Nehemiah 2:5-20

b 73 a. The Register of those who returned with Zerubbabel = Ezra 2:1-70

a register of the genealogy R.V. the book.

of them which came up at the first The only natural explanation of these words is that Nehemiah found in the archives of Jerusalem the list of those that accompanied Zerubbabel from Babylon. This seems to be conclusively proved (a) by the words in Nehemiah 2:5, -I found," -who came up at the first," -found written therein," and Nehemiah 2:7, -who came with Zerubbabel," (b) by the position of the parallel extract in Ezra 2:1-70. Nehemiah recognises the national importance of the register and transcribes it into his -Memoirs;" he had not known of its existence before.

The view that the list in this chapter contains the results of Nehemiah's census which were mistakenly inserted by the Compiler into Ezra 2, rests on the quite insufficient grounds of (1) the mention of the name Nehemiah in Ezra 2:7, (2) the title Tirshatha in Ezra 2:65, (3) the relation of Ezra 2:73 to the events of chap. 8, (4) the apparent omission of Nehemiah's census. But (1) the name Nehemiah (Ezra 2:7) is not necessarily that of the governor of Jerusalem; (2) there is no evidence that the title -Tirshatha" was appropriated to Nehemiah alone; (3) only the first part of Ezra 2:73 belongs to this extract; the latter part is freely adapted by the chronicler for the purpose of resuming the narrative; (4) traces of Nehemiah's own census may well be recognised in chap. 11.

This long extract illustrates in an interesting manner the method of compilation adopted by Jewish chroniclers.

The double insertion of the list is probably due to its great importance in the eyes of the stricter Jews. It stands first of all in its right place, chronologically, in the narrative (Ezra 2); it is repeated here in the place which it occupied in the Memoirs of Nehemiah transcribed by the Compiler.

at the first A general expression, sometimes used in the sense of -before" -formerly," cf. Genesis 13:4; 1 Chronicles 17:9, sometimes in the sense of -first of all," Numbers 10:13-14.

6 73. See notes on the parallel passage Ezra 2:1, &c. The variations are very slight, and are for the most part such as would arise from errors of transcription.