Ezra 8:24

24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebi'ah, Hashabi'ah, and ten of their kinsmen with them.

Ezra 8:24 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 8:24

Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests
That were in company with him; so that it seems there were more than the two mentioned, ( Ezra 8:2 ) , very probably their families, or some of their brethren, were with them:

Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them;
these men named were Levites, and not priests, ( Ezra 8:18 Ezra 8:19 ) and therefore the copulative "and" must be supplied:

and Sherebiah
or with the twelve priests, Sherebiah, &c. and ten Levites more with them; so that the number of priests and Levites were equal, and in all twenty four.

Ezra 8:24 In-Context

22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way; since we had told the king, "The hand of our God is for good upon all that seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all that forsake him."

23 So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebi'ah, Hashabi'ah, and ten of their kinsmen with them.

25 And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered;

26 I weighed out into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth a hundred talents, and a hundred talents of gold,