Ezra 2:38

2:36-63 Those who undervalue their relation to the Lord in times of reproach, persecution, or distress, will have no benefit from it when it becomes honourable or profitable. Those who have no evidence that they are, by the new birth, spiritual priests unto God, through Jesus Christ, have no right to the comforts and privileges of Christians.

The priests,.... An account of them is given in this and the three following verses, and only four families are mentioned, those of Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, and Harim, and the number of them amounted to 4289; these, according to the Jews, were heads of four courses, which were all that returned from Babylon (u). (u) T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 1.

The province - Judaea was no longer a kingdom, but a mere "province" of Persia. "The children of the province" are the Israelites who returned to Palestine, as distinct from those who remained in Babylonia and Persia. Every one unto his city - That is, to the city whereto his forefathers had belonged. Of course, in the few cases where this was not known Ezra 2:59-62, the plan could not be carried out. Two other copies of the following list have come down to us - one in Nehemiah 7:7-69, and the other in 1 Esdras 5:8-43. All seem to have been taken from the same original document, and to have suffered more or less from corruption. Where two out of the three agree, the reading should prevail over that of the third.

36-39. The priests—Each of their families was ranged under its prince or head, like those of the other tribes. It will be remembered that the whole body was divided into twenty-four courses, one of which, in rotation, discharged the sacerdotal duties every week, and each division was called after the name of its first prince or chief. It appears from this passage that only four of the courses of the priests returned from the Babylonish captivity; but these four courses were afterwards, as the families increased, divided into twenty-four, which were distinguished by the names of the original courses appointed by David [1Ch 23:6-13]. Hence we find the course of Abijah or Abia (1Ch 24:10) subsisting at the commencement of the Christian era (Lu 1:5).

38 . Pashur ] This name does not occur among the 24 priestly houses. But a Pashur is mentioned 1 Chronicles 9:12 ; Nehemiah 11:12 as the son of Malchiah, and the name of ‘Malchiah’ is given to the fifth priestly house ( 1 Chronicles 24:9 ). Either Pashur the son of Malchiah, a prominent man in the court of king Zedekiah ( Jeremiah 21:1 ; Jeremiah 38:1 ), gave his name to the branch of the house of Malchiah which returned with Zerubbabel: or the whole priestly house of Malchiah became known by the name of its distinguished member, Pashur. Ezra 2:38

29 . Nebo ] not to be confused with the Moabite town ( Numbers 32:3 ; Numbers 32:38 ), to distinguish it from which it is perhaps called in Nehemiah 7:33 ‘the other Nebo’. Its situation has not been accurately determined. Some identify it with Nob, the well-known priestly town (see 1 Samuel 21:1 ; 1 Samuel 22:9 &c.), and in favour of this view it may be noticed that while Nob is mentioned along with Geba, Michmash, Ai, Bethel and Anathoth in Nehemiah 11:31-32 , and after Ai, Michmash, Geba, Ramah and Anathoth in Isaiah 10:28-32 , Nebo is not mentioned in either passage. The position of Nob is still uncertain. Nebo and Nob have been recognised in Beit Nuba, a village on a hill about 16 miles N. W. N. of Jerusalem, but certainly erroneously. The site must be looked for on, or near Mt. Scopus, on the N. of Jerusalem; by some identified with the modern village Isâwiyeh . Nebo is the name of a well-known Assyrian deity. The name of the place perhaps indicates that in a prehistoric time the worship of this god was maintained here (see note on ‘Anathoth’ Ezra 2:23 ). Ezra 2:29

The list of the priests is identical, both in names and numbers, with that of Nehemiah 7:39-42 . These are: The sons of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua 973 The sons of Immer 1052 The sons of Pashur 1247 The sons of Harim 1017 Total 4289 Jedaiah is the head of the second order of priests in 1 Chronicles 24:7. If, then, Jedaiah here represents this order, the words "of the house of Jeshua" must not be applied to Jeshua the high priest; the second order belonging in all probability to the line of Ithamar, and the high-priestly race, on the contrary, to that of Eleazar. We also meet the name Jeshua in other priestly families, e.g., as the name of the ninth order of priests in 1 Chronicles 24:11, so that it may be the old name of another priestly house. Since, however, it is unlikely that no priest of the order from which the high priest descended should return, the view that by Joshua the high priest is intended, and that the sons of Jedaiah were a portion of the house to which Joshua the high priest belonged, is the more probable one. In this case Jedaiah is not the name of the second order of priests, but of the head of a family of the high-priestly race. Immer is the name of the sixteenth order of priests, 1 Chronicles 24:14.

Pashur does not occur among the orders of priests in 1 Chronicles 24; but we find the name, 1 Chronicles 9:12, and Nehemiah 11:12, among the ancestors of Adaiah, a priest of the order of Malchijah; the Pashur of Jeremiah 20 and Jeremiah 21:1-14 being, on the contrary, called the son of Immer, i.e., a member of the order of Immer. Hence Bertheau considers Pashur to have been the name of a priestly race, which first became extensive, and took the place of an older and perhaps extinct order, after the time of David. Gershom of the sons of Phinehas, and Daniel of the sons of Ithamar, are said, Daniel 8:2, to have gone up to Jerusalem with Ezra, while the order to which they belonged is not specified. Among the priests who had married strange wives (Ezra 10:18-22) are named, sons of Jeshua, Immer, Harim, Pashur; whence it has been inferred "that, till the time of Ezra, only the four divisions of priests here enumerated had the charge of divine worship in the new congregation" (Bertheau). On the relation of the names in Ezra 2:36-39 to those in Nehemiah 10:3-9 and Nehemiah 12:1-22, see remarks on these passages.

This word pahath used to be reckoned among the indications of the late origin of the Chronicle. Now, however, it is known to be an ancient Semitic term. Comp. the Assyrian pihatu). Ono and Lod (1Chronicles 8:12) may be compared with Ezra 2:33, and the singular names Elam (1Chronicles 8:24) and Azmaveth (1Chronicles 8:36), with the “sons of Elam” (Ezra 2:7), and “the sons of Azmaveth,” or “Beth-azmaveth” (Ezra 2:24; Nehemiah 7:28). The name Bocheru (in 1Chronicles 8:38) has been classed with Gashmu (Nehemiah 6:6), but the latter is an Arab, and there is seemingly no MS. authority for Bocheru. Ishmael (1Chronicles 8:38) reminds us of “Ishmael son of Nethaniah, of the seed royal” (2Kings 25:25), who survived the fall of Jerusalem.