CHAPTER III

THE FOUNDING OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS

NATION

With the completion and dedication of the second Temple, the first stage in the setting up of the Jewish [sic Judaean] national life was completed. In the divine plan, the Temple was the centre of the nation’s life, the nucleus around which should gather all the activities of a corporate national existence. But more than half a century was to elapse before the new Jewish [sic Judaean] community emerged as a national entity. In 458 B.C., nearly eighty years after the first return under Zerubbabel and nearly sixty years after the dedication of the second Temple, Ezra arrived at Jerusalem armed with authority for the organisation of the nation.

 

Between the dedication of the second Temple in 515 B.C. and the arrival of Ezra in 458 B.C. history was being made in distant Shushan. Events that were big with fate for the world and for the Jews [sic Judaeans] were transpiring in the Persian capital. Xerxes I succeeded his father, Darius the Great, in 485 B.C., and for twenty years presided over the destinies of Persia. There is no longer any reason to question the identity of Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther with the Xerxes of secular history. The Encyclopedia Britannica supports this view, and Moffatt entertains no doubt on the subject, for he translates by the name of Xerxes without any qualification. The facts recorded in Esther about Ahasuerus and the facts recorded by Herodotus about Xerxes support and supplement one another.

 

According to the Book of Esther, in the third year of his reign, that is 483-482, Ahasuerus called together “all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia

 

 

and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces” ¹ who remained together for six months. “He made a feast”; but we cannot conceive of a feast, or a banquet as Moffatt translates it, lasting for six months. Nor can we conceive of any sane king withdrawing his leading officials from their posts for so long an interval merely for a round of gaiety. Such a gathering for so long a time presupposes state business of importance. The record of Herodotus shows that such important business was under consideration at such a time. “Xerxes, after the reduction of Egypt (484. B.C.) when he was about to take in hand the expedition against Athens, convoked an assembly of the principal Persians, that he might hear their opinion and himself make known his intentions before them all.” To his gathered councillors he said, “I intend to throw a bridge over the Hellespont, and to march an army through Europe against Greece, that I may punish the Athenians for the injuries they have done to the Persians and to my father.” ²               The conference was protracted. Opinions for and against the project were advanced. The king’s uncle, Artabanus, expressed views unfavourable to the undertaking and Xerxes vacillated. His resolutions made by day faded into uncertainty owing to his visions by night. But in the end, the king had his way. “Thus Xerxes, son of Darius, led five millions two hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and twenty men to Sepias and Thermopylae.” ³ That he might view the successful operations of his forces “There had been previously erected on a hill at this place (i.e. Abydos) for his express use, a lofty throne of white marble, the people of Abydos had made it, in obedience to a previous order of the king.” ⁴ A military undertaking of this

 

¹ Esther i, 3.                             ² Herodotus vii, 8 ff.

³ Ibid. vii, 186.                         ⁴ Ibid. vii, 44.

 

 

magnitude may well have occupied the conference between the king and his officials for six months.

 

Following the conference “The king made a feast unto all the people that were present at Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.” At the same time, “Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house.” ¹ At the king’s feast, while there was no compulsory drinking, there was “royal wine in abundance.” “On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine,” he insulted the womanhood of his queen. ² His improper request was rightly resented by Vashti and she refused to comply. Her dignified and becoming refusal resulted in the loss of her position as queen. Subsequently, the Jewish maiden, Esther “obtained grace and favour in his sight ... so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.”     The importance of this marriage to the Jewish nation appears a few years later.

 

It is recorded that this betrothal took place in the seventh year of the reign of Xerxes, i.e. 478 B.C., and the question arises, Why the delay of some four years between the divorce with Vashti and the marriage with Esther. The known circumstances supply the answer. To begin with, the preparation of Esther for presentation at court occupied a year (ii, 12). The expedition from Shushan to Europe would account for many months. In the spring of 480 B.C. Xerxes led his troops into Greece. He took Athens with the loss of 200,000 men. In the same year on October 20th he lost the great sea-battle of Salamis. On September 22nd, 479 B.C., his forces

 

¹ See Esther i and ii.

² Josephus, Antiq. xi, 6, 2, infers the request implied nothing more than a breach of etiquette in that women were forbidden to attend gatherings of men, but I read it as implying much more than that.

