1 Esdras 4
Three young men of King Darius's bodyguard have made a wager. Each has written what he thinks is the strongest thing in the world, sealed it, and slid it under the sleeping king's pillow. The first wrote “wine.” Now the second argues for the king - lord of sea and land, who says kill and they kill (vv. 1-12). Then Zerubbabel argues for women, who bear and rear even kings, and for whom men leave home, face a lion, lose their wits (vv. 13-32).2
Each answer is true as far as it goes. Then Zerubbabel keeps climbing, past all three, to a fourth: great is the truth, and stronger than all things (v. 35). Wine fades. Kings die. Even love can be twisted. The truth endures - and the whole court erupts, Great is Truth, and mighty above all things (v. 41). Offered any reward, Zerubbabel asks only to go home and rebuild God's house. The line reaches, without knowing it, toward the One who said, “I am the truth.”1
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
1 Esdras 4:1-32The King, and Then Women · Two Answers from the Visible World
1Then the second, that had spoken of the strength of the king, began to say, 2O ye men, do not men excel in strength, that bear rule over sea and land, and all things in them? 3But yet the king is more mighty: for he is lord of all these things, and hath dominion over them; and whatsoever he commandeth them they do. 4If he bid them make war the one against the other, they do it: if he send them out against the enemies, they go, and break down mountains, walls, and towers. 5They slay and are slain, and transgress not the king's commandment: if they get the victory, they bring all to the king, as well the spoil, as all things else. 6Likewise for those that are no soldiers, and have not to do with wars, but use husbandry, when they have reaped again that which they had sown, they bring it to the king, and compel one another to pay tribute unto the king. 7And yet he is but one man: if he command to kill, they kill; if he command to spare, they spare; 8If he command to smite, they smite; if he command to make desolate, they make desolate; if he command to build, they build; 9If he command to cut down, they cut down; if he command to plant, they plant. 10So all his people and his armies obey him: furthermore he lieth down, he eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest: 11And these keep watch round about him, neither may any one depart, and do his own business, neither disobey they him in any thing. 12O ye men, how should not the king be mightiest, when in such sort he is obeyed? And he held his tongue.
The first guardsman has already made his case for wine; now the second rises to argue for the king. His speech is a steady, almost relentless catalogue of what a sovereign can do. Men are strong, he grants - they bear rule over sea and land (v. 2) - but the king is stronger still, because he is lord not merely of land and sea but of the men themselves: whatsoever he commandeth them they do (v. 3). The list that follows is meant to overwhelm by sheer accumulation. At the king's word armies march out and break down mountains, walls, and towers; they slay and are slain and never break ranks; farmers hand over their harvest and exact tribute from one another - all of it flowing upward to one man (vv. 4-6). The argument is shrewd precisely because it is true as far as it goes. The reach of a great king really is staggering, and the speech names it without exaggeration.2
Then the speech sharpens to a single astonishing point. All of this - the marching armies, the upward flow of tribute, the power of life and death - runs through one mortal throat. One man says kill and they kill, says spare and they spare, says smite, make desolate, build, cut down, plant - and the whole world rearranges itself around his syllables (vv. 7-9). The contrast between the smallness of the speaker and the size of the obedience is the heart of the argument. And the picture he ends on is the most telling of all: the king lieth down, he eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest, while armed men keep watch round about him, none daring to leave his post or cross him in anything (vv. 10-11). Even the king's sleep commands a vigil. How should not the king be mightiest, when in such sort he is obeyed? (v. 12). It is a powerful speech, and the room has no rebuttal - the second man simply finishes and falls silent. Yet a careful listener notices the seed of its undoing already planted: a power that rests entirely on being obeyed is only as strong as the obedience lasts. The king is mighty, but his might lives in other people's wills, and that is a more fragile throne than it looks.
