Bible Strands
Ezra 5:16
So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction, but it has not yet been completed.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Jewish elders report to King Darius after Persian officials questioned their rebuilding authorization. They clarify the temple’s stalled status to justify a request for verification of Cyrus’s original decree.
The words — The text highlights שֵׁשְׁבַּצַּ֣ר (Sheshbazzar) and אֲתָ֗א יְהַ֧ב (he came and laid) to identify the official who initiated the project. These terms anchor the historical claim to a specific leader who physically established the temple’s foundations.
The thread — The foundation-laying event appears in Ezra 3:10 alongside priestly worship, while Ezra 6:15 records the temple’s eventual completion in the sixth year of Darius. The narrative links the initial work of Sheshbazzar to the later leadership of Zerubbabel in Ezra 3:8.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader track the gap between initiation and completion to understand the project’s prolonged vulnerability. It requires verification of royal authorization before continuing sacred work, framing obedience to documented decree as the condition for progress.
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
Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.
Cross-references
- Ezra 3:10 When the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their positions to praise the LORD, as David king of Israel had prescribed.
- Ezra 6:15 And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
- Ezra 3:8 In the second month of the second year after they had arrived at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their associates including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years of age or older to supervise the construction of the house of the LORD.
- Ezra 5:2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
- Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.
- Haggai 2:18 Consider carefully from this day forward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider carefully:
- Zechariah 4:10 For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”