Ezra 2

1 these are the children. The genealogies, after the Captivity, had both a civil and a religious importance; as proving the rights of the different families to their respective inheritances, and as furnishing evidence of the descent of the Messiah from David and from Judah. In ch. vii. of the Book of Nehemiah, we have another copy of this register. The sum-total is the same in both; but the particulars of the two differ, and each falls far short of the whole amount.

the province. Judæa (see note, iv. 12) had become one of the provinces of the Persian empire: see v. 8; Neh. i. 3.

2 which came with Zerubbabel. These were the chiefs who were to conduct the people. The leader was Zerubbabel, the son of Pedaiah, and nephew and heir of Shealtiel, and therefore called his son. Upon the extinction of the royal line through Solomon, by the death of Jeconiah without issue, the heirship came into the family of Nathan, another of David’s sons, at that time represented by Zerubbabel; who stands, therefore, as descendant of Jeconiah: see 1 Chron. iii. 17-19; Jer. xxii. 30; Matt. i. 12; Luke iii. 27. Jeshua, the grandson of Seraiah (or Azariah, Neh. vii. 7), who was slain by Nebuchadnezzar, was the high priest. The “Nehemiah” and “Mordecai” mentioned here are not, of course, the well-known persons bearing those names.

3 children. The word translated “children,” throughout this chapter, is usually rendered “sons,” and it evidently means here descendants when it precedes the name of a person, and inhabitants when it is followed by the name of a place. In some cases, however, the same name seems to belong both to a person and to a town.

20. Giban. Or, Gibson: see Neh. vii. 25.

25. Kirjath-arim. Or, Kirjath-jearim: see Neh. vii. 29.

36. The priests. About 4,000 priests now went to Jerusalem: a large number in proportion to the rest of the community. Most of the Levites had remained attached to the Temple, from the disruption of the kingdom, instead of being dispersed through the Ten Tribes. But the priests here mentioned appear to have belonged to four only out of the twenty-four courses into which they had been divided by David; the rest either being extinct or remaining behind. But these four were so subdivided that the twenty-four courses were made up again; retaining their original titles.

43. The Nethinim. The Nethinim are supposed to have been originally of the race of the Gileonites, who were spared by Joshua: see Josh. ix. 22-27. They performed the meaner services of the Temple: see viii. 20; 1 Chron. ix. 2.

55. The children of Solomon’s servants. These were probably the descendants of Gentile artificers who were employed in building the first Temple; and who, becoming proselytes, were, with their posterity, retained for the purpose of keeping it in repair.

59 these were they, etc. The persons here mentioned were probably Israelites—descendants of the ten tribes—who, having been carried into exile long before the captivity of Judah, had lost their genealogies, and so could not claim any certain possession in the land. “Tel-melah,” etc., were no doubt towns or districts of Babylonia.

61 the children of Barzillai. These descendants of Barzillai (2 Sam. xvii. 27) seem to have valued their relationship to him more than their connexion with the priesthood: and thus their children were deprived of its privileges, which they now desired.

63 the Tirshatha. This is the title given to Zerubbabel and Nehemiah as the Persian governors of Judæa: see Neh. vii. 65-70; viii. 9; x. 2. By the sentence of the Tirshatha, Barzillai’s descendants were not to be restored to the priesthood without a Divine oracle to declare that they were of the race of Aaron.

68 to the house. That is, to the site of the former Temple.

69 drams. Or, “darics” (R.V.). Sixty-one thousand were about $200,000.

70 all Israel. Some of the exiles of the ten tribes seem to have returned. So that these tribes re-appeared by their representatives, and “Israel” was in fact re-constituted (Rawlinson): see 1 Chron. ix. 3.