13Then the third, who had spoken of women, and of the truth, (this was Zorobabel) began to speak. 14O ye men, it is not the great king, nor the multitude of men, neither is it wine, that excelleth; who is it then that ruleth them, or hath the lordship over them? are they not women? 15Women have borne the king and all the people that bear rule by sea and land. 16Even of them came they: and they nourished them up that planted the vineyards, from whence the wine cometh. 17These also make garments for men; these bring glory unto men; and without women cannot men be. 18Yea, and if men have gathered together gold and silver, or any other goodly thing, do they not love a woman which is comely in favour and beauty? 19And letting all those things go, do they not gape, and even with open mouth fix their eyes fast on her; and have not all men more desire unto her than unto silver or gold, or any goodly thing whatsoever? 20A man leaveth his own father that brought him up, and his own country, and cleaveth unto his wife. 21He sticketh not to spend his life with his wife, and remembereth neither father, nor mother, nor country. 22By this also ye must know that women have dominion over you: do ye not labour and toil, and give and bring all to the woman? 23Yea, a man taketh his sword, and goeth his way to rob and to steal, to sail upon the sea and upon rivers; 24And looketh upon a lion, and goeth in the darkness; and when he hath stolen, spoiled, and robbed, he bringeth it to his love. 25Wherefore a man loveth his wife better than father or mother. 26Yea, many there be that have run out of their wits for women, and become servants for their sakes. 27Many also have perished, have erred, and sinned, for women. 28And now do ye not believe me? is not the king great in his power? do not all regions fear to touch him? 29Yet did I see him and Apame the king's concubine, the daughter of the admirable Bartacus, sitting at the right hand of the king, 30And taking the crown from the king's head, and setting it upon her own head; she also struck the king with her left hand. 31And yet for all this the king gaped and gazed upon her with open mouth: if she laughed upon him, he laughed also: but if she took any displeasure at him, the king was fain to flatter, that she might be reconciled to him again. 32O ye men, how can it be but women should be strong, seeing they do thus?
The third speaker is named, and the name carries the weight of the whole book. This is Zerubbabel, the descendant of David's line who in Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah leads the first return from exile and lays the foundation of the second temple. The contest has placed at its heart the very man through whom God will rebuild His house, and it tells us up front that he had spoken of women, and of the truth - two answers, not one. That detail is the key to the whole speech. Zerubbabel will give the court a brilliant, even entertaining case for women, and let it run to its full height, before revealing that women were never his real answer. He is building a ladder. Each rung - wine, king, women - is a real power, and each is meant to lift the listeners one step higher, until the last step carries them past every visible strength to the one thing that overcomes them all.3
Zerubbabel begins by sweeping the first two answers aside in a single breath - not the king, not the crowd, not the wine - and then builds his own case along two lines. First, women are the source of every man who ever lived: they have borne the king and all the people that bear rule by sea and land, they nourished the very men who planted the vines that the wine comes from, and without women cannot men be (vv. 15-17). Every power already named in the contest - the drinker, the king, the soldier - was first a child carried and raised by a woman. Second, women hold a pull over men that gold cannot match: men gather silver and treasure, then let it all go to gaze on one they love (vv. 18-19). A man leaveth his own father… and his own country, and cleaveth unto his wife (v. 20), echoing the ancient word of Genesis that a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife. The argument is doing something clever: it traces power back past the throne to the cradle, and past the treasury to the heart.
The speech grows bolder and more vivid as it goes. Men labour and toil and lay everything at a woman's feet (v. 22); a man will take up his sword to rob and to steal, face a lion, walk into the dark, and bring his plunder home to his beloved (vv. 23-24). Zerubbabel does not flinch from the darker edge of the point either: many there be that have run out of their wits for women… many also have perished, have erred, and sinned, for women (vv. 26-27). Then he plays his most daring card, pointing (the text implies) at the king himself: he has seen Apame, the royal concubine, sitting at Darius's right hand, lifting the crown from his head and setting it on her own, even striking the king - and the great sovereign, lord of land and sea, only gaped and gazed upon her with open mouth, laughing when she laughed, flattering her when she frowned (vv. 28-31). The man whom the previous speaker called mightiest is here a doting captive. How can it be but women should be strong, seeing they do thus? (v. 32). It is a tour de force - and it is also the last and highest of the answers that belong to the visible world. The contest has now climbed as high as wine, power, and love can carry it. Everything is in place for the turn.1
1 Esdras 4:33-41Great is the Truth · The Answer That Outlasts Them All
33Then the king and the princes looked one upon another: so he began to speak of the truth. 34O ye men, are not women strong? great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he compasseth the heavens round about, and fetcheth his course again to his own place in one day. 35Is he not great that maketh these things? therefore great is the truth, and stronger than all things. 36All the earth calleth upon the truth, and the heaven blesseth it: all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing. 37Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked, all the children of men are wicked, and such are all their wicked works; and there is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they shall perish. 38As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore. 39With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards; but she doeth the things that are just, and refraineth from all unjust and wicked things; and all men do well like of her works. 40Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth. 41And with that he held his peace. And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is Truth, and mighty above all things.
