Ezra 2:2

2 The leaders of the Jews included Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah and Reelaiah. They also included Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah. Here is a list of the men of Israel who returned home.

Ezra 2:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 2:2

Which came with Zerubbabel
The head of them, the prince of Judah; and the chief that came with him are the ten following; Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah; the first of these, Jeshua, was Joshua the high priest, the son of Josedech, ( Haggai 1:1 ) . Dr. Lightfoot F19 thinks that Nehemiah is the same, whose name the following book bears; and that Mordecai is he who was uncle to Esther, so Aben Ezra; but, if so, they must both return again; for that Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, ( Nehemiah 1:1 ) , and that Mordecai brought up his niece in the city of Shushan, in the times of Ahasuerus, is certain; and this, with respect to both, is denied by others F20, who take them to be different men of the same name; and the same writer is of opinion that Seraiah, and who is called Azariah, ( Nehemiah 7:7 ) is the same with Ezra, who therefore must and did return, since he went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, ( Ezra 7:1 Ezra 7:7 Ezra 7:8 ) , as for the others, we know nothing more of them than their names:

the number of the men of the people of Israel;
either of the principal of them before named, or of the common people, which next follows.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 Works, vol. 1. p. 127. So Broughton, Works, p. 258.
F20 Vid. Rainold. de Libr. Apocryph. Praelect. 111, 117, 148.

Ezra 2:2 In-Context

1 Nebuchadnezzar had taken many Jews away from the land of Judah. He had forced them to go to Babylonia as prisoners. Now they returned to Jerusalem and Judah. All of them went back to their own towns. Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia.
2 The leaders of the Jews included Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah and Reelaiah. They also included Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah. Here is a list of the men of Israel who returned home.
3 There were 2,172 from the family line of Parosh.
4 There were 372 from Shephatiah.
5 There were 775 from Arah.
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