana; and so Josephus (s); which was the name of a city in Media, where the kings of that country had their residence in the summer time (t); for it has its name from heat (u); the Persian kings dwelt at Shushan in the winter, and at Ecbatana in the summer (w); hence they are compared by Aelian (x) to cranes, birds of passage, because of their going to and from the above places:

in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, here was found

a roll; which was the decree of Cyrus, which perhaps he took with him when he went thither:

and therein was a record thus written; as follows.

(s) Antiqu. l. 11. c. 4. sect. 6. (t) Curtius, l. 5. c. 8. Vid. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 6. (u) Hiller. Onomastic. Sacr. p. 618. (w) Athen. Deipnosophist, l. 12. c. 1. (x) De Animal. l. 3. c. 13.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

“Achmetha” is the “Ecbatana,” or “Agbatana,” of the Greeks, the Persian name for which, as we find in the Behistun Inscription, was HaGMaTANa.

We must suppose that, when Babylon had been searched in vain, the other cities which possessed record-offices were visited, and the decree looked for in them. Ecbatana was the capital of Cyrus.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ecbatana. Chaldean achmetha, signifies "a jug, or chest." (Calmet) --- "They found in the chest of the palace, under the inscription of Media." (Munster) (Pagnin) --- "And a roll was found (some add, in Amatha) in the city, in a chest, (or tower; Greek: Barei) and this memorial was written in it." (Septuagint) Protestants style the place, "Achmetha." (Haydock) --- Arabic, "Athana." Syriac, "Ahmathane." The memoirs of Cyrus had probably been conveyed to Ecbatana, which was built by Dejoces, the first king of the Medes, and greatly enlarged by his successor, Phraortes. (Calmet) --- Province. Media now only formed a province of the empire. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Here the king’s answer may seem to begin, and this following account he sends to them, and after that lays down his commands.

Achmetha; the royal city of the Medes and Persians.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Achmetha — The Chaldee form of the Persian Hagmatana or Hagmatan, and the Ecbatana of the classical writers. Its site is usually identified with the modern Hamadan. Herodotus (i, 98) describes it as a great city, whose walls were built circle within circle, each wall out-topping the one beyond it by the height of its battlements. This was done by means of the conical hill on which the city was built. The circular walls were seven in number, and the royal palace and treasury were within the innermost wall. It was originally the capital of the Medes, and hence its location here noticed as in the province of the Medes, but it was subsequently made the summer residence of the Persian kings. Hither it would seem the royal records had been transferred for greater security. The Behistun inscription shows that Babylon revolted at the beginning of Darius’s reign, but was soon reconquered, and that may have been the occasion of this transfer of the archives, and among them this celebrated roll containing Cyrus’s decree for the restoration of the exiles, and the rebuilding of their temple. Perhaps, however, the record in question had never been deposited at Babylon, but placed originally among the archives kept at Achmetha.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

There was found at Achmetha. Not "in a coffer," as our translators suggest in the margin, and as Aben Ezra and Jarchi interpret; but "at Ecbatana," which is expressed letter for letter by the word used in the original, except that the final n is dropped. Compare for this omission the passage of Harran into Carrhae, and of Shu-shan into Susa. In the palace that is in the province of the Medes. The palace of Ecbatana was very famous. Herodotus says that it was built by Deioces, the first Median king, occupied the centre of the town, and was defended by seven circles of walls, one inside the other (1:98). Polybius states that the building covered an area 1420 yards in circumference, and consisted of a number of halls and cloistered courts, supported by wooden pillars, of cypress or of cedar, both of which were coated with a plating of gold or silver, and supported roofs sloped at an angle, consisting of silver plates instead of the customary tiling (5:27, 10). This grannd building was the residence of the old Median monarchs, and also of Cyrus and Cambyses. Darius built himself still more magnificent residences at Susa and Persepolis; but both he and the later Achaemenian monarchs continued to use the Median palace as a summer residence, and it maintained its celebrity till the close of the empire (see Arrian, "Exp. Alex.," 3:19). A roll. According to Ctesias ("Died. Sic.," 2:32), the Persians employed parchment or vellum for the material of their records, not baked clay, like the Assyrians and Babylonians, or paper, like the Egyptians. Parchment would be a suitable material for rolls, and no doubt was anciently used chiefly in that shape. Therein was a record thus written. The decree would no doubt be written, primarily, in the Persian language and the Persian cuneiform character; but it may have been accompanied by a Chaldaean transcript, of which Ezra may have obtained a copy. Public documents were commonly set forth by the Persians in more than one language (see "Herod.," 4:87; and comp. the "Inscriptions," passim, which are almost universally either bilingual or trilingual).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Achmetha - The royal city of the Medes and Persians.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And there was found in a pouch And a text of one scroll was found there in an אַחְמְתָא. So did the interpreters interpret, that it is a receptacle made for letters, written sheets and books, and they established it from the root of (Gen. 21:14): “a skin of water (וְחֵמַת מַיִם),” and the “aleph” in the word is not a radical, like the rest of the Aramaic language.

in the citadel in that citadel that was in the province of Media.

and so was written and so was written therein its memorandum.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.