Ezra 8:2

Of the sons of Phinehas; Gershom: of the sons of Ithamar; Daniel,.... Not Daniel the prophet, he was of the royal blood, and of the tribe of Judah; this was a priest, a descendant of Ithamar, as Gershom was of Eleazar in the line of Phinehas: of the sons of David; Hattush; perhaps the same with him in 1 Chronicles 3:22, who was a descendant of David the king; these three men seem to have come alone without any of their families, at least they are not mentioned, nor their numbers given, as the rest that follow be.

(2, 3) According to 1Chronicles 3:22 , Huttush was a descendant of David, and grandson of Shechaniab. The difficulty of the text therefore may probably be best solved by punctuating thus: “Of the sons of David. Hattush of the sons of Shechaniab. Of the sons of Pharosh, Zechariah.”

Punctuate as follows: Ezra 8:2. ... of the sons of David, Hattush of the sons of Shechaniah. Ezra 8:3. Of the sons of Pharosh, Zechariah .... Hattush, the descendant of David, was the grandson of Shechaniah (see marginal reference). Most of these names Ezra 8:2-14 occur also as those of heads of families in the list of the Jews who returned with Zerubbabel Ezra 2:3-15. The Septuagint and Syriac versions supply omissions in Ezra 8:5, Ezra 8:10.

CHAPTER 8 Ezr 8:1-14. Ezra's Companions from Babylon. 1. this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon—The number given here amounts to 1754. But this is the register of adult males only, and as there were women and children also (Ezr 8:21), the whole caravan may be considered as comprising between six thousand and seven thousand.

2 . The Priestly and Royal houses. The numbers from these houses are not given. They are placed in a position of honour at the head of the list. Of the sons of Phinehas; Gershom ] R.V. Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. The punctuation is corrected throughout 2–14. The family of Phinehas (son of Eleazar, son of Aaron) is represented by Gershom. To his ‘house’ Ezra must have belonged (cf. Ezra 7:1-5 ). Daniel ] represented the line or family of Ithamar, Aaron’s younger son, and gave his name to a house (see Nehemiah 10:6 ). His name appears as Gamael in 1Es 8:29 . From this mention of “the sons of Ithamar we gather that the priesthood was not, as Ezekiel required ( Ezekiel 43:19 , Ezekiel 45:15 ) limited to the line of Zadok. That Gershom and Daniel were not the only two priests, but heads of two ‘fathers’ houses’, is shown by Ezra 8:24 . of the sons of David; Hattush ] According to 1 Chronicles 3:22 , the words “Of the sons of Shechaniah” ( Ezra 8:3 ) belong to the genealogy of Hattush. “And the sons of Shechaniah (query, Zerubbabel’s grandson); Shemaiah: and the sons of Shemaiah; Hattush and Igal.” Hattush was therefore the grandson of Shechaniah, and (?) the great-great-grandson of Zerubbabel.

The line of David was represented by the house of Shechaniah, which was represented by Hattush. 1Es 8:29 has “Of the sons of David, Lettus the son of Sechenias”, which in conjunction with the rest of the list seems to show that our text should run “Of the sons of David, Hattush, the son of Shechaniah”. This Hattush of the lineage of David must therefore not be confounded with the priest of the same name mentioned Nehemiah 10:4 ; Nehemiah 12:2 . Ezra 8:2

Priests and descendants of David. Of priests, Gershom of the sons of Phinehas, and Daniel of the sons of Ithamar. Gershom and Daniel are the names of heads of priestly houses, and "sons of Phinehas and sons of Ithamar" designations of races. Phinehas was the son of the high priest Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and Ithamar a younger son of Aaron, 1 Chronicles 6:4 and 1 Chronicles 6:3 . This does not signify that only the two priests Gershom and Daniel went up with Ezra; for in Ezra 8:24 he chose twelve from among the chief of the priests, who went up with him, to have charge of the gifts (Bertheau). The meaning is, that Gershom and Daniel, two heads of priestly houses, went up, and that the house of Gershom belonged to the race of Phinehas, and that of Daniel to the race of Ithamar. A Daniel is named among the priests in Nehemiah 10:7 , but whether he is identical with the Daniel in question does not appear. Of the sons (descendants) of David (the king), Hattush, as head of a house. A Hattush, son of Hashabniah, occurs Nehemiah 3:10 , and a priest of this name Nehemiah 10:5 and Nehemiah 12:2 . Hattush also holds the first place among the sons of Shemaiah enumerated 1 Chronicles 3:22 , who probably were among the descendants of David.