Ezra 2:61-70

61 Three families of priests—Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai—also returned. (This Barzillai had married a woman who was a descendant of Barzillai of Gilead, and he had taken her family name.)

62 They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests.

63 The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the LORD about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.

64 So a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah,

65 in addition to 7,337 servants and 200 singers, both men and women.

66 They took with them 736 horses, 245 mules,

67 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

68 When they arrived at the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders made voluntary offerings toward the rebuilding of God’s Temple on its original site,

69 and each leader gave as much as he could. The total of their gifts came to 61,000 gold coins, 6,250 pounds of silver, and 100 robes for the priests.

70 So the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, the Temple servants, and some of the common people settled in villages near Jerusalem. The rest of the people returned to their own towns throughout Israel.

Ezra 2:61-70 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 2

This chapter contains a list of those that went up from Babylon to Jerusalem, of their leaders, their chief men, princes and priests, Ezr 2:1,2 of the people, described by their families, towns, and cities, and number of persons, Ezr 2:3-35, of the priests, Levites, and Nethinims, Ezr 2:36-58, and of those that could not make out their genealogy, people and priests, Ezr 2:59-63, and then the sum total of the whole congregation is given, Ezr 2:64, besides men and maidservants, singing men and women, and cattle of divers sorts, Ezr 2:65-67, and the chapter is closed with an account of the freewill offerings of the principal men towards the building of the temple, and of the settlement of the people in their respective cities, Ezr 2:68-70.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew 61,000 darics of gold, about 1,100 pounds or 500 kilograms in weight.
• [b]. Hebrew 5,000 minas [3,000 kilograms].