Nehemiah 7:5

"And my God put it into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of them that came up at the first, and 50found written therein:"

"God put it into my heart." Nehemiah always gave God credit for whatever he did, giving all the glory to God.

"The genealogy of them that came up at first." This can be understood only as a reference to them that came up with Zerubbabel, a number approaching 50,000. Older and more recent scholars alike affirm the identity of the following list with that in the Book of Ezra. "This list is approximately the same as that of the exiles who returned under Zerubbabel; and it must have been found by Nehemiah in the archives in Jerusalem."[14] "Except for Nehemiah 7:70-72, this register is identical with that in Ezra 2:1-70."[15]

Nothing is of less interest to current readers than these genealogical registers in the O.T.; but the importance of them is great indeed. The great promise of God looking to the redemption of fallen humanity, and the bringing into our world of the Dayspring from On High, specifically tied that promise to the "Seed (singular) of Abraham" (Genesis 12:3); and when Mary cradled the Son of God in the Bethelehem manger, it was absolutely necessary that all men should have been certain that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed that Seed. It was the concern and diligence of men like Nehemiah who preserved and honored the genealogies of the people that were absolutely the prerequisites of Christian confidence in the identity of Jesus Christ.

We shall have little or no comment on this register of names.