_A.M. 3468. B.C. 536._ The leaders that returned, Ezra 2:1; Ezra 2:2. The people, Ezra 2:3. The priests, Levites, and retainers to the temple, Ezra 2:36. The sum total, and their substance, Ezra 2:64. Their offerings, Ezra 2:68.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The children of the province_ That is, of Babylon, for they are here spoken of whom Nebuchadnezzar had brought captive to Babylon, and not those of the ten tribes, who had been dispersed before, by the kings of Assyria, into various provinces; and who afterward returned to Jerusalem in separate com... [ Continue Reading ]
_Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah_, &c. These were their heads, who undertook to conduct them: among whom Zerubbabel was their prince or leader, as Jeshua was high-priest, who is mentioned next to him. Nehemiah, whose name follows, is not the person whose book comes after this: for he di... [ Continue Reading ]
_The children_ The posterity, as that word is generally taken in this catalogue. _Of Parosh_ That descended either from Parosh, or from that family whereof Parosh was the chief. And so for the rest.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seven hundred_, &c. In Nehemiah 7:10, they were only six hundred and fifty-two; it seems seven hundred and seventy-five marched out of Babylon, but some of them died, others were hindered by sickness or other casualties, and so there came only six hundred and fifty-two to Jerusalem. And the like is... [ Continue Reading ]
_The children of Gibbar_ Or, as it is in Nehemiah 7:25, _of Gibeon_, these being the citizens of that city. For this is not the name of a man, but of a place; and the same may be said of several names that follow. _The children of Beth-lehem_ The remainders of the inhabitants of that city: so little... [ Continue Reading ]
_The priests_ Having numbered the people that went of Judah and Benjamin, he proceeds now to the tribe of Levi, and first mentions the priests.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The children of Harim_ The head of one of the twenty-four courses which David appointed, (1 Chronicles 24:8,) of all which courses, some observe here, are not above four or five that returned. There is another Harim mentioned above, Ezra 2:32, but that was no priest as this was, Ezra 2:36.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nethinims_ Persons devoted to the inferior services of the priests and Levites. Commonly supposed to be the Gibeonites, _given_ (so their name signifies) by Joshua first, and again by David, when Saul had expelled them, to the priests and Levites, for those services.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The children of Solomon's servants_ Who had lived in Solomon's family, and after his death called themselves and their families by that name, esteeming it a great honour that they had been servants to so great a prince.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Which went up from Tel-melah_, &c. These were names of some cities in the Babylonish empire, from whence many went along with the Jews to Judea. They were of the Jewish religion, and probably were the children of those who had been carried captive before the general captivity; but they had lost the... [ Continue Reading ]
_And was called after their name_ Namely, _Barzillai;_ a name which he preferred before that of his own family, accounting it, as appears, a greater honour to be allied to so noble a family than to be a priest of the Lord. But by this vain ambition he deprived himself of the honour and advantage of... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Tirshatha_ The governor or king's commissioner, namely, Zerubbabel: whence Nehemiah is so called, Nehemiah 8:9; Nehemiah 10:2. _That they should not eat of the most holy things_ That they should not partake of the sacrifices offered for sin, nor of the right shoulder of peace- offerings, nor of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore_ This is more than double the number which were carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar. But here occurs a small difficulty; (like that in the end of the foregoing chapter;) for if we put together the several sums before mentioned, they amount to n... [ Continue Reading ]
_And singing-women_ For women as well as men were employed in this exercise, in the temple-service.... [ Continue Reading ]
_When they came to the house of the Lord_ That is, to the place in which the temple had stood, and where the ruins still remained. _Offered freely_ Made a new offering, besides that which they had brought out of Babylon, from their brethren there, mentioned Ezra 1:4; Ezra 1:6. By this it appears tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Threescore and one thousand drachms of gold_, &c. About seventy-five thousand and five hundred pounds of our money; for every drachm of gold is worth ten shillings of our money, and every mina, or pound of silver, nine pounds; for it contains sixty shekels, and every shekel of silver is worth three... [ Continue Reading ]
_And all Israel in their cities_ In the cities which their families had inhabited before their captivity. As to those who could not prove themselves Israelites by any genealogical register, they probably settled in those lands which were not claimed, or followed handicraft employments, of one sort o... [ Continue Reading ]