Ezra 2:59

SOME WERE PUT OUT OF THE PRIESTHOOD

"And these were they that went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer; but they could not show their fathers' houses, and their seed, whether they were of Israel: the children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two. And the children of the priests: the children of Ha-baiah, the children of Kakoz, the children of Barzillai the Gileaditc, and was called after their name. These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood. And the governor said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummin."

"The children of Barzillai the Gileadite" (Ezra 2:61). Barzillai, of course, was the famous friend of David who aided him during the rebellion of Absalom, a man of great wealth. Barzillai was not a priest; but his children, probably by his daughters who had married priests, and who therefore were indeed true sons of the priests; but they had retained the famous name of their distinguished ancestor. The priests, of course, intent on restricting everyone possible from joining their company, rejected their claims. The governor decided against them.

It is not exactly clear what the governor meant. There is no proof whatever that the Urim and Thummin survived the captivity, or for that matter, even the repeated sack of the temple; so what he might have meant was, that it would take a direct act of God to put the sons of Barzillai in the priesthood.

The heartless pride and arrogance of the Jewish priesthood are dearly visible here. "Concern for pedigree and purity can easily turn to pride and superiority; and this trend was tragically exemplified by many of the community's later descendants."[18]

The Sadducees and Pharisees of the times of Christ prided themselves upon the purity of their descent from Abraham, supposing that their kinship with the patriarch alone would assure them of eternal life. How wrong they were! John the Baptist had warned them that God was "Able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Matthew 3:9); and Paul thundered the verdict in the ears of the nation that, "They are not all Israel who are of Israel" (Romans 9:6); but, alas, pride and arrogance can blind the eyes and harden the hearts of all who thus delude themselves.