So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
The altar was standing and the offerings had begun, but no one had yet laid the temple's foundation. Verse 7 records the next steps: wages for workmen, food and drink for foreign suppliers, cedar floated down the coast. It also records the king who allowed it all.
Worship first, then the building
Sacrifice came first, before any building. But the temple was not forgotten. This verse shows the people getting ready for it.
F. B. HoleSo they did not try new ideas of their own about what might be suitable. They simply went back to God's original Word. They began with the burnt offering, which lay at the basis of all God's dealings with them... This they did though the foundation of the temple had not been laid. The burnt offerings rightly came before the "house". But the house was not forgotten, as verse 7 shows. They started the preparations for it, because it was the main object of their return to the land.
Their giving did not stop at the altar.
Michael HardtThey had made a start. They had an altar, but not yet a temple, and not even the foundation. But their generosity extended to the preparations for the building of the house as well (v.7).
The road the timber travelled
The verse traces a supply line. Workers cut cedar in the mountains of Lebanon. They tied it into rafts, floated it down the coast, and landed it at the port that served Jerusalem.
Morrish Bible DictionaryTown and sea-port in the tribe of Dan. It was the port of Jerusalem. Workers cut timber in Lebanon and brought it by sea to Joppa in rafts, for the temple at Jerusalem. 2 Chr. 2:16; Ezra 3:7.
The older wording "the sea of Joppa" is not the name of a separate body of water:
Morrish Bible DictionaryIn Ezra 3:7, the meaning is "the sea at Joppa."
The same source as Solomon, on a far smaller scale
Solomon had drawn cedar from the same source when he built the first temple. The comparison cuts both ways.
Leslie M. Grant...in preparation for building, they gave money to masons and carpenters, as well as food, drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre... This was according to the directive of Cyrus. It was nowhere near the scale of Solomon's building of the temple (1 Kings 5:11-14), but the supplies came from the same source.
Set the two houses side by side:
Edward DennettSolomon built the first temple in the glory of his reign. He was a picture of the Prince of peace. He used all the resources of his mighty empire, and of the peoples who paid him tribute, to build a house where Jehovah would live among His people... But now a few weak captives were raising the house. They depended on a Gentile king for the very materials they used, and hostile tribes surrounded them.
The grant from Cyrus
The closing phrase is not a footnote. It marks the whole work with a reminder of why they were under a foreign king at all.
H. L. RossierHere we must also note that the rebuilding of the house of God could not be separated from the testimony given to its ruin and to the ruin of the people of God. Everything the remnant did, they did "according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia" (v. 7). Their sins had put them under the nations, and they were to stay conscious of their state... A sense of our ruin should mark us today, as it marked the people in the times of Ezra. We cannot and should not deny it or shrug the burden off our shoulders. We must bear the humiliation of this ruin, and at the same time set the house of God back on its only real foundation, Christ.
Tyre's cedar and a promise still ahead
Tyre shipped this cedar. Isaiah also spoke of a coming day for Tyre, and one writer weighs whether the two connect.
Morrish Bible DictionaryAfter the seventy years in which Tyre lay forgotten, we read that "her merchandise and her wages will be holy to the LORD." Isa. 23:17-18. This may refer to Tyre sending cedar trees from Lebanon for the building of the second temple (Ezra 3:7). But we must look to a day still future for the prophecy to be fulfilled.
Summary
- Altar — Worship came first. They restored sacrifice by God's original Word, not by ideas of their own.
- Preparation — Their giving reached past the altar. They paid masons and carpenters for a house that had no foundation yet.
- Provision — Cedar came from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, Jerusalem's port. It was the same source Solomon used, on a far smaller scale.
- Permission — Every step ran "according to the grant... from Cyrus." Their own sins had put them under the nations, and they were to own that, not shrug it off.
- Promise — Tyre's timber has been linked to Isaiah's word that Tyre's wages will be holy to the LORD. The real fulfilment still waits for a future day.