Ezra 2

Nebuchadnezzar leveled Jerusalem and other cities of Judah in 586 BC. That was half a century before Persian King Cyrus freed Jews and others to go home in about 538 BC. Jews immediately begin returning home. Ezra’s ancestors, however, stayed. It wasn’t until another century passed before Ezra returned to Judah. He left Babylon in the spring of 458 BC.

Sorry ladies, but the census seemed to count only males. It was the patriarchal age. Nehemiah 7 reports the same information with some differences, especially in donations collected for rebuilding the Temple (verse 69; Nehemiah 7:69-70). Roughly half a ton of gold and three tons of silver in Ezra and only half that in Nehemiah.

Zerubbabel was a descendant of one of Judah’s last kings, Jehoiachin—from King David’s family dynasty. Persians appointed Zerubbabel governor of the new Persian province of Judah. Ideally, Zerubbabel would have been king of an independent Jewish nation of Judah. He shows up in the stories of Haggai and Zechariah as the top Jew in charge of rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple. He led the people even after Darius I became King of Persia. But then he suddenly disappeared. Some scholars guess the new Persian king removed him because Zerubbabel grew into a powerful Jewish ruler whom the people considered their rightful king.

The Hebrew word describing which Elam is aher. It can mean: other, different, or next. In a list of cities, it seems to refer to one of two or more cities named Elam. The “other” might otherwise mean an Elam family different than the man mentioned in verse 7.

Some use “Shamlai,” as it appears in Nehemiah 7:48.

At this time in history, Jewish leaders such as Ezra seemed to strongly embrace racial purity. They taught that Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem and Judah and the exile of the Jews was God’s punishment for Jews letting other cultures and religions intrude into their way of life, obeying God. People who couldn’t prove they were Jews may have been non-Jewish converts to the religion, some scholars speculate.

Location of these cities is unknown.

For more about what share of the meat priests got from sacrifices, see Leviticus 7.

The Hebrew names are Urim and Thummim, described as meaning “lights” and “perfection.” These were two objects never described in the Bible. They show up first in Exodus 28:30. They might have been stones, marked or colored in different ways. The high priest used them to answer questions with a “yes” or “no” or “wait.” It might have worked a bit like tossing two coins in the air and seeing how they land. Two heads for “yes.” Two tails for “no.” One of each for “wait.” It might seem foolish to make an important decision that way, such as whether to go to war. But the people of Israel seemed to believe that God controlled the objects the priests used. That doesn’t mean the Bible endorses making decisions that way today. As in, two heads up for a four-wheeler or two tails up for retirement savings.”

That’s 500 kilograms of gold and about 3 tons or 2.8 metric tons of silver. These numbers are different than those reported for the same donation in Nehemiah 7:69-70. Heads of the family gave 1,100 pounds of gold in Ezra, but only 375 pounds in Nehemiah. And they gave more than 3 tons of silver in Ezra, but half that in Nehemiah. This is the point at which Ezra and Nehemiah part company in the reporting on this caravan trip.

But it wasn’t called Israel anymore. It was the Persian province of Judah—one of many provinces in the land once called Israel. Other provinces in the former Israel included Samaria, Ashdod, Dor, and Gaza. They were all in territory that became known as Palestine.