Ezra 8:24

Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests,.... That were in company with him; so that it seems there were more than the two mentioned, Ezra 8:2 , very probably their families, or some of their brethren, were with them: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them; these men named were Levites, and not priests, Ezra 8:18 and therefore the copulative "and" must be supplied: and Sherebiah, &c. or with the twelve priests, Sherebiah, &c. and ten Levites more with them; so that the number of priests and Levites were equal, and in all twenty four.

Ezra 8:24 . Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests — With whom he might intrust the gifts that had been offered for the temple. Having committed the keeping of them to God, he also committed the keeping of them, under God, to proper men, whose business it should be to watch over and take care of them. Thus our prayers must always be seconded with our endeavours; the care of Christ’s gospel, his church and ordinances, must not be so left with him, but that it must also be committed to faithful men, 2 Timothy 2:2 .

Verse 24. - Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, etc. Our translators, following the Vulgate, have omitted to render the preposition לְ , which occurs in the Hebrew text before the name of Sherebiah, and have thus represented Sherebiah and Hashabiah as priests, whereas they were not priests, but Levites, as appears from vers. 18, 19. The true sense is given by the LXX. - "Then I assigned twelve of the chief priests to Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren; i.e. "then I appointed twelve chief priests to act with twelve chief Levites, of whom Sherebiah and Hashabiah were two, in the matter of the royal offering." Ezra seems to have considered, that as the gift of Artaxerxes was an offering to the house of God, it ought to be handed over at once to the custody of the ministers of religion, and not remain in secular hands (compare ver. 28). Ezra 8:24

24-32. Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests … and weighed unto them the silver, &c.—The custody of the contributions and of the sacred vessels was, during the journey, committed to twelve of the chief priests, who, with the assistance of ten of their brethren, were to watch closely over them by the way, and deliver them into the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. The treasures in silver and gold, according to the value of the Babylonian talent, amounted to about £515,000 sterling.

24–30 . ( b ) Provision for the custody of the votive gifts and offerings during the march 24 . twelve of the chief of the priests ] R.V. twelve of the chiefs of the priests . Literally ‘twelve of the princes of the priests’. The R.V. margin adds, In Nehemiah 12:24 , Levites . Sherebiah, Hashabiah ] R.V. even Sherebiah, Hashabiah . Marg. besides . The exact meaning is not very evident. ( a ) The A.V. follows the Vulgate, “et separavi de principibus sacerdotum duodecim, Sarabiam et Hasabiam et cum eis de fratribus eorum decem”. The preposition which in the original stands before ‘Sherebiah’ is then treated (as in Ezra 8:16 ) as the sign of the object. The objection to this is that Sherebiah and Hashabiah seem to have been Levites. ( b ) The LXX. translates the preposition as the sign of the dative, “And I assigned of the chiefs of the priests twelve unto Sherebiah, &c.” ( καὶ διέστειλα … τῷ Σαραΐᾳ ). The objection to be made to this rendering is that it represents the priests as placed in a subordinate position to those who were Levites. ( c ) 1Es 8:54 and Eresibia ( καὶ Ἐρεσιβίαν ) suggests another reading ( ו for ל ), “And I separated … twelve and Sherebiah, &c.” ( d ) The same result is obtained by the rendering of the R.V. margin, which is to be preferred, “I separated twelve of the chiefs of the priests, besides Sherebiah, Hashabiah and ten of their brethren with them”, i.e. 12 priests in addition to 12 Levites (Sherebiah, Hashabiah and their 10 brethren).

Accepting this rendering, we see that Ezra selected two groups of twelve, one of priests, the other of Levites, to act as guardians of the treasure, which agrees with Ezra 8:30 . The names of Sherebiah and Hashabiah are for some reason specially mentioned, either being the best known of the twenty-four, or perhaps alone recorded in the chronicle employed by the compiler. The only other explanation possible, that of the R.V. text, is that Sherebiah and Hashabiah were two of ‘the chiefs of the priests’ and not to be identified with the Levites of the same name in Nehemiah 12:24 . This gives a satisfactory meaning, according to which Ezra selected twelve ‘chiefs of priests’ to act as custodians. But (1) the clause ‘and ten of their brethren with them’, after the previous mention of the ‘twelve’, rather denotes a second group of the same number: (2) it is expressly stated in Ezra 8:30 , ‘the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver, &c.’, while according to the R.V. text the Levites were not of the number.

Then Ezra delivered the gold, the silver, and the vessels, which he had received as gifts for the temple, to twelve of the chiefs of the priests, and twelve Levites, that they might take charge of them during the journey, and bring them to Jerusalem. "I separated twelve of the chief of the priests," i.e., from the whole company of priests who were journeying with us. The following לשׁרביה does not suit the sense, whether we take the ל as a sign of the dative (lxx) or of the accusative (Vulgate, and several expositors). For Sherebiah and Hashabiah were neither priests nor chiefs of priests, but Levites of the race of Merari (v. 18), and cannot therefore be reckoned among the twelve chiefs of priests. If we take לשׁרביה for a dative, and translate, "I separated twelve of the chiefs of the priests for Sherebiah and Hashabiah," this would place the priests in a servile relation to the Levites, contrary to their true position. For לשׁרביה we must read ושׁרביה, and accept the reading of 1 Esdras, καὶ Ἐσερεβίαν, as correct. Ezra separated twelve chiefs of the priests and twelve Levites, for the purpose of delivering to their custody the gifts of gold, silver, and implements for the temple. Of the chiefs of the priests no names are mentioned; of the Levites, the two names Sherebiah and Hashabiah are given as those of heads of houses, with whom ten other Levites were associated.