Ezra 7:20

And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Out of the king’s treasure house.—Every satrap had his local treasury. The decree gives Ezra very large powers, but the following verses add a measure of qualification.

Benson Commentary

Ezra 7:20. Whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God —

Toward the reparation, or adorning, or completing of it.

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

For the house of thy God; towards the reparation, or adorning, or completing of it. See Poole "Ezra 6:14".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shall have occasion to bestow,.... For the beautifying and ornamenting the temple, Ezra 7:27,

bestow it out of the king's treasure house; where the money collected by tribute, tax, and custom, was deposited; his exchequer, as it may be called, see Ezra 6:8.

Geneva Study Bible

And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. Permission to draw, for further expenditure, upon the king’s treasury, i. e. upon the sums in the local treasury, which the satrap paid annually out of the tribute money into the king’s treasury at Susa or Ecbatana.

out of the king’s treasure house] See note on Ezra 6:8 ‘of the king’s goods even of the tribute beyond the river, &c.’ The treasury of the satrapy of the country W. of the Euphrates (Abhar-Nahara). Cf. ‘the king’s treasure house’ Ezra 5:17, ‘the king’s house’ Ezra 6:4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - Whatever more shall be needful. Here the terms of the firman are very wide indeed, and authorise apparently an unlimited application of the royal revenue, or, at any rate, of the revenue of the province, to any purpose in any way connected with the temple. Probably it was expected that Ezra's own discretion would act as a restraint. If this failed, the royal treasurers would see that the amounts specified in ver. 22 were not exceeded. The king's treasure-house is not the royal treasury at Susa, to which the tribute went up from the various provinces, but the local treasury of Judaea or Syria, to which the Jews made their remittances, and on which Ezra was now authorised to draw. Such local treasuries existed of necessity under a satrapial system. Ezra 7:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Ezra is to defray the expenses of all other things necessary for the temple from the royal treasury, on which account a royal order is despatched to the treasurer on this side the river. "And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to give" (i.e., whatever necessary expenses shall be incurred which cannot be determined beforehand), and for which the gifts and contributions already furnished to Ezra shall not suffice, he is to give, i.e., to defray, out of the house of the king's treasures, i.e., the royal treasury. For this purpose Artaxerxes commands all the treasures on this side the river, that whatsoever Ezra shall require of them shall be immediately done. אנה is an emphatic repetition of the pronoun, as in Daniel 7:15, and frequently in Hebrew.