And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the Lord that is at Jerusalem ,.... That is, when they came to the place where it formerly stood, and where were still the ruins of it: offered freely for the house of God, to set it up in its place ; to rebuild it upon the spot where it formerly stood; this they did besides the freewill offerings they brought with them from Babylon. read more
Men forsaking the worldly life. We regard the people returning from Babylon as typical of men going out of the worldly life into the life and work of the kingdom of God. Observe— I. THAT MEN FORSAKE THE WORLDLY LIFE FROM CHOICE . Cyrus compelled no man to leave the land of captivity. The Jews left Babylon in the exercise of their own free will. Israel as a nation went out of Egypt; but as individuals they come out of Babylon. Heaven compels no man to forsake sin. 1. ... read more
Some of the chief of the fathers. That is, "Some of the heads of families." Each family went up under a recognized head or chief, the number of such heads being, as it would seem, nearly a hundred ( Ezra 2:3-61 ). When they came to the house of the Lord. No doubt considerable ruins of Solomon's temple existed when the exiles returned, and were easily to be recognized, both by their situation and by the size of the stones employed ( 1 Kings 5:17 ). The place occupied by these rums was... read more
The arrival. After the muster-roll, as described to us in Ezra 2:1-67 of this chapter, the next thing, naturally, is the expedition itself. In the present instance, however, this is disposed of in a couple of syllables. "They came." In these modern days—so some one has noticed—in consequence of the great comparative ease and rapidity of the means of locomotion, we speak rather of arriving at than of travelling to our destinations. There is something parallel here. Nothing is related of... read more
Social and spiritual gradations. The company that came out of Babylonian captivity was by no means a disorderly or unorganized multitude. It was well officered, and was divided and subdivided into ranks. It probably marched in regular order. Under the "Tirshatha" Zerubbabel, Jeshua the high priest, and Mordecai (probably the honoured deliverer), with other natural leaders, came ( Ezra 2:70 ), priests, Levites (a singularly and disproportionately small number of these), the people... read more
Ezra 2:68. When they came to the house of the Lord That is, to the place in which the temple had stood, and where the ruins still remained. Offered freely Made a new offering, besides that which they had brought out of Babylon, from their brethren there, mentioned Ezra 1:4; Ezra 1:6. By this it appears that the Jews were not made absolute slaves in Babylon, but had liberty to trade and get riches for themselves; some of them being advanced to considerable offices in the king’s court.... read more
Click image for full-size version1:1-2:70 ZERUBBABEL’S RETURNCyrus had been ruler of Persia for some time before he conquered Babylon in 539 BC. His policy was, when he conquered a nation, to allow any people held captive by that nation to return to their homeland. Therefore, soon after he conquered Babylon (i.e. in his first year as the Jews’ new ruler) he gave permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (1:1-4). Jeremiah’s prophecy made seventy years earlier had come true: the Jews were... read more
some = a portion. Ezra mentions what one portion gave. Nehemiah ( Ezr 7:70 ) mentions what he and two other portions gave. Hence the numbers "perforce" cannot be the same, and there is no "discrepancy". chief = heads. the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. God. Hebrew. Elohim. (with Art.) = the [true] God. App-4 . read more
Get Bible verse every day in your inbox
Read on Mobile
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