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

2:2a The leaders of the community are named, with Zerubbabel, the main figure, and Jeshua, the priest, given pride of place (see also Hag. 1:12-14; Zech. 3:1-10; 4:7-10). Zerubbabel descended from King Jehoiachin (cf. 1 Chron. 3:16-19, where he is called Jeconiah), who was exiled in 597 b.c. and later given a place of honor in the Babylonian court (2 Kings 24:15; 25:27-30). Haggai recalls his royal lineage (Hag. 2:23; cf. Jer. 22:24). The other names in Ezra 2:2 are mostly unknown. (The Nehemiah who later rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem came almost a century after these first returnees; the Mordecai of the book of Esther was also much later, and did not return to Jerusalem. Rehum may be the same as in 4:8.) Some exiles may have taken Babylonian names, as occurs in the book of Daniel (e.g., Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; see Dan. 1:7).

2:2b-70 Those who returned are divided into ordinary Israelites (vv. 2b-35) and servants of the temple, including priests and Levites (vv. 36-58). (The same division recurs in vv. 59-63, regarding legitimacy.) The balance shows a clear interest in the temple and its staffing. This return is about reestablishing the worship of Yahweh there.

2:2b-35 The laity is described partly according to kinship divisions (vv. 2b-19) and partly according to place (vv. 20-35), without a real distinction in the form (the men of and the sons of seem interchangeable). The numbers may come from a census. The list shows an interest in the legitimate membership of the covenant people, as well as the legitimate reclaiming of ancestral land. The places that are named are in the territories of Judah and Benjamin (cf. 1:5), north and south of Jerusalem; a large proportion of the territories are actually in Benjamin (cf. Josh. 18:21-27). Some of them recall the first conquest of Canaan by Joshua (e.g., Bethel and Ai).

2:36-58 The temple officials are divided according to function, headed by the priests and Levites. The priests (vv. 36-39) are the most important group, for they are set apart for worship at the altar; the Levites are attendants, some of them singers and gatekeepers (vv. 40-42; see also 1 Chron. 6:33-43; 9:17-18). Three of the priestly names given here (Jedaiah, Immer, Pashhur) also appear in 1 Chron. 9:10-13 in that list of those who returned from exile (cf. also Jer. 20:1-6). The number of Levites is surprisingly low compared to the priests.

2:43-54 The temple servants (Hb. netinim, a term appearing only in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Chron. 9:2) were a further, lower class of officials appointed by King David to help the Levites (cf. Ezra 8:20). There may be a connection between them and the Gibeonites, whom Joshua made servants of the sanctuary (Josh. 9:23, 27). Here, however, they are apparently not slaves, and in Neh. 10:28 they are named among those who take the covenant oath.

2:55-58 The sons of Solomon's servants may be connected with foreigners whom Solomon originally drafted for building the temple (1 Kings 9:20-21). They are numbered here along with the temple servants (Ezra 2:43), and like them are not regarded as slaves. Presumably they all returned voluntarily from Babylon.

2:59-63 This section considers the legitimacy of claims to citizenship and membership in the priesthood. whether they belonged to Israel. It was important in this returning community to establish credentials. People were coming back after a long exile to claim inheritance and property. In the case of priests, it was paramount that only those with the correct pedigree should officiate at the altar. Such claims needed evidence, and the record inevitably contained gaps. The claims entered here are not permanently refused, but held over, pending further inquiry.

2:64-70 The conclusion of the chapter gives numbers of the whole assembly (vv. 64-66), then gives the number of their livestock, and closes with a picture of full resettlement (v. 70). The crucial importance of the temple project to the whole returning enterprise is signaled in vv. 68-69, where some heads of families, i.e., key people in the community, give of their own substance to initiate the rebuilding (cf. Ex. 36:2-7). The location of the former temple is regarded as a holy place, such that it can already be called the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.

2:69 darics. A daric was a gold coin used throughout the Persian Empire. Introduced by Darius I at the end of the sixth century b.c., it weighed about 0.3 ounces (8.5 grams). Beginning in the second half of the fifth century b.c., these coins with Hebrew letters on them appear in Judah. Several of them bear the name of the Persian province Yehud (i.e., Judah), which probably indicates that the province had some freedom to mint its own coins.