3 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 built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid; its height sixty cubits, and its breadth sixty cubits;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
It is difficult to reconcile the dimentions here with expressions in Zechariah Zac 4:10, Haggai Haggai 2:3, and even Ezra Ezra 3:12, which imply that the second temple was smaller than the first (compare 1-Kings 6:2). Perhaps the dimensions here are those which Cyrus required the Jews not to exceed.
The height thereof threescore cubits - This was much larger than the temple of Solomon. This was sixty cubits high, and sixty cubits broad; whereas Solomon's was only twenty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high.
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,
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 (y), 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.
(y) Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 15. c. 11. sect. 1.
Cubits - Those proportions differ from those of Solomon's temple, which was but thirty cubits high, only the porch was a hundred and twenty cubits high, and but twenty cubits in breadth. Either therefore Solomon's cubits were sacred cubits, which were larger than the other, and these but common cubits. Or, the sixty cubits of height are meant only for the porch. And the word rendered breadth, may be rendered the extension or the length of it; it being improbable that the king should give orders about the breadth, and none about the length of it.
*More commentary available at chapter level.