Ezra 2:1-70

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezra 2:1-35

We may observe here, 1. That an account was kept in writing of the families that came up out of captivity, and the numbers of each family. This was done for their honour, as part of their recompence for their faith and courage, their confidence in God and their affection to their own land, and to stir up others to follow their good example. Those that honour God he will thus honour. The names of all those Israelites indeed that accept the offer of deliverance by Christ shall be found, to their... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezra 2:36-63

Here is an account, I. Of the priests that returned, and they were a considerable number, about a tenth part of the whole company: for the whole were above 42,000 (Ezra 2:64), and four families of priests made up above 4200 (Ezra 2:36-39); thus was the tenth God's part?a blessed decimation. Three of the fathers of the priests here named were heads of courses, 1 Chron. 24:7, 8, 14. The fourth was Pashur, Ezra 2:38. If these were of the posterity of that Pashur that abused Jeremiah (Jer. 20:1),... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezra 2:64-70

Here is, I. The sum total of the company that returned out of Babylon. The particular sums before mentioned amount not quite to 30,000 (29,818), so that there were above 12,000 that come out into any of those accounts, who, it is probable, were of the rest of the tribes of Israel, besides Judah and Benjamin, that could not tell of what particular family or city they were, but that they were Israelites, and of what tribe. Now, 1. This was more than double the number that were carried captive... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:1

Now these are the children of the province ,.... Either of the province of Babylon, as Aben Ezra, where they were either born, or had dwelt for many years; or else rather, according to Jarchi, of the province of Judea, as it is called, Ezra 5:8 once a flourishing kingdom, but reduced to a province of the Babylonian monarchy, now in the hands of the Medes and Persians, of which province they and their fathers originally were: that went out of the captivity, of those which had been... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:2

Which came with Zerubbabel ,.... The head of them, the prince of Judah; and the chief that came with him are the ten following; Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah; the first of these, Jeshua, was Joshua the high priest, the son of Josedech, Haggai 1:1 . Dr. Lightfoot F19 Works, vol. 1. p. 127. So Broughton, Works, p. 258. thinks that Nehemiah is the same, whose name the following book bears; and that Mordecai is he who was uncle to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:3-35

The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred and seventy two. From hence, to the end of Ezra 2:35 , a list is given of the captives that returned, described by the families they were of, their ancestors from whence they sprung, or the towns and cities to which they originally belonged, and by their numbers; otherwise nothing more of them is known. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:36-39

The priests ,.... An account of them is given in this and the three following verses, and only four families are mentioned, those of Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, and Harim, and the number of them amounted to 4289; these, according to the Jews, were heads of four courses, which were all that returned from Babylon F21 T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 1. . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:40-42

The Levites ,.... Singers and porters, who are reckoned in this, and the two following verses, whose numbers were no more than three hundred and forty one; whereas, in the times of David, they were 38,000, 1 Chronicles 23:3 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:43-58

The Nethinims ,.... Supposed by Aben Ezra and Jarchi to be the Gibeonites, who were "given" by Joshua, as the word Nethinims signifies, to the congregation, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water; but rather were those that were given by David to assist the Levites; of these is an account from hence to the end of Ezra 2:58 , together with those who descended from Solomon's servants, who seem to be the remains of the Canaanites in the land, whom Solomon made bondservants of, 1 Kings... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezra 2:59

And these were they that went up from Telmelah, Telharsa ,.... Places in the land of Babylon, see Isaiah 37:12 . Cherub, Addan, and Immer; but they could not show their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel ; these were such that professed the Jewish religion, and went for Jews in Babylon, but could not trace their pedigree, and tell what family they were of, who their ancestors, and where they had lived in Judea; they had lost their genealogical tables, if they... read more

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