1 Now these are the people of the province [of Judah] who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had deported to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city. 2 These came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah…36 The priests: the sons of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, 973; 37 the sons of Immer, 1,052; 38 the sons of Pashhur, 1,247; 39 the sons of Harim, 1,017. 40 The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74…58 All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon’s servants totaled 392.~
Ezra 2:1-58 (AMP)
More details
These kinds of details boost our confidence in the Word. If you read the whole chapter, you’ll see the names and number of the sons of every father – as with the priests we listed in the above verse selection. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that God doesn’t care about the details!
Priests, Levites and Temple Servants
Due to their primary role in society, and since they (and all Levites) were not counted with the rest of the Jews, the priests are listed separately as are the Levites. We’ll see tomorrow about how seriously they take this. There is a special count of the temple servants and sons of Solomon’s servants.
A few other notes
- We see Zerubbabel listed first (and no mention of Sheshbazzar) which could be more reason to believe Zerubbabel was the same as Sheshbazzar.
- Nehemiah. This is not the same as the author of Nehemiah per AMP Bible notes.
- Mordecai. This is not the same as the Mordecai in Esther per AMP Bible notes.
Keeping it short today.
