Ezra 7:19

The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) The vessels.—Offered (see Ezra 8:25) to be added to those sent up by Zerubbabel.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:11-26 The liberality of heathen kings to support the worship of God, reproached the conduct of many kings of Judah, and will rise up in judgment against the covetousness of wealthy professed Christians, who will not promote the cause of God. But the weapons of Christian ministers are not carnal. Faithful preaching, holy lives, fervent prayers, and patient suffering when called to it, are the means to bring men into obedience to Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seven counselors - Herodotus relates that there were seven families pre-eminent in Persia, those of the seven conspirators against the Pseudo-Smerdis (Ezra 4:7 note); and it is reasonable to suppose that the heads of these families formed the special council of the king; the "Achaemenidae," or royal family, being represented by the head of the branch next in succession to that of the reigning monarch (see the marginal reference).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors—This was the fixed number of the privy council of the kings of Persia (Es 1:10, 14). The document describes, with great clearness and precision, the nature of Ezra's commission and the extent of power and prerogatives with which he was invested. It gave him authority, in the first place, to organize the colony in Judea and institute a regular government, according to the laws of the Hebrew people, and by magistrates and rulers of their own nation (Ezr 7:25, 26), with power to punish offenders by fines, imprisonment, exile, or death, according to the degree of their criminality. Secondly, he was empowered to carry a large donation in money, partly from the royal treasury and partly raised by voluntary contributions among his countrymen, to create a fund out of which to make suitable provision for maintaining the regular worship of God in Jerusalem (Ezr 7:16, 17). Thirdly, the Persian officers in Syria were commanded to afford him every assistance by gifts of money within a certain specified limit, in carrying out the objects of his patriotic mission (Ezr 7:21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The vessels also that were given thee for the service of the house of thy God,.... These were vessels of silver, basins of gold, and vessels of fine copper; not what formerly belonged to the temple, they were delivered by Cyrus to Sheshbazzar; but what the present king and his counsellors freely offered at this time, see Ezra 8:25, those

deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem; perfect and complete, the full number of them, as the word signifies (t); meaning not to be delivered before him, or in his presence, as a witness thereof, but that they should be dedicated and devoted to his service, who was worshipped in the temple at Jerusalem, and by the inhabitants of it; he seems as if he thought him a topical deity, the God of that particular place, which was the notion of the Heathens, see 1 Kings 20:23, though he also speaks of him as the God of heaven.

(t) "integra et pleno numero redde", Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. The vessels also … those] R.V. And the vessels. The vessels here mentioned are probably those enumerated chap. Ezra 8:25-27, gifts (ἀναθήματα) to the Temple from the king and from individuals. Quite separate from the sacred vessels (Ezra 1:7) restored by Cyrus.

for the service of &c.] A word occurring only here, connected with the word rendered A.V. ‘ministers’, R.V. ‘servants’ in Ezra 7:24. LXX. translates by λειτουργίαν, Vulgate ‘ministerium’.

before the God of Jerusalem] A remarkable expression, probably a condensed form for ‘before the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem’ (Ezra 7:15).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The vessels also. It does not appear that these were sacred vessels belonging to the temple, like those which Cyrus had intrusted to Zerubbabel for restoration to the house of God. Rather, it would seem, they were a part of the voluntary "offering" mentioned in ver. 15, in which they are distinctly included (Ezra 8:25-28). We may perhaps conclude that the vessels sent with Zerubbabel had proved insufficient in number for the great festivals. Ezra 7:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The gold and silver vessels, moreover, which, according to Ezra 8:25-27, the king and his counsellors, and the princes and all Israel, presented for the service of the house of God, he is to deliver before the God at Jerusalem (an abbreviated expression for the God whose dwelling is at Jerusalem). The noun פּלחן, only here and in the Targums, in the Syriac פּוּלחן, the service, corresponds with the Hebrew עבורה. שׁלם in the Aphel, to complete, to make full, then to deliver entirely, to consign.