List of Returning Exiles (2:1–70)

The list of Ezra 2 almost exactly parallels the list in Nehemiah 7:6–73 (cf. 1 Esd. 5:4–46). The list of localities indicates that people retained the memories of their homes and that exiles from a wide background of tribes, villages, and towns returned.

A comparison of Ezra 2 with Nehemiah 7 reveals a number of differences in both the names and the numbers that are listed.27 Though the lists of temple personnel show few variations, there are differences in about half the cases of the lists of the laity. Of the 153 numbers, 29 are not the same in Ezra and Nehemiah. Many differences in the figures may be explained by assuming that a cipher notation was used with vertical strokes for units, horizontal strokes for tens, and stylized mems (the initial letter of the Heb. word meah) for hundreds. Single strokes could be overlooked or miscopied.28

Now these are the people of the province who came up (2:1). The KJV’s colon after Zerubbabel (2:2) implies that all those who followed were among those returning with Zerubbabel. The NIV, RSV, and other modern translations place a comma after Zerubbabel, leaving open the possibility that the list may include those who returned to Judah at a later date.

The men of Bethlehem (2:21). Verses 21–35 list a series of villages and towns, most of them in Benjaminite territory north of Jerusalem. Why are some listed by their villages and not by families? Williamson believes that these may have represented “the poor of the land” (2 Kings 25:12), who had no land or property in their own name.29

Significantly, there are no references to towns in the Negev south of Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar overran Judah (Jer. 13:19), the Edomites (cf. Obad.) opportunistically occupied the area. By the fifth century B.C., Nabataean Arabs (Mal. 1:2–5) were pressing on the Edomites, who moved west and occupied the area south of Hebron, later known as Idumaea.30

Levites (2:40). The Levites, descendants of Levi (Gen. 29:34), may have originally been regarded as priests (Deut. 18:6–8), but they became subordinate to the priestly descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses (Num. 3:9–10; 1 Chron. 16:4–42; 23:26–32). The Levites were then prohibited from offering sacrifices on the altar (Num. 16:40; 18:7). The number of Levites who returned (seventy-four) is remarkably small as compared with over 4,000 priests. When Ezra was ready to lead a group from Babylon in 458 B.C., he had to stop to enlist Levites (Ezra 8:15). Either few Levites had been deported because they belonged to the poorer class, or they may have turned to secular occupations during their exile.

Singers (2:41). These people (KJV, “temple singers”; JB, “cantors”) are called “holy singers” in 1 Esdras 5:27 (cf. Neh. 11:22–23; 12:29; 13:10). Asaph was one of the three Levites appointed by David over the temple singers. The additional two hundred singers listed in 2:65 must have been secular singers, as women were not used in the temple.

Temple servants (2:43). A long list of names (35 in Ezra, 32 in Nehemiah) follows the heading “temple servants.” The Hebrew word for temple servants (netînîm, “Nethinim”) occurs only in 1 Chronicles 9:2 and in Ezra–Nehemiah. The Nethinim occupied a special quarter in Jerusalem (Neh. 3:26, 31; 11:21) and enjoyed exemption from taxes (Ezra 7:24). They participated in rebuilding the wall (Neh. 3:26) and signed Nehemiah’s covenant (Neh. 10:29). The temple servants and the sons of Solomon’s servants together numbered 392 (Ezra 2:58)—more than the total of the Levites, gatekeepers, and singers (2:40–42). Though of a menial status, they must have served God with true devotion.

Ugaritic list of temple officers

Rama/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre

They could not show (2:59). Of the exiles who returned, members of three lay families and three priestly families were unable at this time to prove their descent. Some may have derived from proselytes; others may have temporarily lost access to their genealogical records. Genealogies, which occur prominently in Chronicles and Ezra/Nehemiah, were important for many reasons, but especially for priests and Levites (see sidebar “What Is in a Name?”).31

Barzillai (2:61). The case of a man taking his name from his father-in-law is unique in the Old Testament, but it is attested in Mesopotamia as a so-called erebu marriage;32 it is also attested in many other cultures (such as the Japanese), where a family has daughters but no sons.

Urim and Thummim (2:63). These objects, kept in the breastplate of the high priest, were used for divining God’s will. In the Pentateuch they are associated with Levi (Deut. 33:8), Aaron (Ex. 28:30; Lev. 8:8), and Eleazar (Num. 27:21). The Urim and Thummim were probably two small objects made of wood, bone, or stone, perhaps of different colors or with different inscriptions, which would give a yes or no answer. The high priest would reach into his breastplate and extract one of the objects. The words Urim and Thummim are spelled with the first letter (aleph) and the last letter (tau) of the Hebrew alphabet. The LXX translated the terms with abstractions: “lights and perfections.”33

Drachmas (2:69). “Drachmas” translates the Hebrew darkemônîm (cf. Neh. 7:70–72).

Imitations of Athenian coins that circulated in Israel

Todd Bolen/www.BiblePlaces.com

Another Hebrew word (ʾ adarkōnîm) is used for coins in Ezra 8:27 and 1 Chronicles 29:7. The “drachma” was the Greek silver coin worth a day’s wage in the late fifth century B.C. Some have held that the coin intended here was the Persian daric, which was a gold coin, named after Darius I, who began minting it. The coin was famed for its purity, which was guaranteed by the king.34