Ezra 2:2

2 They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the Israelite people:

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 Now these were the people of the province who came from those captive exiles whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia; they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, all to their own towns.
2 They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the Israelite people:
3 the descendants of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two.
4 Of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two.
5 Of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.