Bible Strands
Ezra 7:17
With this money, therefore, you are to buy as many bulls, rams, and lambs as needed, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and offer them on the altar at the house of your God in Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Artaxerxes issues this directive to Ezra, instructing him on how to allocate the silver and gold gathered in Babylon for the Jerusalem temple. The command occurs as Ezra prepares to lead the second wave of exiles back to Judah to restore proper worship.
The words — The Hebrew תִקְנֵא (tik.Ne') translates literally as "you will buy," directly linked to בְּכַסְפָּא דֵּנָה (be./khas.Pa' de.Nah), "with this silver." These terms ground the decree in a concrete financial transaction rather than a general exhortation.
The thread — The specified livestock and accompanying grain and drink offerings mirror the temple supply requirements in Ezra 6:9 and the worship regulations in Numbers 15:4. The directive to offer these at Jerusalem's altar aligns with the Deuteronomy 12:5 mandate to centralize sacrifice at the place God chooses.
Why it lands — The text requires the systematic conversion of collected funds into exact sacrificial and grain components for the Jerusalem altar. A reader must track each portion of the silver against the explicit inventory needed for burnt offerings, grain, and drink.
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
That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 12:5 Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
- Numbers 15:4 then the one presenting his offering to the LORD shall also present a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter hin of olive oil.
- Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.
- Deuteronomy 14:24 But if the distance is too great for you to carry that with which the LORD your God has blessed you, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to put His Name is too far away,
- Matthew 21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.
- John 2:14 In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables.