Ezra 6:11

I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — King Darius issues the decree to his provincial administrators and all people in Judah, finalizing the royal order to protect the temple reconstruction. He speaks at the moment of enforcing compliance to prevent any disruption of the work.

The words — The noun טְעֵם֒ (te‘em) signifies a formal royal command or statute. The verb יְהַשְׁנֵא֙ (yeḥašne’) literally means he will violate or transgress that directive.

The thread — This structure of imperial decree paired with severe penalties for defiance appears in Daniel 3:29 and Daniel 2:5. Ezra 7:26 later applies the same enforcement model to those who reject both God’s law and the king’s law.

Why it lands — The text explicitly commands immediate obedience to the written order and threatens physical ruin for anyone who alters it. It requires the reader to treat the decree as non-negotiable and to recognize that obstruction carries irreversible consequences.

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

Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.

Cross-references

Daniel 3:29 Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”
Ezra 7:26 If anyone does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a strict judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
Daniel 2:5 The king replied to the astrologers, “My word is final: If you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut into pieces and your houses will be reduced to rubble.
2 Kings 9:37 And Jezebel’s body will lie like dung in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is Jezebel.’”
2 Kings 10:27 They also demolished the sacred pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine, which it is to this day.
Esther 5:4 “If it pleases the king,” Esther replied, “may the king and Haman come today to the banquet I have prepared for the king.”
Esther 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.