Ezra 5:10

10 We also asked them their names to make them known to you, that we might write down the {name of their leaders}.

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 May it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, the house of the great God. It is being built with stone blocks and timber is being put in the walls. This work is being done with diligence and is making progress in their hands.

9 Then we asked those elders and said this to them, 'Who issued forth to you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?'

10 We also asked them their names to make them known to you, that we might write down the {name of their leaders}.

11 And this is the answer they returned to us: 'We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house that was built formerly many years ago, [which] a great king of Israel had built and finished.

12 But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "name of the men at their head"