Ezra 6:6–12

Ezra 6:6 — "Stay far from there." Darius addresses Tattenai (the Persian governor west of the Euphrates), Shetharbozenai, and the Apharsachites — the very officials whose letter to Darius had prompted this investigation (5:3–6). The command is blunt and emphatic in its Aramaic phrasing: the officials are not merely to tolerate the construction but to physically remove themselves from it. The word translated "stay far from there" (shevu rachiqin min atar hu) implies active distancing, not passive neutrality. Darius thus transforms potential adversaries into ordered bystanders.

Ezra 6:7 — "Leave the work of this house of God alone." This verse is the hinge of the entire decree. The governor and elders of the Jews — not Persian-appointed overseers — are confirmed as the legitimate authorities over the Temple's reconstruction. The phrase "in its place" (b'athreh) is significant: it affirms the Temple's precise sacred location on the Temple Mount, a detail that carries enormous theological weight, since the "place which the LORD your God will choose" (Deut 12:5) is a recurring theme in Israel's theology of divine presence.

Ezra 6:8 — Royal funds for a divine house. Here the decree becomes extraordinary. Darius does not merely permit the work; he orders it funded from "the king's goods" — the imperial tribute collected from the Trans-Euphrates satrapy. The verb translated "with all diligence" ('osparna) recurs in verse 12 and is an Aramaic administrative term denoting complete, undelayed compliance. The irony is layered: the Babylonian exile had been financed in part by the plundering of the Temple (2 Kgs 25:13–17), yet now Persian imperial machinery reverses that plunder.

Ezra 6:9 — Daily sacrificial provisions. The list of required items — young bulls, rams, lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil — directly maps onto the Mosaic prescriptions for the Tamid (daily) offering (Lev 6:8–13; Num 28:3–8). Salt is specifically required by Lev 2:13 for every grain offering. That a Persian king should enumerate these items according to priestly specifications reflects either remarkable knowledge of Jewish practice or, more likely, careful counsel from Jewish advisors (possibly Ezra himself or earlier returnees). Either way, Providence works through human means. The phrase "according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem" subordinates even the imperial decree to priestly authority in matters of worship.

Ezra 6:10 — Sacrifice and intercession. The dual purpose of the Temple offerings is stated clearly: (1) "sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven" — the same covenantal phrase used for acceptable worship throughout the Pentateuch (Gen 8:21; Lev 1:9) — and (2) intercessory prayer for the king and his sons. This reflects a well-documented Second Temple practice: Jews prayed for the foreign rulers under whose protection they lived (cf. Jer 29:7; 1 Tim 2:1–2). The Temple is not merely a national monument; it is a house of intercession for all peoples.

Ezra 6:11 — The curse on violators. The punishment described — impalement on a beam pulled from one's own house, with the house reduced to a dunghill — is consistent with Persian royal decrees of the period (cf. Esther 7:9–10; the Behistun inscription of Darius). The severity underscores the sacral seriousness with which even a pagan king treats his own decree once it is issued. Literarily, this curse mirrors and inverts the kind of destruction Israel had suffered: the Temple was torn down; now a man's house will be torn down if he touches the Temple.

Ezra 6:12 — Divine sanction seals the imperial decree. In a remarkable theological move, Darius invokes the God of Israel to enforce the decree, calling upon "the God who has caused his name to dwell there" — a formulation echoing the Deuteronomic theology of the divine Name dwelling in the chosen sanctuary (Deut 12:11; 1 Kgs 8:29). The king thus implicitly recognizes the God of Israel as the real sovereign over the Temple. The final phrase, "I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence," frames the entire passage as the climax of divine providence working through pagan authority — a Gentile king ratifying what the God of Israel had ordained through the prophets.

From a Catholic perspective, this passage is a profound meditation on the instrumentality of secular power in God's plan of salvation. The Catechism teaches that "God's plan of salvation" encompasses the whole of human history, drawing even reluctant or unknowing actors into his providential design (CCC §314). Darius, like Cyrus before him (Isa 45:1, where God explicitly calls Cyrus his "anointed"), exercises a kind of unconscious service to divine revelation.

St. Augustine, in The City of God (V.21), reflects on how God grants earthly dominion to pagan rulers when it serves his purposes, "not because they are righteous, but because it pleases him to use them for chastisement and restoration." Darius's decree exemplifies this principle precisely: he acts, in Augustine's framework, as an instrument of the City of God while remaining a citizen of the City of Man.

The passage also anticipates the Church's theology of legitimate authority's proper relationship to worship. Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes §76 distinguishes between Church and state while affirming that the temporal order, properly ordered, should support the conditions in which authentic worship and moral life flourish. Darius's edict — funding sacrifice, protecting priests, and demanding non-interference — is a striking Old Testament archetype of this principle.

The intercessory prayer for rulers mandated in verse 10 connects directly to the Church's practice articulated in 1 Timothy 2:1–2 and retained in the Roman Rite's Prayer of the Faithful and the ancient Orationes Sollemnes of Good Friday. The Temple was to be a "house of prayer for all nations" (Isa 56:7; Mark 11:17), and even a Persian king's patronage serves that universal vocation. The Temple here foreshadows the Church — a community of worship sustained amid, and interceding for, the powers of this age.

Contemporary Catholics navigating an increasingly secular or even hostile public culture can find in this passage both a warning and a consolation. The warning: the work of building up the house of God — parishes, schools, seminaries, apostolates — can always face obstruction from those who hold civil or administrative power. The consolation: God has historically used even unsympathetic authorities to advance his purposes, and no decree, regulation, or cultural pressure has the final word over the worship of the living God.

More practically, verse 10 presents a direct challenge: do we actually pray for our political leaders, even those whose policies we oppose? The Temple priests prayed "for the life of the king and of his sons" — a Persian king who did not worship Israel's God. The Catechism (§2240) reminds Catholics of the duty to pray for and respect legitimate authorities. Attending faithfully to the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass, and specifically interceding for those in government, is a participation in this ancient priestly tradition. The building of God's house and the prayer for those in power are not separate tasks; Darius's decree binds them together, and so does the Church's liturgy.