Ezra 2:59

_AND THESE WERE THEY WHICH WENT UP FROM TELMELAH, TELHARSA, CHERUB, ADDAN, AND IMMER: BUT THEY COULD NOT SHEW THEIR FATHER'S HOUSE, AND THEIR SEED, WHETHER THEY WERE OF ISRAEL:_ These were they which went up from Telmelah. х_ TEEL_ (H8510) signifies a hill or mound, and hence, from the frequent mounds that formed a marked feature in Babylonia, it was prefixed to the names of many cities in that country. "Tel-melah" - i:e., hill of salt.] TEL-HARSA - or Tel-hareshah (Nehemiah 7:61), hill of the forest. CHERUB, ADDAN (or Addon, Nehemiah 7:61) AND IMMER - places unknown in Babylonia. The returned exiles from these five Babylonian towns, as well as the descendants of the persons mentioned in...

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....

Tel-melah, Tel-harsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, were probably cities, or villages, of Babylonia, at which the Jews here spoken of had been settled. The first and third have been reasonably identified with the Thelme and Chiripha of Ptolemy. Of the rest, nothing is known at present....

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

AND THESE WERE THEY THAT WENT UP FROM TELMELAH, TELHARSA,.... Places in the land of Babylon, see Isaiah 37:12. CHERUB, ADDAN, AND IMMER; BUT THEY COULD NOT SHOW THEIR FATHER'S HOUSE, AND THEIR SEED, WHETHER THEY WERE OF ISRAEL; these were such that professed the Jewish religion, and went for Jews in Babylon, but could not trace their pedigree, and tell what family they were of, who their ancestors, and where they had lived in Judea; they had lost their genealogical tables, if they ever had any, and could not make it out, whether their parents were Israelites or proselyted Gentiles; or they were such who had been exposed, and taken out of the streets, and their parents unknown....

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

OF ISRAEL. See note on Ezra 2:2, and compare 1 Kings 12:17....

Israelites and Priests of uncertain genealogy 59. _Tel-melah, Tel-harsa_ R.V., TEL-MELAH, TEL-HARSHA i.e. Salthill and Forest-hill, probably names of localities in Babylonia. _Cherub, Addan_, and _Immer_ These are names not of people, but, in all probability, of three villages in one district of Babylonia. Rawlinson suggests that Cherub is the Cheripha of Ptolemy, and that Tel-melah is Telme. There are then three districts, Tel-melah, Tel-harsa, and Cherub-Addan-Immer, from which came the three families Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda. _Addan_ appears in Nehemiah 7:59 -Addon". _their fathers" house_ THEIR FATHERS" HOUSES R.V. They were able to show their recent ancestry, but not their descent from the great clans or households into which the tribes were divided. They could not prove either of the two greatest essentials in a J

TEXT, EZRA 2:59-63 59 Now these are those who came up from Tel-melah, Telharsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, but they were not able to give evidence of their fathers-' households, and their descendants, whether they were of Israel: 60 the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, 652. 61 And of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and he was called by their name. 62 These searched among their ancestral registration, but they could not be located; therefore they were considered unclean and were excluded from the priesthood. 63 And the governor said to them that they should not eat from the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim. COMMENT In...