Ezra 2:69

69 they gave by their mights (for) the costs of the work, one and forty thousand pieces of gold; and five thousand bezants of silver; and priests? clothes an hundred. (they gave out of their wealth for the costs, or the expenses, of the work, sixty-one thousand pieces of gold, and five thousand bezants of silver, and a hundred priests? garments.)

Ezra 2:69 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 2:69

They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the world
threescore and one thousand drachms of gold
These "darcemons or darics" were a Persian coin; one of which, according to Brerewood ^F11, was of the value of fifteen shillings of our money, and so this quantity of them amounted to 45,750 pounds; but according to Bishop Cumberland ^F12 they were of the value of twenty shillings and four pence of our money, and so came to upwards of 61,000 pounds; these everyone, according to his ability, put into the common stock or treasury for the work of building the temple; the Vulgate Latin ^F13 reads 40,000:

and five thousand pounds of silver;
and an Hebrew "mina", or pound, being of our money seven pounds, ten shillings, according to Brerewood {n}, amounted to 31,250 pounds: but others ^F15, reckoning a drachm of gold at ten shillings, and a mina or pound of silver at nine pounds, make the whole to amount only to 75,500 pounds of our money:

and one hundred priests' garments;
which, as they were laid up among treasures, so were necessary for the service of the temple.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 De Pret. & Ponder. Vet. Num. ch. iii. v.
F12 Scripture Weights & Measures, ch. 4. p. 115.
F13 Sixtus V. Lovain & MSS. in James ut supra. (Contrariety of Popish Bibles, p. 295)
F14 Ut supra, (De Pret. & Ponder. Vet. Num.) ch. iv. v.
F15 Universal History, vol. 10. p. 183, marg.

Ezra 2:69 In-Context

67 the camels of them, four hundred and five and thirty; the asses of them, six thousand seven hundred and twenty.

68 And of the princes of [the] fathers, when they entered into the temple of the Lord, that is, the place where the temple was, (or formerly had been,) which is in Jerusalem, they offered of their free will into the house of God, to build it (again) in his place; (And the leaders of the families of the tribes, when they went to the place in Jerusalem where the Temple of the Lord had been, offered their free will offerings to help rebuild the House of God, in its former place;)

69 they gave by their mights (for) the costs of the work, one and forty thousand pieces of gold; and five thousand bezants of silver; and priests? clothes an hundred. (they gave out of their wealth for the costs, or the expenses, of the work, sixty-one thousand pieces of gold, and five thousand bezants of silver, and a hundred priests? garments.)

70 Therefore (the) priests, and deacons of the people, and singers, and porters, and Nethinims dwelled in their cities, and all Israel in their cities. (And so the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people lived in Jerusalem, and the singers, and the guards, or the doorkeepers, and the Temple workers, lived in their cities, and all the other Israelites lived in their cities.)