The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred [and] threescore. But the sums before given make no more, with Zerubbabel, and the ten principal men, than 29,829, so that there are more than 12,000 wanting; wherefore, in answer to the question, where are the 12,000?
the Jews say in their chronology these are they of the other tribes, who set up the altar on its bases, and gave money to the masons, &c. Ezr 3:1, this was a much larger number than were carried captive; see 2Ki 24:14, but not to be compared with the number that came out of Egypt, Ex 12:37.
An Arabic writer makes them 50,000, but wrongly. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 29. p. 86. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. Dyn. 5. p.