And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ver. 5. And hired counsellors against them] But good counsellors would not have been hired, either to bolster out a bad cause, or to outface a good; to justify the wicked for a reward, or to take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. There is a notable instance of this in Papinian, a Pagan counsellor. Thou mayest (said he to Antoninus, the fratricide) command my neck to the block, but not my tongue to the bar. I prize not my life to the pleading of an ill cause. These sordida poscinummia in the text were none such. Some think they were courtiers and counsellors to the king; such as by whom the king was even bought and sold, as Aurelian, the good emperor was, who might know nothing but as his counsellors informed him. This made Alphonsus, king of Aragon, say, that kings were herein most miserable, that whereas they abounded with all things else, the truth of matters they could seldom come by.
All the days of Cyrus king of Persia] Who, warring abroad, committed the government of his kingdom to his son Cambyses, a light and lewd lowly, easily prevailed with to hinder so good a work.
Even until the reign of Darius] i.e. Of Darius Nothus, say some, the son of Artaxerxes Longimanus, named Ezr 4:7 the father of Artaxerxes Mnemon. But they do better, in my opinion, that understand the text of Darius Hystaspis, who succeeded Cambyses, and married his sister; seeking to ingratiate with the people by ratifying whatsoever Cyrus had decreed, and this of the temple among the rest, see Ezra 6:1 .