Ezra 2:59 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezra 2:59
And these were they which went up from Telmelah, Telharsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer: but they could not shew their father’s house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel:
father · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
house
בֵּיתbeit-
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
seed
וְזַרְעָ֔םve.zar.'Am
H2233
seed · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Israel
מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֖לmi.Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Nehemiah 7:61 And these were they which went up also from Tel-melah, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not shew their father’s house,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 2:36-63
Here is an account, I. Of the priests that returned, and they were a considerable number, about a tenth part of the whole company: for the whole were above 42,000 (Ezr 2:64), and four families of priests made up above 4200 (Ezr 2:36-39); thus was the tenth God's part - a blessed decimation. Three of the fathers of the priests here named were heads of courses, Ch1 24:7, Ch1 24:8, Ch1 24:14. The fourth was Pashur, v. 38. If these were of the posterity of that Pashur that abused Jeremiah (Jer 20:1), it is strange that so bad a man should have so good a seed, and so numerous.
II. Of the Levites. I cannot but wonder at the small number of them, for, taking in both the singers and the porters (Ezr…
The children of Solomon's servants--either the strangers that monarch enlisted in the building of the temple, or those who lived in his palace, which was deemed a high honor.
Adam Clarke on Ezra 2:55
The children of Solomon's servants - The Nethinim, and others appointed to do the meaner services of the holy house.
John Gill on Ezra 2:59
And these were they that went up from Telmelah, Telharsa,.... Places in the land of Babylon, see Isaiah 37:12.
Cherub, Addan, and Immer; but they could not show their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel; these were such that professed the Jewish religion, and went for Jews in Babylon, but could not trace their pedigree, and tell what family they were of, who their ancestors, and where they had lived in Judea; they had lost their genealogical tables, if they ever had any, and could not make it out, whether their parents were Israelites or proselyted Gentiles; or they were such who had been exposed, and taken out of the streets, and their parents unknown.
Keil & Delitzsch on Ezra 2:59-60
Those who went up with, but could not prove that they pertained to, the nation of Israel. Comp. Neh 7:61 and Neh 7:62. - Three such families are named, consisting of 652, or according to Nehemiah of 642, persons. These went up, with those who returned, from Tel-melah (Salthill) and Tel-harsa (Thicket or Forest Hill), names of Babylonian districts or regions, the situations of which cannot be ascertained. The words also which follow, אמּר אדּן כּרוּב, are obscure, but are certainly not the names of individuals, the persons who went up not being specified till Ezr 2:60. The words are names of places, but it is uncertain whether the three are used to express one or three places. In favour of th…
The Church Fathers
And those who came up from Thelmela, etc. In this place, even according to the letter, the grace of God, by which also in the Old Testament the Gentiles were received into salvation, is shown. While a catalogue of those who clearly belonged to the people of God has been listed, some of those whose origins whether from Israel or from proselytes were unknown, are also included, and their number is mentioned among the children of Israel. Even though due to the long separation of their fathers from the temple or the people of God, they couldn't specify how they belonged to them; nevertheless, since they had ascended from captivity when general permission was granted, and hastened with those who unquestionably descended from the seed of Israel to build the temple of God, they were accepted by them as companions. For they were glad to have them as brothers and acquaintances due to the common love of faith and religion, although because of the uncertainty of their carnal origins it seemed they recognized them less. Moreover, in the spiritual sense, among penitents who, liberated from the captivity of vices, ascend to build the house of the Lord either in themselves or in others, there are often some bound by graver sins who appear so estranged from all acts of piety and chastity that none of the goodness and religion they had received from holy teachers seems to remain in them. About these, what else can be said than that they cannot indicate whether they were born from Israel, that is, from the holy Church by believing; for evidently, by sinning, they have become as though they had never belonged to the holy seed; however, through repentance, they sometimes correct themselves and turn to a better life, so that their number is rightfully inscribed among the true Israelites, in whom there is no deceit, in heaven (John 1).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Addan — (strong or stony), one of the places from which some of the captivity returned with Zerubbabel to Judea who could not show their pedigree as Israelites. (Ezra 2:59) Called Addon (Nehemiah 7:61)
Captivity — (1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19, 20; 1 Chr.…
Cherub — Plural cherubim, the name of certain symbolical figures frequently mentioned in Scripture. They are first mentioned in connection with the expulsion of our first parents from Eden (Gen. 3:24). There…
Immer — Talkative. (1.) The head of the sixteenth priestly order (1 Chr. 24:14). (2.) Jer. 20:1. (3.) Ezra 2:37; Neh. 7:40. (4.) Ezra 2:59; Neh. 7:61. (5.) The father of Zadok (Neh. 3:29).
Ozias — Son of Joram (Matt. 1:8); called also Uzziah (2 Kings 15:32, 34).
Sadoc — Just, mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord (Matt. 1:14).
Tel-haresha — Hill of the wood, a place in Babylon from which some captive Jews returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:59; Neh. 7:61).
Telharsa, Or Telharesha — (hill of the artificer), one of the Babylonian towns or villages mentioned in (Ezra 2:59; Nehemiah 7:61) along with Tel-melah and Cherub, probably in the low country near the sea.
Temple, the Second — After the return from captivity, under Zerubbabel (q.v.) and the high priest Jeshua, arrangements were almost immediately made to reorganize the long-desolated kingdom. The body of pilgrims, forming…
Addan · Al — Al
Cherub · Name of a place or per — Name of a place or per
Some returnees believed in Israel’s God but had no genealogical records to prove that they were Israelites. Without this information, the other Israelites did not know whether to treat them as brothers and intermarry with them or to treat them as outsiders. The genealogies in 1 Chr 1–9 illustrate how carefully many family histories were kept.
Rashi on Ezra 2:59
And these were the ones who ascended from Tel-Mela, etc. And what incident happened to them? They could not tell....
and their children [i.e., the children] of their fathers, because they lost their genealogical records and did not know if they were Israelites.
Tel-Harsa · A place in Babylonia — A place in Babylonia
Tel-Melah · A place in Babylonia — A place in Babylonia
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
