Ezra 2

1-70 List of the Returned Exiles

1-2 Introducing the list of those who return from Babylon to Jerusalem and Judah with the leaders of the group: Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. Jeshua is AKA Joshua the high priest; Nehemiah could be the cupbearer, author of the book; Gill says Mordecai could be Esther’s cousin, Matthew Henry states,

Nehemiah and Mordecai are mentioned here; some think not the same with the famous men we afterwards meet with of those names: probably they were the same, but afterwards returned to court for the service of their country.

The Geneva Study Bible’s comment:

b) Zerubbabel was chief captain and Joshua the high priest: but Nehemiah a man of great authority did not come now, but came after 64 years.
(c) This was not the Mordecai who was Esther’s kinsman.

3-35 List of Israelite people, numbered by family location.

36-39 Descendants of priests: Jedaiah, Immer, Pashhur and Harim.

40-42 Levites

43-54 Temple servants

55-58 Descendants of Solomon’s servants

59-63 Those who came, but whose genealogy could not be confirmed by the genealogical records. They would not be permitted to eat holy food until a priest consulted Urim and Thummim (apparently lost in the destruction of the city). See Exodus 28:30 re Urim and Thummim.

64-67 Total of the assembly: 42,360, besides 7,337 personal servants and 200 singers, 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, 6720 donkeys. That’s a lot of counting! I wonder how they did it.

68-69 On arrival, heads of families give freewill offerings of 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly robes to the building fund.

70 Priests, Levites and others settle in Jerusalem, others in their respective towns.