Ezra 3

Ezra 3:36-63

Before Chall 19. Or generner. See Nich. viii. 9. Read. xxviii. 20. Num. xxvii. 11. polluted, put from the priesthood. 63. And the Tirthatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim. We have here a father account of those who returned. The priests, under four chief fathers, were near a tenth part of the whole. Their zeal for the service made them more ready to improve the pretext opportunity. The Levites, ones so numerous, Chrm. xxiii. 3. were now but few. The Nethinims, stillants to the Levites, supplied to be the defendants of the Gibeonites, whom Joshua appointed for the meaner offices of the tabernacle, to hew wood and draw water; and the children of Solomon’s servants, who were the old indubitants of Canaan, but being proolyed, were employed by him in building the temple, See 1 Kings ix. 20. There, in the number of three hundred and ninety-two, joined the returning coloup; besides which, many went up from some of the cities of Babylon, who, though Jews, had lost their genealogies; and many who puffed for children of the priests, but were rejected by the Tirthatha, or governor, Zerubbabel, from minifring, because they could not prove their lineal defection from Aaron. One of these, by a marriage into the family of the famed Barzilai, ambinions of having his children reckoned of that flock, neglected his priestly genealogy, and therefore now was excluded from the privileges and honour he had despised. The exclusion however was not final; they hoped some high-priest would arise with Urim and Thummim, from whose illuminations these defects might be repaired. Nio, (1.) They who count the country a disparagement, are unworthy of the officer. (2.) The great high-priest with Urim and Thummim hath appeared, not to fix Jewish genealogies, but to confiscate to himself faithful priests among all the nations of the world. Nich. vii. 20. 64. ¶ The whole congregation together, was forty and two thousand three hundred and threefence. 65. Besides their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven; and there were among them two hundred singing-men and singing-women. 66. Their hordes were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules two hundred forty and five; 67. Their camels, four hundred thirty and five; their affes, six thousand seven hundred and twenty. 68. ¶ And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place: 69. They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work, threefence and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests garments. 70. So the priests and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all lizard in their cities. Chrm. xxvi. 20.