EXPOSITION
THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO RETURNED FROM CAPTIVITY WITH ZERUBBABEL, AND THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS (Ezra 2:1-64). It has been argued that the whole of this chapter is out of place here, and has been transferred hither from Nehemiah (Nehemiah 7:6-73), 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 have been seriously maintained, since not only does Ezra declare the list to be a catalogue of those "which came with Zerubbabel" (verse 2), but Nehemiah himself warns us that it is "a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first" (Nell 7.5). The Jews, like other Semitic races, especially the Arabs, set great store by their genealogies; and, to secure a sound basis for these in the restored community, it was essential that a correct record should be kept of the families by which the state was re-established. Already there was a large number of Jews among the captives "which could not show their father's house, or their pedigree, whether they were of Israel" (verse 59). It was essential, according to Jewish ideas, that such ignorance should, at the least, be arrested, and not spread through the nation. Hence the elaborate genealogies with which the first Book of Chronicles opens (1Ch. 1-8), and hence also the present list.
The list may be divided into ten parts:—
1. Enumeration of the leaders (verse 2).
2. Numbers of those who returned, arranged according to families (verses 3-19).
3. Numbers of those who returned, arranged according to localities (verses 20-35).
4. Numbers of the priests, arranged according to families (verses 36-39).
5. Numbers of the Levites, arranged similarly (verses 40-42).
6. Families of the Nethinim (verses 43-54).
7. Families of "Solomon's servants" (verses 55-57).
8. Number of these last two classes together (verse 58).
9. Account of those who could not show their genealogy (verses 59-63).
10. General summation (verse 64).