Now comes the pivot the whole chapter has been built toward, and watch the small, vivid detail that marks it: the king and the princes looked one upon another (v. 33). The court senses the speaker is about to leave the ground they were standing on. Zerubbabel grants his own previous point with a question - are not women strong? - and then, instead of resting there, lifts his eyes to the whole created order: great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, circling the heavens and returning to its place in one day (v. 34). The move is deliberate. He sets the grandest things the eye can see - earth, sky, the racing sun - and then asks the question that dwarfs them all: Is he not great that maketh these things? (v. 35). The strength contest has just been lifted out of the banquet hall and set under the open sky, and the answer is no longer any created power but the One behind all of them, and the truth that belongs to Him.1
What Zerubbabel says of the truth is meant to be heard against everything that came before. Wine fades; the king dies; even love can be twisted - but great is the truth, and stronger than all things (v. 35). Notice how he describes it. The truth is woven into the cosmos: all the earth calleth upon the truth, and the heaven blesseth it; all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing (v. 36). It is incorruptible: with her there is no accepting of persons or rewards - truth cannot be bribed, cannot be flattered, plays no favourites - but she doeth the things that are just (v. 39). And it is permanent in a way nothing else in the contest is: it endureth, and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore (v. 38). Mark what he does not claim - he never says the truth is winning at this moment, or that the honest prosper and the liars fail today. Verse 37 looks squarely at a world where wine and kings and people are bent toward wickedness and there is no truth in them. His claim is deeper than the day's scoreboard: the truth outlasts the lie, because the truth simply is, and what is built on it cannot finally fall. If you have ever told the truth and watched it cost you - lose you the argument, the friend, the room - this is the verse to hold. You were not on the losing side. You were standing on the one thing that lasts.
The speech climbs to a height the contest never anticipated. The truth, Zerubbabel says, is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty, of all ages (v. 40) - the very words a court would use to praise a king, now lifted off every earthly throne and given to the truth. And then he does the one thing that turns the argument from philosophy into worship: he names a source. The truth is not a free-floating principle; it has a God. Blessed be the God of truth (v. 40). With that, he held his peace, and the whole assembly erupts in the cry that has echoed for centuries since: Great is Truth, and mighty above all things (v. 41). It is the rare moment when a room full of people recognizes something larger than themselves and says so out loud. The contest set out to find the strongest force in the world and ended on its knees before the God whose truth holds the world together. Everything the chapter has done - raising wine, then power, then love, only to set them all beneath the truth - has been clearing space for this shout.2
1 Esdras 4:42-63The Grant · A Reward Spent on the House of God
42Then said the king unto him, Ask what thou wilt more than is appointed in the writing, and we will give it thee, because thou art found wisest; and thou shalt sit next me, and shalt be called my cousin. 43Then said he unto the king, Remember thy vow, which thou hast vowed to build Jerusalem, in the day when thou camest to thy kingdom, 44And to send away all the vessels that were taken away out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart, when he vowed to destroy Babylon, and to send them again thither. 45Thou also hast vowed to build up the temple, which the Edomites burned when Judea was made desolate by the Chaldees. 46And now, O lord the king, this is that which I require, and which I desire of thee, and this is the princely liberality proceeding from thyself: I desire therefore that thou make good the vow, the performance whereof with thine own mouth thou hast vowed to the King of heaven.
The verdict is in, and the king is delighted. He turns to Zerubbabel with an open hand and adds the highest honours a court can bestow - a seat beside the throne, the title my cousin (v. 42). This is the moment every ambitious man in the room would have dreamed of: a blank cheque from the most powerful sovereign on earth, plus rank and nearness to the throne. Zerubbabel has just won a contest by proving that the truth outranks wine, kings, and the desires of the heart; now his answer will show whether he believes his own argument. He has the king's ear and the king's favour. The question is what he will spend them on.
