Ezra 2:36

_THE PRIESTS: THE CHILDREN OF JEDAIAH, OF THE HOUSE OF JESHUA, NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY AND THREE._ The priests. Each of their families was ranged under its prince or head, like those of the other tribes. It will be remembered that the whole body was divided into 24 courses, one of which, in rotation, discharged the sacerdotal duties every week, and each division was called after the name of its first prince or chief. It appears from this passage that only four of the courses of the priests returned from the Babylonian captivity; but these four courses were afterward, as the families increased, divided into 24, which were distinguished by the names of the original courses appointed by David. Hence, we find the course of Abijah or Abia (1 Chronicles 24:10) subsisting at the commencement of the Christian era ...

36-63 Those who undervalue their relation to the Lord in times of reproach, persecution, or distress, will have no benefit from it when it becomes honourable or profitable. Those who have no evidence that they are, by the new birth, spiritual priests unto God, through Jesus Christ, have no right to the comforts and privileges of Christians....

Verse 36. _THE PRIESTS_] The preceding list takes in the census of Judah and Benjamin....

EXPOSITION THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO RETURNED FROM CAPTIVITY WITH ZERUBBABEL, AND THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS (Ezra 2:1). It has been argued that the whole of this chapter is out of place here, and has been transferred hither from Nehemiah (Nehemiah 7:6), where it occupies its rightful position (Bishop A. Hervey). According to this view, the list is one embodying the results of the census made by Nehemiah, not a list of those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel But it seems strange that such a theory should ever h

Ver. 36-39. THE PRIESTS,.... An account of them is given in this and the three following verses, and only four families are mentioned, those of Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, and Harim, and the number of them amounted to 4289; these, according to the Jews, were heads of four courses, which were all that returned from Babylon u. u T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 1....

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The leaders (Ezra 2:1)_ 2. The names of the returning exiles (Ezra 2:3) 3. The priests (Ezra 2:36) 4. The Levites and singers (Ezra 2:40) 5. The porters and Nethinim (Ezra 2:42) 6. Solomon's servants (Ezra 2:55) 7. Those of doubtful descent (Ezra 2:59) 8. The number of the whole company ...

A LIST OF THE EXILES WHO RETURNED UNDER ZERUBBABEL. See the Greek Ezra (1 Esdras) Esther 5:7 and Nehemiah 7:6_ a_, where this list also occurs, though with some variations. Ezra 2:1 a. province: Heb. _medinah,_ equivalent to the Persian satrapy. It refers here to the tract of country, with Jerusalem as its centre (_cf._ Ezra 5:8; Nehemiah 1:3; Nehemiah 11:3), over which Zerubbabel was governor, the province of Judah. ZERUBBABEL: seed of Babel; according to

JEDAIAH. The head of the ninth course (1 Chronicles 24:11)....

_the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua_ In the 24 Priestly houses enumerated in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18, the house of Jedaiah stands second. The words -of the house of Jeshua" have been differently explained. (_a_) It has been considered to refer to a very ancient house from which sprang two branches, the family of Jedaiah mentioned here and 1 Chronicles 24:7, and the family of Jeshua mentioned as the ninth priestly house in 1 Chronicles 24:11. (_b_) The Jeshua here spoken of is considered to be the High-priest; -the sons of Jedaiah were a portion of the house to which J. the high-priest belonged … Jedaiah is not the name of the second order of priests, but of th

4. Also important enough to be mentioned were certain people connected with the Temple and religious worship. TEXT, EZRA 2:36-58 36 The priests: the sons of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, 973; 37 the sons of Immer, 1,052; 38 the sons of Pashhur, 1,247; 39 the sons of Harim, 1,017. 40 The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74. 41 The singers: the sons of Asaph, 128. 42 The sons of the gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, in all 139. 43 The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, 44 the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon, 45 the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Akkub,...