Ezra 2:64,65

6. Ezra 2:64-65 give the totals of the returnees.

TEXT, Ezra 2:64-65

64

The whole assembly numbered 42,360,

65

besides their male and female servants, who numbered 7,337; and they had 200 singing men and women.

COMMENT

This grand total of 49,897 may be contrasted with the 601,730 plus the 23,000 Levites (Numbers 26:51; Numbers 26:62) who paused on the edge of the Promised Land under Moses and Joshua, and with the 1,570,000 plus the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in David's time (1 Chronicles 21:5). It was indeed only a remnant, a few survivors, that returned: as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 10:20 f).

In Ezra 2:65, the singers are other than those for the Temple, in Ezra 2:41.

The actual lists given previously add up to only 29,818; this is a reminder that the lists are only partial.

WORD STUDIES

ZERUBBABEL: a seed of Babylon: a reminder that God preserved a seed of His people through the Babylonian Captivity, from which His nation would once again spring to life,

TEMPLE SERVANTS (Ezra 2:43): literally, the Nethinim: those given. The word is a plural form; it comes from the word Nathan. These were the persons given to the priests to assist with the menial tasks of preparing for sacrifice and worship.

JESHUA, or its variant, JOSHUA: Jehovah is Salvation, or Salvation from Jehovah. This is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name, Jesus.

MINA: the basic meaning is to divide out, or measure out, or number. Money originally had to be measured, or weighed, at each transaction. This is the word Mene in the handwriting on the wall, in Daniel 5:25 f. Note that the consonants are the same as those in our word money, and in reverse order, the first two consonants in number. Can you find the two letters hidden in the denomination of a bill? In numismatics? Now you are looking at the building blocks of language!