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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
12:1-26 High Priests and Leading Levites Since the Time of Zerubbabel. This section records the priests and Levites from the time of Zerubbabel () to Nehemiah. The aim is to show that the Levitical service was sustained during a very difficult era in Israel's history.
12:1a Zerubbabel . . . and Jeshua. Zerubbabel was the first leader of the exiles who returned to Judah following the decree of King Cyrus in , and Jeshua was the high priest who returned with him. This was about a before Nehemiah (see note on Ezra 2:2a).
12:1b-9 A list of priests in the time of Zerubbabel is listed, followed by a list of Levites from the same time.
12:12-21 Joiakim was high priest in succession to Jeshua (cf. v. 10), so this list now gives the priests in his day. It includes Ezra (v. 13), so Joiakim was evidently still high priest when Ezra came to Jerusalem. heads of fathers' houses (v. 12). The list proceeds by family names: thus, Meraiah was priest in the (priestly) family of Seraiah. Some of the family names occur in vv. 1-7.
12:22-23 The Levites are now recorded by family. The period from the high priesthoods of Eliashib to Jaddua corresponds approximately to that in vv. 10-11. As with the priests, a record was kept according to families.
12:22 Darius the Persian is a reference to Darius I (), king of Persia at the time of Zerubbabel and the building of the temple (see Ezra 4:5, 24; 5:1-17; 6:1-22).
12:23 Book of the Chronicles. This is not the biblical book of that name, but simply a record of names, perhaps kept by the priests.
12:24-26 This is a similar record (see v. 23) for the time of Joiakim and later (see v. 10). David the man of God. That is, David as a prophet as recorded in v. 36; 1 Chron. 25:2; 2 Chron. 8:14. In each of these texts his prophetic ministry was in connection with the organization of the priests and Levites for the temple service. Joiakim was high priest in Ezra's time (see Neh. 12:12), though by Nehemiah's time apparently Eliashib held that office (3:1). But the whole period of Ezra and Nehemiah is here regarded as unified and associated with Joiakim.
