Ezra 7:22

Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Unto an hundred talents of silver . . .—A certain restriction is laid upon the amount, although the very restriction seems almost indefinite. The silver might reach £24,000 sterling. As to the rest, Palestine abounded in these productions, which were regularly remitted to the king’s service. Salt especially was plentiful near the Dead Sea.

Benson Commentary

Ezra 7:22. Salt, without prescribing how much — He limits all the other expenses, except salt, which was of low price, and of very common and necessary use in all their sacrifices; and therefore, since he would not have any sacrifice hindered, he did not prescribe any measure of it, but permitted them to take as much as they found necessary. The sum here ordered, in silver, amounts to thirty-five thousand three hundred pounds sterling; the wheat to eight hundred bushels; the wine to twelve or thirteen hogsheads; and the oil to the same quantity, which shows the princely liberality of Artaxerxes.

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

This verse assigns limits to the permission of Ezra 7:20. As the Persian tribute was paid partly in money and partly in kind (see Ezra 4:13 note), the treasuries would be able to supply them as readily as they could furnish money.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22-24. an hundred talents of silver—£22,000 according to the rate of the silver talent of Babylon. Fourthly, Artaxerxes gave his royal sanction in the establishment of the divine law, which exempted priests and Levites from taxation or tribute and confirmed to them the exclusive right to officiate in the sacred services of the sanctuary. And, finally, in the expression of the king's desire for the divine blessing upon the king and his government (Ezr 7:23), we see the strong persuasion which pervaded the Persian court, and had been produced by the captivity of the Hebrew people, as to the being and directing providence of the God they worshipped. It will be observed, however, that the commission related exclusively to the rebuilding of the temple—not of the walls. The Samaritans (Ezr 4:20-22) had succeeded in alarming the Persian court by their representations of the danger to the empire of fortifying a city notorious for the turbulent character of its inhabitants and the prowess of its kings.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Because it was but of mean price, and of very common and necessary use in all their sacrifices, Leviticus 2:13 Mark 9:49.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Unto one hundred talents of silver,.... Which amounted to 35,300 pounds sterling; these, according to Jarchi, were to buy the offerings or sacrifices with:

and an hundred measures of wheat; or corn, the same measure with the homer, each of which held ten ephahs, or seventy five wine gallons, five pints, and upwards; these, according to the same writer, were for meat offerings, made of fine flour, or rather bread offerings, as they may be called:

and to an hundred baths of wine; which was the same measure in liquids as the ephah in things dry, a tenth part of the cor or homer, and held seven wine gallons, five pints, and upwards (u); these were for the drink offerings:

and to an hundred baths of oil; the same measure as before; these were to mix in the meat offerings:

and salt without prescribing how much; because it was used in all offerings, and was cheap, and therefore no measure is fixed, but as much as was wanting was to be given, see Leviticus 2:1.

(u) See Cumberland's Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 137.

Geneva Study Bible

Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred {m} baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.

(m) Read 1Ki 7:26, 2Ch 2:10.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. unto an hundred talents of silver] or £37, 500. Money reckoned by weight. A ‘kikkar’ or talent of silver was of value about £375. A talent contained 60 manim or 3000 shekels, cf. on Ezra 2:69.

an hundred measures of wheat] The ‘measure’ or ‘cor’, equivalent to 8 bushels or 1 quarter. We learn from Ezekiel 45:14 that the ‘cor’ contained 10 ‘baths’ and was the same as the ‘homer’, see also 1 Kings 4:22; 1 Kings 5:11; 2 Chronicles 2:10; 2 Chronicles 27:5.

an hundred baths of wine] The ‘bath’ contained 6 or 7 gallons (= hins).

salt without prescribing how much] The importance of salt in the sacrificial system appears from Leviticus 2:13 ‘And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine oblations thou shalt offer salt’, cf. Ezra 6:9; Ezekiel 43:24. The translation of the A.V. and R.V. gives the general sense of the original (= ‘which is not written’); LXX. οὗ οὔκ ἐστιν γραφή. The Vulg. ‘absque mensura’.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Unto a hundred talents of silver. At the lowest estimate of the Jewish silver talent, this would be a permission to draw on the royal treasury to the amount of £24,000 sterling. If we adopt the views of Mr. R.S. Peele ('Dict. of the Bible, Articles, MONEY and WEIGHTS AND MEASURES), it would authorise drawing to the amount of £40,000. A hundred measures of wheat. Literally, "a hundred cors of wheat," as given in the margin. The cor is variously estimated, at 44.25 gallons and at 86.67 gallons. It contained ten baths. Orders on the treasury for so much wheat, wine, oil, and salt sound strangely in modern ears; but were natural enough in the Persian system, where taxation was partly in kind, and every province had to remit to the court the choicest portion of its produce. Wine, corn, oil, and salt were all of them produced abundantly in Palestine, which was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of off olive, and of honey" (2 Kings 18:32), and which, in the region about the Dead Sea, abounded with salt. Ezra 7:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Unto one hundred talents of silver, one hundred cors of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescription, i.e., as much as is needed. Cor had already become, even in Hebrew, the later word for chomer, e.g., 1 Kings 5:2; Ezekiel 45:14. It was equal to ten ephahs or baths, almost two sheffels; see by bibl. Archol. ii. 126. The command closes with the injunction, Ezra 7:23 : Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, i.e., whatever is needful according to the law for the service of God, let it be completely done for the house of the God of heaven; for why should the wrath of heaven come upon the realm of the king and of his sons? The ἁπ. λεγ. אדרזדּא is derived from the Aryan, but is not to be regarded (as by Hitzig and Bertheau) as compounded of אדר and אזדּא; but probably (as by Haug in Ewald's bibl. Jahrb. v. p. 152) as formed of the Persian drsh, dorest, with א prosthetic, from the Zend root dore, to grow, to flourish, to become firm, in the meaning of perfect in all parts, exact. The motive of the royal order, that the priests may offer acceptable offerings to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons, recalls Ezra 6:10. On the formula למה דּי, for why should wrath come, comp. Ezra 4:22.