 

 

were defeated at Plataea and his attempt on Greece had failed. In the light of these things it is easy to see why the marriage was delayed.

 

On the death of Xerxes in 465 B.C. his son, Artaxerxes Longimanus, i.e. the long-handed, ascended the throne. His long reign of forty-one years supports the view that he ascended the throne as a youth or a boy. There is insufficient data at present to establish the view that he was the son of Esther though there is a strong probability that he was. His attitude toward, and his treatment of, the people of Esther are best explained on that assumption.

 

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes, that is 458 B.C., Ezra arrived in Jerusalem bearing a royal warrant for the setting up of a Jewish [sic Judaean] national state. The document is couched in most generous terms.

 

“Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven: all greetings, etc. And now I issue a decree that any of the people of Israel in my kingdom, or any of their priests and Levites, who choose to go up to Jerusalem may go with you; the king and his seven advisers send you to hold an enquiry upon Judah and Jerusalem in terms of the law of your God, which is in your possession, and also to convoy the silver and gold which the king and his advisers have vowed to the God of Israel, whose dwelling place is in Jerusalem, with any silver and gold you can find in all the province of Babylon, and with what the people and the priests freely offer for the house of their God in Jerusalem. With this money you must take care to buy bullocks, rams and sheep, and the usual cereal offerings and libations, sacrificing them upon the altar in the temple of your God in Jerusalem. The rest of the silver and gold, you and your fellows may spend as you think best, carrying out the will of your God.

 

 

The utensils given you for the worship of the house of your God, you will also present before the God of Jerusalem. You will draw upon the king’s treasury for any further sums which you require to spend on the house of your God. I, Artaxerxes the king, I issue this decree to all the treasurers west of the Euphrates: whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, may demand from you, is to be granted him without delay, up to forty-one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds in silver, a hundred quarters of wheat, nine hundred gallons of wine, nine hundred gallons of oil, and salt unlimited. Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be carried out in full for the God of heaven; why should God’s displeasure be upon the realm of the king and his sons? You are also instructed that it is unlawful to impose toll, tribute, or taxes upon any of the priests and Levites, singers, warders, temple attendants, or servants of this temple of God. As for you, Ezra, by the wisdom of your God to which you have access, appoint magistrates and judges to rule all the people west of the Euphrates, men who know the laws of your God, and instruct any who are ignorant of them. And whosoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let sentence be executed upon him instantly: death, banishment, confiscation of property or imprisonment.”

 

This decree is a business-like document. It contains detailed instruction to Ezra in regard to the proper institution of the Temple services and provides means for the required sacrifices and offerings. It contains explicit instructions to the provincial authorities west of the Euphrates and virtually gives Ezra authority over them all. It authorises the setting up of a judicial system in Jerusalem and gives Ezra the power of life and death. By this

 

 

decree Ezra has plenary powers to set up civil and religious organisations for the expression and protection of the corporate life of the people. There is no reference to military organisation. It may be advanced that the Law embodies military clauses, but it is better to assume that Artaxerxes intended to exclude all military power from the decree.

 

Armed with these wide powers, Ezra organised a body of 1,754 men to proceed to Jerusalem to give effect to the decree. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah Ezra is called a priest and a scribe. In 2 Esdras he is called a Prophet. Josephus writes of him: “There was now in Babylon a righteous man and one that enjoyed a great reputation among the multitude.” ¹ The spirit of the man is reflected in his decision against the use of a military escort for the journey. He had said so emphatically that God was with them that he “was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way.” ² The journey occupied four months, “For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and in the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, ³ which was the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king,” ⁴ that is, he arrived in 458 B. C.

 

It would appear from the records that Ezra’s company included many of the official class. A number of signatories to the covenant of repentance ⁵ bear the names of men of Ezra’s band, and the signatories were “princes, Levites, and priests.” ⁶

 

Thirteen years later, under the royal warrant of Artaxerxes, the final stage in the setting up of the Seventy Weeks Nation was reached. Up to this time, the reproach of Jerusalem remained. The city

 

                ¹ Antiq. xi, v, 1.                           ² Ezra viii, 22.

                 ³ Ibid. vii, 9.                                ⁴ Ibid. vii, 8.

                            ⁵ Nehemiah x, 1-27.                    ⁶ Nehemiah ix, 38.

