Lectionary Calendar
Monday, July 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Green's Literal Translation

Ezra 5:4

Then we spoke to them in this way, What are they, the names of the men building this building?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Liberality;   Temple;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Temple, the Second;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Tatnai;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Persia;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ezra, Book of;   Jeshua;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Darius;   Nehemiah, Book of;   Sheshbazzar;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Thessalonians Epistles to the;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Building;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Babylonish Captivity, the;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They also asked them, “What are the names of the workers who are constructing this building?”
Hebrew Names Version
Then we told them after this manner, what the names of the men were who were making this building.
King James Version
Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?
English Standard Version
They also asked them this: "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"
New Century Version
They also asked, "What are the names of the men working on this building?"
New English Translation
They also asked them, "What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?"
Amplified Bible
Then, accordingly, we told them the names of the men who were reconstructing this building.
New American Standard Bible
Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were reconstructing this building.
World English Bible
Then we told them after this manner, what the names of the men were who were making this building.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then sayde we vnto them after this maner, What are the names of the men that buylde this buylding?
Legacy Standard Bible
Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were rebuilding this building.
Berean Standard Bible
They also asked, "What are the names of the men who are constructing this building?"
Contemporary English Version
Give us the names of the workers!"
Complete Jewish Bible
What are the names of the men putting up this building?"
Darby Translation
And they said to them after this manner: What are the names of the men that build this building?
Easy-to-Read Version
They also asked Zerubbabel, "What are the names of the men who are working on this building?"
George Lamsa Translation
Then they spoke to them according to the law, saying, What are the names of the men who are doing this building?
Good News Translation
They also asked for the names of all the men who were helping build the Temple.
Lexham English Bible
Then we asked them this: "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then tolde we them the names of the men, that made this buyldinge.
American Standard Version
Then we told them after this manner, what the names of the men were that were making this building.
Bible in Basic English
Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then saide we vnto them after this maner: What are the names of the men that make this building?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
'Then spoke we unto them after this manner [, wrote they]: What are the names of the men that build this building?'
King James Version (1611)
Then said wee vnto them after this maner, What are the names of the men that make this building?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Then they spoke thus to them, What are the names of the men that build this city?
English Revised Version
Then spake we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
To which thing we answeriden to hem, whiche weren the names of men, autours of that bildyng.
Update Bible Version
Then we told them after this manner, what the names of the [work]men were that were making this building.
Webster's Bible Translation
Then said we to them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?
New King James Version
Then, accordingly, we told them the names of the men who were constructing this building.
New Living Translation
They also asked for the names of all the men working on the Temple.
New Life Bible
They also asked, "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"
New Revised Standard
They also asked them this, "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then, after this manner, spake we unto them, - What are the names of these men, who, this building, do rear?
Douay-Rheims Bible
In answer to which we gave them the names of the men who were the promoters of that building.
Revised Standard Version
They also asked them this, "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"
Young's Literal Translation
Then thus we have said to them, `What [are] the names of the men who are building this building?'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were reconstructing this building.

Contextual Overview

3 At that time Tatnai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-boznai, and their associates, came to them, and said this to them: Who has commanded you to build this house and to complete this structure? 4 Then we spoke to them in this way, What are they, the names of the men building this building? 5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they could not cause them to stop until the matter came to Darius. And then they sent back a letter concerning this. 6 The copy of the letter which Tatnai, governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-boznai, and his associates the officials who were Beyond the River, sent to Darius the king: 7 They sent a letter to him, and this was written in it: To Darius the king, all peace. 8 Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, and it is being built with rolling stones, and timber is being laid in the walls, and thatwork is being done perfectly, and is prosperingin their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders, saying this to them, Who commanded you to rebuild this house, and to complete this structure? 10 And we also asked their names in order to inform you so that we might write the names of the men who are at their heads. 11 And they returned the answer to us this way, saying, We are servants of the God of Heaven and earth. And we are rebuilding the house that was built many years before this, and the great king of Israel built it and finished it. 12 But because our fathers had provoked to wrath the God of Heaven, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, and he tore down this house, and he exiled its people to Babylon.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

What are: Ezra 5:10

make this building: Chal, build this building

Reciprocal: Ezra 5:9 - Who commanded

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the seas, and over birds of the heavens, and over all beasts creeping on the earth.
Genesis 5:1
This is the book of the generations of Adam: In the day that God created man. He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:3
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years and fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and called his name Seth.
Genesis 5:7
And after he fathered Enos, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years. And he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:10
After he fathered Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:13
And after he fathered Mahalaleel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years. And he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:19
And after he fathered Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:22
And Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he fathered Methuselah. And he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:26
And after he fathered Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty two years. And he fathered sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:30
And after he fathered Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety five years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then said we unto them after this manner,.... In answer to their questions; namely, Ezra and other Jews replied; for though Ezra is said after this to come from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, he might go thither on some business, and then return again at that time; some indeed think these are the words of Tatnai and those with him; so Ben Melech, which seems to be favoured by Ezra 4:10, and by reading the words with an interrogation, as we do; Aben Ezra says they are either the words of the builders, or of the scribes, the secretaries that came to question them; but they are the words of the former, as order requires, or otherwise no answer would be returned, at least as expressed; and the next clause may be read without an interrogation, and the sense be, that they told them not only that they acted according to an edict of Cyrus king of Persia, for this was said, as appears from Ezra 5:13, but they declared

what were the names of the men that did make this building; or employed them in it, namely, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the chief men of the Jews; they made no scruple of telling them who they were; neither ashamed of their masters nor of their work, nor afraid of any ill consequences following hereafter.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then said we - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions have “Then said they,” which brings this verse into exact accordance with Ezra 5:10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ezra 5:4. What are the names — It is most evident that this is the answer of the Jews to the inquiry of Tatnai, Ezra 5:3, and the verse should be read thus: Then said we unto them after this manner: THESE are the names of the men who make this building.


 
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