Iyyar 1 – Foundations – Today in the Bible

Iyyar 1 – Foundations

May 9, 2024

Iyyar 1, 5784; from sunset May 8, 2024, to sunset May 9, 2024

This is the name “Ezra” (עֶזְרָא) the Scribe as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls; written by a scribe over two thousand years ago.

As we learned in a previous post, this is the second month of the biblical calendar. It was known as “Ziv” – possibly by the Caananites. And after their return from Babylon, it became known as “Iyyar.” God simply called this “the second month.” Hebrew doesn’t use a separate numbering system; instead, the letters of the alphabet pull double-duty and are used as numbers too. So, to write the number 2 in Hebrew we would use the second letter of the alphabet, “beit” (aka “bet” – ב). The Hebrew letters began life as pictures…the pictograph for beit is a tent…a house. As we shall see, this month has strong connections to the Holy Temple, also known as the Beit Hamikdash…the House of Holiness.

Foundations

In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD.

Jeshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers–all Levites–joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No-one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away. – Ezra 3:8-13 (NIB)

Both Jewish tradition and the book of 1 Esdras tell us this happened on the first day of the month. Esdras (a Greco-Latin version of Ezra) appears in various forms. First Esdras is an ancient Greek version of the Biblical Book of Ezra in use among the early church. First Esdras is substantially the same as Masoretic Ezra – one of the earliest Hebrew texts in existence today. Second Esdras is basically the book of Nehemiah. There are also two other books, sometimes referred to as 3 Esdras and 4 Esdras. Below is how 1 Esdras recounts the story, quite similar to Ezra with a little more detail.

In the second year after their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with their brethren and the Levitical priests and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity; and they laid the foundation of the temple of God on the new moon of the second month in the second year after they came to Judea and Jerusalem.

And they appointed the Levites who were twenty or more years of age to have charge of the work of the Lord. And Jeshua arose, and his sons and brethren and Kadmiel his brother and the sons of Jeshua Emadabun and the sons of Joda son of Iliadun, with their sons and brethren, all the Levites, as one man pressing forward the work on the house of God. So the builders built the temple of the Lord. And the priests stood arrayed in their garments, with musical instruments and trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, praising the Lord and blessing him, according to the directions of David king of Israel; and they sang hymns, giving thanks to the Lord, because his goodness and his glory are forever upon all Israel. And all the people sounded trumpets and shouted with a great shout, praising the Lord for the erection of the house of the Lord.

Some of the Levitical priests and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the former house, came to the building of this one with outcries and loud weeping, while many came with trumpets and a joyful noise, so that the people could not hear the trumpets because of the weeping of the people. For the multitude sounded the trumpets loudly, so that the sound was heard afar; and when the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to find out what the sound of the trumpets meant. And they learned that those who had returned from captivity were building the temple for the Lord God of Israel.

So they approached Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of the fathers’ houses and said to them, “We will build with you. For we obey your Lord just as you do and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of the Assyrians, who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of the fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building the house for the Lord our God, for we alone will build it for the Lord of Israel, as Cyrus the king of the Persians has commanded us.” But the peoples of the land pressed hard upon those in Judea, cut off their supplies, and hindered their building; and by plots and demagoguery and uprisings they prevented the completion of the building as long as King Cyrus lived. And they were kept from building for two years, until the reign of Darius. – 1 Esdras 5:56-73 (RSV)

Do you remember our study on Jericho a few days ago? Jericho – possibly named after the moon god Yarikh (and where this “god” was worshipped) – came crashing down. We considered how the walls of Jericho falling down on a day when the Moon was either in a phase when only its last tiny sliver was visible or, perhaps, not visible at all, could be a metaphor for the disappearance of the worship of the moon-god Yarikh from the Land of Israel. In a sense, Joshua was now beginning to build “the foundation” of the nation of Israel. He was removing the worship of foreign gods and dedicating the Land to the worship of ADONAI. The whole Land of Israel was to be like a Temple unto the LORD.

And now, after Ezra and the other returnees have come back from the exile, this is the day (on the New Moon – a moon that is not dedicated to Yarikh!) when they laid the foundation of the Second Temple, dedicating the Land once again to the worship of ADONAI.

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done! The things You planned for us no-one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare! – Psalm 40:5