Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

1:5 Those exiles whose spirit God had stirred (as he had stirred up Cyrus, v. 1) respond to the decree. The response is spearheaded by the leadership of the people, namely, the heads of the fathers' houses (extended families) and priests. It is not haphazard, but an action of the exiled community as a whole. The three tribes--Judah, Benjamin, and the Levites (Levi)--are those that had constituted the former kingdom of Judah, and had thus been taken off to Babylon in 586 b.c. No mention is made here or elsewhere of any large-scale return of the other tribes, though a few people from other tribes are sometimes mentioned or implied (see 1 Chron. 9:3; 2 Chron. 11:16; cf. Luke 2:36). The OT gives no further information on the fate of the other "lost tribes."

1:6-11 People help the exiles as commanded by their king, and Cyrus gives back the vessels of the house of the Lord (v. 7), once stolen from the temple (2 Kings 25:13-17). These are handed over to Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1:8), one of the early leaders of the returning exiles. The title prince of Judah (v. 8) simply means that he was a leading member of the exiled community. In 5:14-16 the initiation of the temple's reconstruction is attributed to Sheshbazzar, and there he is called "governor."

1:9 And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers. This detailed catalog of vessels used in the temple in Jerusalem is a testimony to God's faithfulness in preserving not only a remnant of the people but also the materials they would need to reinstate temple worship in Jerusalem. God had not forgotten his promises.