 

 

walls were still in ruins. Since protecting walls were the distinguishing marks of an ancient city, Jerusalem, in the eyes of its citizens, was under reproach. In 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the city and “brake down its walls.” ¹ Smarting under this reproach the patriot Jeremiah exclaimed in poignant words: “The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the enemy should have entered the gates of Jerusalem.” ²

 

The reproach of the ruined walls stung the great hearted Nehemiah to action. News brought to him at Shushan by visitors from Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes ³ distressed him. After prayer and much meditation he appealed to the king for leave of absence to proceed to Jerusalem on the ground that “The city, the place of my fathers sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire.” ⁴ His petition was granted and in the month of Nisan (March), 445-444, he left for the sacred city. Unlike Ezra, he had a military escort probably by the expressed wish of the king. ⁵ He was expected to return, and the king wished to protect the life of his valued servant.

 

As the king’s cupbearer, Nehemiah held an influential and a lucrative position. That he was a man of substantial means may be inferred from chapter v, 14-18. That he was equally generous with his means is certain. Under the sense of a divine urge he embarked on the enterprise of restoring the walls indifferent to the toil of manual labour. But as ever with great-souled endeavour Nehemiah found the adversary in his path.

 

Sanballat, the Satrap of Samaria, viewed the revival of Judah with misgiving. The ascendancy

 

¹ 2 Kings xxv, 10.                      ² Lamentations iv, 12.

³ Nehemiah i, 1; ii, 1.                 ⁴ Ibid. ii, 3.

⁵ Ibid. ii, 9.

 

 

enjoyed by the province of Samaria during the decay of Judah was threatened by the revival of the latter. The family of Sanballat had intermarried with that of the high-priest, and Sanballat found support against the noble Nehemiah inside the broken walls of the city. Sanballat and his confrères at first ridiculed the enterprise of Nehemiah, but this resulted in no slackening of effort by the builders. Ridicule failing, Sanballat resorted to a threat of force. “They conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.” ¹ To counter this Nehemiah organised his forces on the principle of “Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.” Nehemiah naïvely reports, “We made our prayer to God, and set a watch against them day and night.” ² It was insinuated that Nehemiah was plotting a rebellion, ³ but none of these things moved him. The work proceeded apace, and the wall was completed. “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.” ⁴

 

Nehemiah’s astuteness is reflected in several incidents. Three days after his arrival in Jerusalem he made a secret night inspection of the walls and gates of the city. ⁵ During the building operations he used personal interest to reinforce patriotism by setting the builders to repair the walls “everyone over against his house.” ⁶ When the work was finished he gave instructions to the keepers to “Let not the gates be opened until the sun be hot.” ⁷

 

By the building of the walls and the hanging of the gates the reproach of the city was removed. The way was now open for the formal institution of the Law as related in Nehemiah, chapters viii-x. The

 

             ¹ Nehemiah iv, 8.                      ² Ibid. iv, 9.

             ³ Ibid. vi, 6.                               ⁴ Ibid. vi, 15.

             ⁵ Ibid. ii, 13.                              ⁶ Ibid. iii, 28.

         ⁷ Ibid. vii, 3.

 

 

inaugural ceremony was held under the direction of Ezra the priest. The Law of the Lord now became the code of the community in its civil and religious life. Standing on a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose, Ezra and his companions “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused (the people) to understand the reading.” A feature of this ceremony was the notable prayer of Ezra. This was followed by the covenant of repentance signed by “our princes, Levites and priests.”

 

While reading the Law on the second day, they were reminded of the Feast of Tabernacles appointed for the seventh month from the 15th to the 22nd. This feast was duly observed at the proper season.

 

There remained for attention the peopling of the city. Most of the immigrants had settled on the land, and it became necessary to see that the city was adequately populated. The balance was restored by drafting by lot one out of every ten of the rural population to the urban area. “And the people blessed all the men, that willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem” (xi, 2).

 

Thus was established the Seventy Weeks Nation which, a century before, Daniel said would arise. Its starting point was to be the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. This must be regarded as the decree of Artaxerxes and not that of Cyrus. The decree of Cyrus was to restore the Temple; that of Artaxerxes meant restoring the city with its civic and religious life. Unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God. ¹  They were to safeguard the principles of revealed religion and keep the flame of hope burning during the dark days until the coming of the King.

             ¹ Romans iii.