Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes is a Persian king whose decisions reach into the post-exilic restoration of Jerusalem in two directions. An earlier letter under his name halts the rebuilding of the city after adversaries petition the throne (Ezr 4:7-23). Later, the same name in the Ezra-Nehemiah narrative authorizes Ezra's mission with a written decree (Ezr 7) and grants Nehemiah leave to rebuild the walls and serve as governor of Judah (Ne 2; Ne 5:14). The UPDV text presents him largely through the documents he issues — letters that travel between Susa, Samaria, and Jerusalem, and that determine whether the work goes forward or stops.

The Letter Halting the Work

Adversaries from the region beyond the River write against Jerusalem in the days of Artaxerxes. Bishlam, Mithredath, and Tabeel send the first letter, "and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian [character], and set forth in the Syrian [tongue]" (Ezr 4:7). Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe follow with their own complaint, joined by a roster of resettled peoples — "the Dinaites, and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites" (Ezr 4:9). Their charge is fiscal and political: if the city is rebuilt, "they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and in the end it will be hurtful to the kings" (Ezr 4:13). They press the king to consult "the book of the records of your fathers" and recall Jerusalem's history of insurrection (Ezr 4:15).

The king's reply confirms the charge. "I decreed, and search has been made, and it was found that this city of old time has made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it" (Ezr 4:19). He acknowledges that "mighty kings also over Jerusalem" once "ruled over all [the country] beyond the River" and collected revenue from it (Ezr 4:20). The order is direct: "Make⁺ now a decree to cause these [work]men to cease, and that this city will not be built, until a decree will be made by me" (Ezr 4:21). When the letter reaches Samaria, the response is immediate — "they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power" (Ezr 4:23). The result is recorded plainly: "Then the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased; and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia" (Ezr 4:24).

The Decree to Ezra

Years later the Artaxerxes of the narrative issues a very different document. "Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah" travels up to Jerusalem (Ezr 7:1). With him go "some of the sons of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king" (Ezr 7:7). Ezra himself "had set his heart to seek the law of Yahweh, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances" (Ezr 7:10).

The text quotes the king's letter verbatim, opening: "Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of the commandments of Yahweh, and of his statutes to Israel" (Ezr 7:11). The decree grants free emigration to any Israelite "minded of their own free will to go to Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:13). Ezra is sent "of the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand" (Ezr 7:14). He carries silver and gold "freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:15), supplemented by "all the silver and gold that you will find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill-offering of the people, and of the priests" for the temple (Ezr 7:16). The funds are specifically earmarked: bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meal-offerings and drink-offerings, to be presented "on the altar of the house of your⁺ God which is in Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:17). Surplus may be used as Ezra and his brothers see fit, "after the will of your⁺ God" (Ezr 7:18), and the temple vessels are to be delivered "before the God of Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:19). What remains needful is to be drawn "out of the king's treasure-house" (Ezr 7:20).

The decree's second movement addresses provincial finance. "And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, will require of you⁺, it is to be done with all diligence" (Ezr 7:21). A ceiling is set — a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of oil, "and salt without prescribing how much" (Ezr 7:22). The reasoning the king gives is theological: "Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?" (Ezr 7:23). The temple personnel — "priests and Levites, the singers, porters, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God" — are exempted from "tribute, custom, or toll" (Ezr 7:24).

Civil authority is delegated alongside the temple provision. Ezra is to "appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God" (Ezr 7:25). Penalties for noncompliance are codified: "whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment" (Ezr 7:26). Ezra's response is doxological: "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:27).

The Commission to Nehemiah

The Nehemiah narrative opens with the same king some years later. "And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been [formerly] sad in his presence" (Ne 2:1). The king reads his cupbearer's face: "Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart" (Ne 2:2). Nehemiah's reply ties the sorrow to Jerusalem itself: "Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?" (Ne 2:3).

When the king asks what he wants, Nehemiah prays "to the God of heaven" (Ne 2:4) and then answers: "If it pleases the king, and if your slave has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may build it" (Ne 2:5). The king grants the request, with the queen seated beside him, settling on a fixed term for the journey (Ne 2:6). Nehemiah further requests "letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah" (Ne 2:7), along with "a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber" for the gates and walls (Ne 2:8). The king's grant is summed up in the narrator's voice: "And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me" (Ne 2:8). The royal escort is noted on arrival: "Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen" (Ne 2:9).

The opposition Nehemiah encounters frames the rebuilding as a question of allegiance to Artaxerxes himself. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem ask: "What is this thing that you⁺ do? Will you⁺ rebel against the king?" (Ne 2:19). Nehemiah's answer redirects the source of authority without disowning the commission: "The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his slaves will arise and build: but you⁺ have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem" (Ne 2:20).

Nehemiah's Tenure as Governor

The reign of Artaxerxes also frames Nehemiah's term of office. The economic crisis among returnees — mortgaged fields, vineyards, and houses, sons and daughters going into slavery — is partly tied to royal taxation: "We have borrowed silver for the king's tribute [on] our fields and our vineyards" (Ne 5:4). Nehemiah responds by confronting "the nobles and the rulers" over the practice of usury (Ne 5:7) and securing a sworn restoration: "Restore, I pray you⁺, to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the silver, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you⁺ exact of them" (Ne 5:11). The nobles agree, and "all the assembly said, Amen, and praised Yahweh" (Ne 5:13).

Nehemiah's own forbearance is dated to the same reign: "Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that is], twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor" (Ne 5:14). He contrasts his practice with that of his predecessors — who "took of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver" — and grounds his restraint in piety: "I did not do so, because of the fear of God" (Ne 5:15). The pattern continues through his work on the wall (Ne 5:16) and in the daily provision at his table for "a hundred and fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were round about us" (Ne 5:17). The closing prayer of the section ties the whole tenure back to its memorial before God: "Remember to me, O my God, for good, all that I have done for this people" (Ne 5:19).

The King in the Restoration Story

Across these texts Artaxerxes appears as the human pivot through whom decrees flow in both directions — first stopping the rebuilding at the petition of provincial adversaries (Ezr 4:21-23), then later authorizing it through written grants to Ezra (Ezr 7:11-26) and Nehemiah (Ne 2:7-8). His treasurers, his governors beyond the River, his keeper of the forest, and his army escorts all serve as instruments of these documents. Ezra's doxology after receiving the letter — "who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem" (Ezr 7:27) — gives the UPDV's framing of how the king's role is read inside the narrative: as a heart moved, not as an originator of the program.