Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to oversee the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
All Commentaries on Ezra 3:9 Go To Ezra 3
Bede
AD 735
[The text] says they came to the temple of God not because they found the temple already built, since, to be sure, it was said earlier that it did not yet have foundations. Rather, “to the temple of God” means to the place of God’s temple—to the work by which they desired to rebuild the temple. And so modern Jews who habitually claim that not the temple walls but only the roof was destroyed by the Chaldeans are mistaken, since Ezra plainly writes that the descendants of the exiles rebuilt the temple from its foundations. However, since it was said above that they came to Jerusalem on the seventh month, and here it is added that “in the second year of their arrival” they began the work of the temple “in the second month,” it is clear that for seven months they prepared the stones, cement, timber and other necessary materials, but when the eighth month began they started to press on at last with their longedfor work: for there were six months in the first year and the seventh in the following. Any learned person will very easily find a great mystery in this. For seven pertains to the sabbath, on which day the Lord either rested from all his works after he created the earth or when he redeemed the world through his passion and rested in the tomb. Eight refers to the first day after the sabbath on which he rose from the dead; seven looks to the hope of our sabbath rest after death, eight to the joy of our everlasting happiness after resurrection.
