Ezra 5:10

10 And we asked them their names, to declare to thee, so as to write to thee the names of their leading men.

Ezra 5:10 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 5:10

We asked their names also
The names of the elders, those that set men about this work:

to certify that we might write the names of the men that were the chief
of them;
take the names of them in writing, that they might with certainty acquaint the king who they were, and that if it was necessary they might be called to an account for what they were doing.

Ezra 5:10 In-Context

8 Be it known to the king, that we went into the land of Judea, to the house of the great God; and it is building with choice stones, and they are laying timbers in the walls, and that work is prospering, and goes on favorably in their hands.

9 Then we asked those elders, and thus we said to them, Who gave you the order to build this house, and to this preparation?

10 And we asked them their names, to declare to thee, so as to write to thee the names of their leading men.

11 And they answered us thus, saying, We the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we building the house which had been built many years before this, and a great king of Israel built it, and established it for them.

12 But after that our fathers provoked the God of heaven, he gave them into the hands of Nabuchodonosor the Chaldean, king of Babylon, and he destroyed this house, and carried the people captive to Babylon.