1. Ezra 5:3 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Who was Tattenai?

Ezra 5:3 (ESV)

3 At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”

Tattenai served under the satrap Ushtannu.1 He was the governor of Trans-Euphrates, the western half of the satrapy. He may have ruled from Damascus, and Ushtannu, the satrap of Babylon, probably ruled from Babylon.2