Ezra 5:10

10 "We also asked them their names so as to inform you, and that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head.

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 "Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with huge stones, and beams are being laid in the walls; and this work is going on with great care and is succeeding in their hands.

9 "Then we asked those elders and said to them thus, 'Who issued you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure?'

10 "We also asked them their names so as to inform you, and that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head.

11 "Thus they answered us, saying, 'We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.

12 'But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.