Ezra 2:42

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.

Verse 42. - The porters . Six families of doorkeepers returned; three of which bear old names, those of Shallum, Talmon, and Akkub ( 1 Chronicles 9:17 ), while the other three have names that are new to us. One hundred and thirty-nine . The smallness of this and the two preceding numbers is remarkable. While the returning priests numbered 4289, the returning Levites of all classes were no more than 341 (350, Nehemiah). It would seem as if some jealousy of the priests, like that which animated Korah and his followers ( Numbers 16:1-10 ), must have grown up during the captivity (comp. below, Ezra 8:15 ). Ezra 2:42

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).

CHAPTER 2 Ezr 2:1-70. Number of the People That Turned. 1. children of the province—that is, Judea (Ezr 5:8), so called as being now reduced from an illustrious, independent, and powerful kingdom to an obscure, servile, tributary province of the Persian empire. This name is applied by the sacred historian to intimate that the Jewish exiles, though now released from captivity and allowed to return into their own land, were still the subjects of Cyrus, inhabiting a province dependent upon Persia. came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city—either the city that had been occupied by his ancestors, or, as most parts of Judea were then either desolate or possessed by others, the city that was rebuilt and allotted to him now.The number of the people that returned, Ezra 2:1-35; and of the priests, Ezra 2:36-39; of the Levites, Ezra 2:40; of the singers, Ezra 2:41; of the porters, Ezra 2:42; of the Nethinims, Ezra 2:43-54; and of Solomon’s servants, Ezra 2:55-60. Concerning the priests that could not show their pedigree, Ezra 2:61-6:3. The whole number of them and their substance, Ezra 2:64-67. Their oblations, Ezra 2:68-70. The children of the province, i.e. the Israelites, called the children of the province, either, 1.

42 . the porters ] so also R.V.; although it is noteworthy that having substituted ‘door-keepers’ for ‘porters’ (A.V.) in 1 Chronicles 26:1 , the R.V. has not for the sake of consistency made a similar alteration here, the word in Hebrew being the same in both instances. The door-keepers mentioned here and in 1 Chronicles 26:1-19 are Levites: possibly the name ‘porters’ was preserved to distinguish the Levitical attendants from the priestly door-keepers (or more literally ‘keepers of the threshold’) mentioned in 2 Kings 25:18 , Jeremiah 35:4 . Compare Psalm 84:10 ‘I had rather be a doorkeeper in (marg.: ‘stand at the threshold of’) the house of my God’. The names are clearly the names of households or courses, since Shallum, Akkub and Talmon are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:17 , and Akkub and Talmon are referred to in Nehemiah 11:19 .

## Other vessels a thousand: he speaks of vessels of a middle size; for great and small were five thousand four hundred, as it follows here. Or, as some render it, other vessels by thousands: they were not distinctly numbered according to their various forms and uses, but were promiscuously put together by thousands. ## The number of the people that returned, #Ezra 2:1-35 ; and of the priests, #Ezra 2:36-39 ; of the Levites, #Ezra 2:40 ; of the singers, #Ezra 2:41 ; of the porters, #Ezra 2:42 ; of the Nethinims, #Ezra 2:43-54 ; and of Solomon’s servants, #Ezra 2:55-60 . Concerning the priests that could not show their pedigree, #Ezra 2:61-6:3 . The whole number of them and their substance, #Ezra 2:64-67 . Their oblations, #Ezra 2:68-70 . ## Ver. 1. The children of the province, i.e. the Israelites, called the children of the province , either, ## 1. Of Babylon, of which province we oft read, as #Ezra 7:16 Daniel 2:48 Daniel 3:1,2,30 , called the province by way of eminency; of which they are called children, because of their birth and habitation in it for a long time, it being usual to call the inhabitants of any city or place its children. Or rather, ## 2. Of Judea, called a province , #Ezra 5:8 .