John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be builded, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits;" — Ezra 6:3 (ASV)
In the first year of Cyrus the king; the same Cyrus the king
made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house
be builded
See (Ezra 1:1–4) (Isaiah 44:28) ,
the place where they offered sacrifices ;
to God in times past, ever since it was built by Solomon:
and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid ;
so as to bear and support the building erected on them, as the word signifies:
the height thereof sixty cubits ;
which were thirty more than the height of Solomon's temple, (1 Kings 6:2) though sixty less than the height of the porch, which was one hundred and twenty, (2 Chronicles 3:4) and which some take to be the height of the whole house; and hence it may be observed what Herod said F25 , that the temple then in being wanted sixty cubits in height of that of Solomon's:
and the breadth thereof sixty cubits ;
whereas the breadth of Solomon's temple was but twenty, (1 Kings 6:2) , but since it cannot reasonably be thought that the breadth should be equal to the height, and so very disproportionate to Solomon's temple; many learned men understand this of the extension of it as to length, which exactly agrees with the length of the former temple, (1 Kings 6:2) .