Ezra 2 Starting Over

[seekeroftruth]

Ezra 2:1 Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town, 2 in company with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah):​

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The list of the men of the people of Israel:​

3 the descendants of Parosh​	2,172​
4 of Shephatiah​	372​
5 of Arah​	775​
6 of Pahath-Moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab)​	2,812​
7 of Elam​	1,254​
8 of Zattu​	945​
9 of Zakkai​	760​
10 of Bani​	642​
11 of Bebai​	623​
12 of Azgad​	1,222​
13 of Adonikam​	666​
14 of Bigvai​	2,056​
15 of Adin​	454​
16 of Ater (through Hezekiah)​	98​
17 of Bezai​	323​
18 of Jorah​	112​
19 of Hashum​	223​
20 of Gibbar​	95​

21 the men of Bethlehem​	123​
22 of Netophah​	56​
23 of Anathoth​	128​
24 of Azmaveth​	42​
25 of Kiriath Jearim,[a] Kephirah and Beeroth​	743​
26 of Ramah and Geba​	621​
27 of Mikmash​	122​
28 of Bethel and Ai​	223​
29 of Nebo​	52​
30 of Magbish​	156​
31 of the other Elam​	1,254​
32 of Harim​	320​
33 of Lod, Hadid and Ono​	725​
34 of Jericho​	345​
35 of Senaah​	3,630​

36 The priests:​

the descendants of Jedaiah (through the family of Jeshua)​	973​
37 of Immer​	1,052​
38 of Pashhur​	1,247​
39 of Harim​	1,017​

40 The Levites:​

the descendants of Jeshua and Kadmiel (of the line of Hodaviah)​

74​

41 The musicians:​

the descendants of Asaph​

128​

42 The gatekeepers of the temple:​

the descendants of​
Shallum, Ater, Talmon,​
Akkub, Hatita and Shobai​	139​

43 The temple servants:​

the descendants of​

Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,​

44 Keros, Siaha, Padon,​

45 Lebanah, Hagabah, Akkub,​

46 Hagab, Shalmai, Hanan,​

47 Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah,​

48 Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam,​

49 Uzza, Paseah, Besai,​

50 Asnah, Meunim, Nephusim,​

51 Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,​

52 Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha,​

53 Barkos, Sisera, Temah,​

54 Neziah and Hatipha​

55 The descendants of the servants of Solomon:​

the descendants of​

Sotai, Hassophereth, Peruda,​

56 Jaala, Darkon, Giddel,​

57 Shephatiah, Hattil,​

Pokereth-Hazzebaim and Ami​

58 The temple servants and the descendants of the servants of Solomon​

392​

59 The following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended from Israel:​

60 The descendants of​
Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda​	652​

61 And from among the priests:​

The descendants of​

Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name).​

62 These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. 63 The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.​

64 The whole company numbered 42,360, 65 besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 200 male and female singers. 66 They had 736 horses,245 mules, 67 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.​

68 When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. 69 According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics(b) of gold, 5,000 minas[c] of silver and 100 priestly garments.​

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70 The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.​

a. Ezra 2:25 See Septuagint (see also Neh. 7:29); Hebrew Kiriath Arim.
b. Ezra 2:69 That is, about 1,100 pounds or about 500 kilograms
c. Ezra 2:69 That is, about 3 tons or about 2.8 metric tons

I buzzed right through this chapter.... sorry... there's no room for commentary so I'm going to use the easy English commentary. Bible.org has a beautiful commentary on this chapter.... the easy English doesn't fit tho.... so here's the deal.

The big deal is these people went back to the Promised Land. They had to rebuild.... from scratch.

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[seekeroftruth]

Since there was no room.... and it's a list.... but I don't want to skip it.... it's in the Bible for a reason..... this is the commentary from the easy English site. It's just a list.... but it sets the tone for the rest of the book... so that's why it's in the Bible... IMHO

Many years later, Nehemiah also recorded this list (Nehemiah 7:6-73). Nehemiah’s list is slightly different from Ezra’s list. There are several possible explanations for these differences. Perhaps some people said that they would return. But then they did not go. Or perhaps Nehemiah spelt some of the names in a different way. This might explain why the lists are slightly different.​

The people who returned to Judah had different jobs to do. Some were priests and Levites and some were singers. They led the people when they worshipped God. Some of the people guarded the temple and the gates and some were servants in the temple.​

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Often, this list describes people as ‘the descendants of’ a person or a place. Usually we use the word ‘*descendants’ to mean that a particular person was the head of the family long ago. But in verses 21 to 35, this list shows the names of places. So probably, the people from these places described their families by the name of their home town.​

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After Ezra’s record of the family names, he mentions the number of people in each group. This is the meaning of the numbers at the end of the verses.​

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Some of the people could not prove who their ancestors were. And among these people were some priests. They searched for their family registers. But they did not find them.​

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God appointed the descendants of Aaron (the brother of Moses) to be priests. They had to prove that they were descendants of Aaron. If not, then they could not serve as priests (Numbers 16:40). God had also given to the priests special food to eat. God did not allow people who were not priests to eat that food. So the chief officer did not allow these men to eat the priests’ special food. He was careful to obey God’s law.​

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God gave some priests the Urim and Thummim. The priests used these to know what God was telling the people to do. But at that time there was no priest who could use the Urim and Thummim to make a decision.​

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When the people returned to Judah, they began the preparations to rebuild the temple. They did not wait until they had comfortable homes in Judah. They considered that the construction of God’s temple was their most important task.​

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Ezra calls the people ‘the *people of Israel’ instead of ‘the people from Judah’. God gave to Jacob the name Israel. At the same time, God promised to make Jacob’s *descendants God’s special people (Genesis 32:28). At the time when the people first returned from exile, most of them were from Judah. But they were still God’s special people. And that is why Ezra calls them ‘the *people of Israel’.​

War destroyed Jerusalem. The people had been slaughtered, castrated, and or enslaved and force marched to Babylon, a four month march. Only the poorest were left behind to farm the land.... but even the land was too exhausted to produce a crop. The people who survived had been living in Babylon for about 70 years. A lot of them wouldn't even recognize the place... they had never been there. The birth records and land records were destroyed.... people who had been priests couldn't prove their place.

These people weren't coming back just to take up space. They were there to rebuild the Temple. This time they were living in tents and God would be the first to have His house rebuilt.

These people wanted to do it right.