Zerubbabel asks for nothing for himself. He does not take the seat, the title, or any private gain. Instead he holds the king to a promise: Remember thy vow, which thou hast vowed to build Jerusalem… and to send away all the vessels that were taken away out of Jerusalem (vv. 43-44). Darius had vowed, when he came to the throne, to rebuild the holy city, restore the sacred vessels that Cyrus had set apart, and raise again the temple which the Edomites burned when Judea was made desolate (v. 45). Zerubbabel's whole request is that the king keep that word: I desire therefore that thou make good the vow, the performance whereof with thine own mouth thou hast vowed to the King of heaven (v. 46). It is a striking reversal of the usual courtier's grab. The wisest man in the kingdom, handed everything, asks only that the house of God be rebuilt and its worship restored. His treasure is not in the throne room but in Jerusalem; the reward he wants is one that will belong to God and to his people, not to himself.3
47Then Darius the king stood up, and kissed him, and wrote letters for him unto all the treasurers and lieutenants and captains and governors, that they should safely convey on their way both him, and all those that go up with him to build Jerusalem. 48He wrote letters also unto the lieutenants that were in Celosyria and Phenice, and unto them in Libanus, that they should bring cedar wood from Libanus unto Jerusalem, and that they should build the city with him. 49Moreover he wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry, concerning their freedom, that no officer, no ruler, no lieutenant, nor treasurer, should forcibly enter into their doors; 50And that all the country which they hold should be free without tribute; and that the Edomites should give over the villages of the Jews which then they held: 51Yea, that there should be yearly given twenty talents to the building of the temple, until the time that it were built; 52And other ten talents yearly, to maintain the burnt offerings upon the altar every day, as they had a commandment to offer seventeen: 53And that all they that went from Babylon to build the city should have free liberty, as well they as their posterity, and all the priests that went away. 54He wrote also concerning the charges, and the priests' vestments wherein they minister; 55And likewise for the charges of the Levites, to be given them until the day that the house were finished, and Jerusalem builded up. 56And he commanded to give to all that kept the city pensions and wages. 57He sent away also all the vessels from Babylon, that Cyrus had set apart; and all that Cyrus had given in commandment, the same charged he also to be done, and sent unto Jerusalem.
The king's response is immediate and lavish. Darius… stood up, and kissed him (v. 47) - the same gesture of honour a king gives an equal - and then turned the petition into law. The decree that follows is sweeping. Letters go out to every official to escort Zerubbabel and the returning exiles safely (v. 47); cedar is to be hauled from Lebanon to rebuild the city (v. 48); the Jews are granted freedom from forced entry, exemption from tribute, and the return of their villages (vv. 49-50). The king commits the treasury itself: twenty talents a year for the building, ten talents a year for the daily offerings, provision for priests' vestments and the Levites' support, wages for the city's guards (vv. 51-56). And the long-promised vessels - the sacred furnishings carried off to Babylon and set apart by Cyrus - are at last sent unto Jerusalem (v. 57). What one humble request asked, the king's power now pours out in full. The wisdom that won the contest has bent the whole apparatus of empire toward the rebuilding of God's house.2
58Now when this young man was gone forth, he lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven, 59And said, From thee cometh victory, from thee cometh wisdom, and thine is the glory, and I am thy servant. 60Blessed art thou, who hast given me wisdom: for to thee I give thanks, O Lord of our fathers. 61And so he took the letters, and went out, and came unto Babylon, and told it all his brethren. 62And they praised the God of their fathers, because he had given them freedom and liberty 63To go up, and to build Jerusalem, and the temple which is called by his name: and they feasted with instruments of musick and gladness seven days.
