Who [is there] among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which [is] in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he [is] the God,) which [is] in Jerusalem.
Ver. 3. Who is there among you of all his people?] Many there were among them that affirmed deeply of being the people of God, who yet (tanquam monstra marina) passed by this proclamation with a deaf ear; and preferring haram domesticam arae dominicae, a swine sty before a sanctuary, chose rather to abide in Babylon, and there to dwell amongst plants and hedges, 1 Chronicles 4:23, making pots for the king's garden, than to go up to Jerusalem. So that, besides this O yes, by the king, God was fain to cry, "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north." "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon," Zechariah 2:6,7. "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction," Micah 2:10. Look how the eagle hath much ado to get her young ones out of the nest, pricking and beating them with her wings and talons; so was it here: and neither so could the Lord prevail with the most of them, being as loth to depart as Lot was out of Sodom, vel canis ab uncto corio, or a dog from a fat morsel.
His God be with him] And then he needs no better company, no greater happiness; for he is sure of a confluence of all comforts, of all that heart can wish or need require. Tua praesentia, Domine, Laurentio ipsam craticulam fecit dulcem, saith an ancient, Thy presence sweeteneth all our occurrences (Aug.). This was, therefore, a good wish of King Cyrus; neither did he therein any disservice to himself; for God hath promised to bless those that bless any of his, Genesis 12:3, and not to let a good wish to such go unrewarded, 2 Corinthians 13:9 .
Let him go up and build, &c.] As God had charged him, Ezra 1:2, so doth he them. And it is as if he should have said with that father (Bernard), Unless I stir up your hearts, as the Lord hath done mine, unless I lay God's charge upon you to set strenuously upon this service of his, Vobis erit damnosum, mihi periculosum. Timeo itaque damnum vestrum, timeo damnationem meam, si tacuero. If now you go not up upon so great encouragement, God will surely meet with you.
He is the God] The only true God, John 17:3, none like him, Micah 7:18. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible," Deuteronomy 10:17. Is it not fit, therefore, that he have a temple, a place of Divine worship, which the heathens deny not to their dunghill deities?
Which is in Jerusalem] The city of the great King, where he kept his court, and afforded his special presence, not of grace only in his ordinances, but of glory also sometimes in his holy temple, 2 Chronicles 5:14, as in another heaven.