Ezra 7:22

Ezr 7:22 Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing [how much].

Ver. 22. Unto an hundred talents of silver] This was no small sum. How chargeable was the service of God heretofore to what it is now! and yet how heavily do men come off when to expend though but a very small sum that way! Ad quid perditio haec? To what end is this waste? is the common cry in this case. Surely Pagans and Papagans who lavish money out of the bag without measure, dotantque Deos alienos (as some read that text, Psa 16:3), shall have an easier judgment than such pinch penny professors.

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.

Ezr 7:22. Salt, without prescribing how much — He limits all the other expenses, except salt, which was of low price, and of very common and necessary use in all their sacrifices; and therefore, since he would not have any sacrifice hindered, he did not prescribe any measure of it, but permitted them to take as much as they found necessary. The sum here ordered, in silver, amounts to thirty-five thousand three hundred pounds sterling; the wheat to eight hundred bushels; the wine to twelve or thirteen hogsheads; and the oil to the same quantity, which shows the princely liberality of Artaxerxes.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, Corim.

Read 1 Kings 7:26; 2 Chron. 2:10.

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

an hundred talents of silver--£22,000 according to the rate of the silver talent of Babylon. Fourthly, Artaxerxes gave his royal sanction in the establishment of the divine law, which exempted priests and Levites from taxation or tribute and confirmed to them the exclusive right to officiate in the sacred services of the sanctuary. And, finally, in the expression of the king's desire for the divine blessing upon the king and his government (Ezr 7:23), we see the strong persuasion which pervaded the Persian court, and had been produced by the captivity of the Hebrew people, as to the being and directing providence of the God they worshipped. It will be observed, however, that the commission related exclusively to the rebuilding of the temple--not of the walls. The Samaritans (Ezr 4:20-22) had succeeded in alarming the Persian court by their representations of the danger to the empire of fortifying a city notorious for the turbulent character of its inhabitants and the prowess of its kings.

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 22. A hundred talents of silver] The talent of silver was 450£.

A hundred measures of wheat] A hundred cors; each cor was a little more than seventy-five gallons, one quart, and a pint, wine measure.

A hundred baths of wine] Each bath was seven gallons and five pints.

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

(22) Unto an hundred talents of silver . . .—A certain restriction is laid upon the amount, although the very restriction seems almost indefinite. The silver might reach £24,000 sterling. As to the rest, Palestine abounded in these productions, which were regularly remitted to the king’s service. Salt especially was plentiful near the Dead Sea.

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

22. unto an hundred talents of silver] or £37, 500. Money reckoned by weight. A ‘kikkar’ or talent of silver was of value about £375. A talent contained 60 manim or 3000 shekels, cf. on Ezr_2:69.

an hundred measures of wheat] The ‘measure’ or ‘cor’, equivalent to 8 bushels or 1 quarter. We learn from Eze_45:14 that the ‘cor’ contained 10 ‘baths’ and was the same as the ‘homer’, see also 1Ki_4:22; 1Ki_5:11; 2Ch_2:10; 2Ch_27:5.

an hundred baths of wine] The ‘bath’ contained 6 or 7 gallons (= hins).

salt without prescribing how much] The importance of salt in the sacrificial system appears from Lev_2:13 ‘And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine oblations thou shalt offer salt’, cf. Ezr_6:9; Eze_43:24. The translation of the A.V. and R.V. gives the general sense of the original (= ‘which is not written’); LXX. οὗ οὔκ ἐστιν γραφή. The Vulg. ‘absque mensura’.

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.

Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God,.... The king had a right and perfect knowledge of the distinct offices and services of those persons, see Ezr 7:7,

it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them; that they might be the less encumbered with the affairs of life, and be more at leisure to attend divine service, and do it the more readily and freely; it was usual with the Heathens to except ecclesiastics from taxes, tributes, and imposts; so the priests in Egypt (w), and the Druids here in Britain (x).

(w) Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 66. (x) Caesar. Comment. de Bello Gall. l. 6. c. 13.

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

This verse assigns limits to the permission of Ezr 7:20. As the Persian tribute was paid partly in money and partly in kind (see Ezr 4:13 note), the treasuries would be able to supply them as readily as they could furnish money.

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

CHAPTER VII.

Salt was used in all the sacrifices, Leviticus ii. 13. In 3 Esdras no mention is made of oil or salt; but we read, "and all other things in abundance."

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).

Because it was but of mean price, and of very common and necessary use in all their sacrifices, Lev 2:13; Mar 9:49.

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

22. A hundred talents of silver — About one hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars.

A hundred measures of wheat — Or a hundred cors, about one thousand one hundred bushels.

A hundred baths — Nearly eight hundred and seventy-five gallons, or more than fifteen hogsheads.

Salt without prescribing — “The enemies of God’s Church had before said that they were salted with the salt of the palace, (Ezr_4:14, margin,) but now the king’s decree gives salt without measure to Ezra and his company.” — Wordsworth.

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

Unto a hundred talents of silver. At the lowest estimate of the Jewish silver talent, this would be a permission to draw on the royal treasury to the amount of sterling. If we adopt the views of Mr. R.S. Peele ("Dict. of the Bible, Articles, MONEY and WEIGHTS AND MEASURES), it would authorise drawing to the amount of A hundred measures of wheat. Literally, "a hundred cors of wheat," as given in the margin. The cor is variously estimated, at 44.25 gallons and at 86.67 gallons. It contained ten baths. Orders on the treasury for so much wheat, wine, oil, and salt sound strangely in modern ears; but were natural enough in the Persian system, where taxation was partly in kind, and every province had to remit to the court the choicest portion of its produce. Wine, corn, oil, and salt were all of them produced abundantly in Palestine, which was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of off olive, and of honey", (2Ki_18:32) and which, in the region about the Dead Sea, abounded with salt.

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

which is not written And salt, regarding which no measure is written, they shall give according to how much is needed.

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.