The chapter ends where the great speech ended - in worship. Zerubbabel does not leave the court congratulating himself on his cleverness. He lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven (v. 58), giving back to God everything he had been credited with: From thee cometh victory, from thee cometh wisdom, and thine is the glory, and I am thy servant… Blessed art thou, who hast given me wisdom (vv. 59-60). The wise man knows the source of his wisdom and refuses to keep the glory. Then he carries the king's letters home, and the joy spreads: his brethren in Babylon praised the God of their fathers for the freedom granted them to go up, and to build Jerusalem, and the temple which is called by his name, and they kept a feast with instruments of musick and gladness seven days (vv. 61-63). The contest that began with a banquet ends with a holier feast - not the king's revel but a people's thanksgiving that the house of God will rise again. From the first shout, Great is Truth, to this seven-day gladness, the whole movement has been from a clever answer to a restored altar, from winning an argument to rebuilding a place where God is worshipped.
Further study
- The text of 1 Esdras 4 in an English translation with links into the wider Jewish library - useful for tracing the speech for the king (vv. 1-12), the speech for women (vv. 13-32), the great praise of the truth (vv. 33-41), and Zerubbabel's petition to rebuild Jerusalem (vv. 42-63). (The deep-link to this lesser-printed book may not always resolve; it is included as the standard scholarly reference.)
- 1 Esdras · introduction, dating, and full textEarly Jewish WritingsBackground on 1 Esdras as a Greek work of Second Temple Judaism - its relation to Ezra-Nehemiah, its date, and the famous contest of the three guardsmen that it alone preserves - with scholarly notes that help place the debate and the praise of truth in chapter 4 (vv. 13-41) in its own historical world.
- A survey of 1 Esdras - its contents, its overlap with Ezra and 2 Chronicles, its date, and its standing across the Christian traditions (printed in the King James Apocrypha and read as edifying history) - useful for understanding how the contest of the guardsmen (vv. 1-41) frames Zerubbabel's rise and the rebuilding of the temple (vv. 42-63).
Where this echoes in Scripture
The King, and Then Women · Two Answers from the Visible World
- Genesis 2:24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.The ancient word Zerubbabel echoes in verse 20 - the pull that makes a man leave all he knows.
- Proverbs 21:1The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.Set against the second guardsman's case (vv. 3-12) - even the all-commanding king is himself moved by a higher hand.
- Psalm 146:3-4Put not your trust in princes... his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth.The fragility under the king's might (vv. 7, 10) - the mortal sovereign who is, after all, “but one man.”
- Ecclesiastes 2:10-11whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them... and, behold, all was vanity.The reaching of the heart past gold to what it loves (vv. 18-19) - and how the visible prizes fail to satisfy.
Great is the Truth · The Answer That Outlasts Them All
- John 14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.The summit of the chapter (vv. 35-40) - the truth that conquers for evermore, met as a Person.
- John 17:17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.The God of truth blessed in verse 40 - whose own word is named as the truth itself.
- John 8:31-32ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.The conquering power of the truth (v. 38) - not merely standing forever, but setting captives free.
- John 18:37To this end was I born... that I should bear witness unto the truth.The truth that liveth and conquereth (v. 38) standing before earthly power at its most brutal.
- Matthew 16:18upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.The truth that is the kingdom… of all ages (v. 40) - the kingdom nothing can overthrow.
- 1 Corinthians 13:8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.The same logic as verses 37-38 - the lesser powers pass away; what is of God endures.
- Titus 1:2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.The “God of truth” of verse 40 - the One in whom there is no falsehood, the ground of every true thing.
The Grant · A Reward Spent on the House of God
- Matthew 6:33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Zerubbabel's petition (vv. 43-46) - offered anything, he asks first for the house and kingdom of God.
- 1 Kings 3:11-13Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life... I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked.The same pattern as verses 42-57 - the one who asks for the right thing is given far more besides.
- Haggai 2:4-5be strong, O Zerubbabel... and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts.The same Zerubbabel and the same temple (v. 63) - the rebuilding this grant sets in motion.
- James 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father.Zerubbabel's thanksgiving (vv. 59-60) - wisdom and victory traced back to their one true Source.
- Matthew 6:13For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.The same movement as verse 59 - thine is the glory - the credit handed straight back to God.
- John 2:19-21Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up... he spake of the temple of his body.The temple Zerubbabel labours to rebuild (vv. 45, 63) - pointing on to the greater temple raised in Christ.