Bible Strands
Ezra 3:7
They gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The returned exiles in Jerusalem distribute resources for temple construction during the seventh month, immediately after beginning daily burnt offerings. They allocate funds and provisions to foreign masons, carpenters, and merchants to secure timber from Lebanon.
The words — וַיִּתְּנוּ (va-yittenû) translates as "and they gave," while כֶסֶף (keseḵ) denotes "money" or silver. לַחֹצְבִים (la-choṣḇîm) and לַחָרָשִׁים (la-ḥārāšîm) literally mean "to the stonecutters" and "to the craftsmen."
The thread — The cedar procurement echoes Solomon’s temple supply chain in 1 Kings 5:6, while the Joppa port and Tyre-Sidon trade networks reappear in Acts 9:36 and Acts 12:20.
Why it lands — The text commands readers to recognize that physical worship infrastructure requires coordinated material support and cross-cultural labor. It demands practical stewardship of resources to sustain communal religious obligations.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 5:6 Now therefore, order that cedars of Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever wages you set, for you know that there are none among us as skilled in logging as the Sidonians.”
- Acts 9:36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which is translated as Dorcas), who was always occupied with works of kindness and charity.
- Acts 12:20 Now Herod was in a furious dispute with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they convened before him. Having secured the support of Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their region depended on the king’s country for food.
- 1 Kings 5:9 My servants will haul the logs from Lebanon to the Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them away. And in exchange, you can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”
- 2 Kings 12:11 Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those who supervised the work on the house of the LORD, who in turn would pay those doing the work—the carpenters, builders,
- 2 Kings 22:5 And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the LORD, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the LORD—
- 2 Chronicles 2:10 I will pay your servants, the woodcutters, 20,000 cors of ground wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of olive oil.”
- 2 Chronicles 24:12 Then the king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who supervised the labor on the house of the LORD to hire stonecutters and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, as well as workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD.
- Ezra 1:2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.
- Ezra 6:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,