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
Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and the…
Ezra 9:8 And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy…
Nehemiah 7:66-69 The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,
Isaiah 10:20-22 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay u…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezra 2:64–end
Here is, I. The sum total of the company that returned out of Babylon. The particular sums before mentioned amount not quite to 30,000 (29,818), so that there were above 12,000 that come out into any of those accounts, who, it is probable, were of the rest of the tribes of Israel, besides Judah and Benjamin, that could not tell of what particular family or city they were, but that they were Israelites, and of what tribe. Now, 1. This was more than double the number that were carried captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, so that, as in Egypt, the time of their affliction was the time of their increase. 2. These were but few to begin a nation with, and yet, by virtue of the old promise made…
The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore--This gross amount is twelve thousand more than the particular numbers given in the catalogue, when added together, come to. Reckoning up the smaller numbers, we shall find that they amount to 29,818 in this chapter, and to 31,089 in the parallel chapter of Nehemiah [see Neh 7:66-69]. Ezra also mentions four hundred ninety-four persons omitted by Nehemiah, and Nehemiah mentions 1765 not noticed by Ezra. If, therefore, Ezra's surplus be added to the sum in Nehemiah, and Nehemiah's surplus to the number in Ezra, they will both become 31,583. Subtracting this from 42,360, there will be a deficiency of 10,777…
The Tirshatha - This is generally supposed to be Nehemiah, or the person who was the commandant; see Neh 8:9; Neh 10:1, for the word appears to be the name of an office. The Vulgate and Septuagint write it Atershatha, the Syriac and Arabic render it the princes of Judah. Some suppose the word to be Persian, but nothing like it of the same import occurs in that language at present. If, as Castel supposed, it signifies austerity, or that fear which is unpressed by the authority of a governor, it may come from ters, Fear, or tersh, Acid, the former from tarsidan, to Fear or Dread.
Should not eat of the most holy things - There was a high priest then, but no Urim and Thummim, these having been l…
The Church Fathers
The whole multitude as if one, etc. Note the grace of the early Church, in which the heart and soul of the multitude of believers was one (Acts IV), being found even in this group of exiles: so that even though there was such a large army, which almost completed the total of fifty thousand, and this army of different rank and condition, nonetheless the whole multitude, on account of the same faith and love, seemed as if it were one man, by the gift of Him who makes those of one mind live in a house. But the servants and handmaids returning from Babylon to Jerusalem hold the type of those in the Church who indeed strive, through the improvement of a better life, to overcome vices and ascend to the pinnacle of virtues; yet they are not sufficient by themselves to provide the way of a regular life, but rather need to be still restrained by the industry of those who have preceded them in Christ, and to be directed to the path of the desired truth. It continues:
"A canticle of David, when the house was built after the captivity." So far as the literal sense is concerned, the heading points to the time when the temple at Jerusalem is known to have been refurbished by Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel, after it had been leveled to the ground by a hostile band of Chaldeans. But since he says nothing of this kind in what follows, and since the headings of psalms are never at variance with their content, it remains for us to investigate it in the spiritual sense. A destroyed house is built up when a soul following the captivity of sin begins to return to an understanding of the truth through the generosity of the Lord. This house, which is the universal church in which Christ dwells, is always raised up on living stones, because every day it gains increase in building from its confessors and does not cease to be built up until the number of the predestined is attained at the end of the world. We must store this psalm in our minds as the second of those proclaiming the first and the second coming of the Lord.
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
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.…
Census — There are five instances of a census of the Jewish people having been taken. (1.) In the fourth month after the Exodus, when the people were encamped at Sinai. The number of men from twenty years old…
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).
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…
Zerubbabel — The seed of Babylon, the son of Salathiel or Shealtiel (Hag. 1:1; Zorobabel, Matt. 1:12); called also the son of Pedaiah (1 Chr. 3:17-19), i.e., according to a frequent usage of the word “son;” the…
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).
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 (a) these are they of the other tribes, who set up the altar on its bases, and gave money to the masons, &c. Ezra 3:1, this was a much larger number than were carried captive; see 2 Kings 24:14, but not to be compared with the number that came out of Egypt, Exodus 12:37. An Arabic writer (b) makes them 50,000, but wrongly.
(a) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 29. p. 86. (b) Abulpharag.…
The whole number of those who returned, their servants, maids, and beasts of burden. Comp. Neh 7:66-69. - The sum-total of the congregation (כּאחד, as one, i.e., reckoned together; comp. Ezr 3:9; Ezr 6:20) is the same in both texts, as also in 1 Esdras, viz., 42,360; the sums of the separate statements being in all three different, and indeed amounting in each to less than the given total. The separate statements are as follow: -
AccordingtoEzra AccordingtoNehemiah Accordingto1 Esdras Men of Israel 24,144 25,406 26,390 Priests 4,289 4,289 2,388 Levites 341 360 341 Nethinim and servants of Solomon 392 392 372 Those who could not prove their Israelitish origin 652 642 652 Total 29,818 31,089…
42,360 people: This number, which does not match the total of individuals (28,774) listed in 2:3-42, might include children. • The large number of servants and animals shows that some of the Jews who returned were wealthy.
Rashi on Ezra 2:64
The entire congregation together When they were all together with the priests, the Levites and the Nethinim, they amounted to this number; and the Children of Israel counted above were of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, and those missing from this number, which you will not find above, were of the other tribes. So it is explained in Seder Olam (ch. 29): “‘The entire congregation together was forty-two thousand etc.’ But if you add them up, they are only thirty thousand. Where are the thirteen thousand? They ascended from the other tribes.”
