The Names of Those Who Came Home

"Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity… and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city; which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah."

Families are counted by ancestor: "The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two. The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two. The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five…" Then by town: Bethlehem, Netophah, Anathoth, Azmaveth, Kirjath-arim, Chephirah and Beeroth, Ramah and Gaba, Michmas, Bethel and Ai, Nebo, Magbish, Harim, Lod, Hadid and Ono, Jericho, Senaah.

Then the temple personnel: four priestly families (Jedaiah, Immer, Pashur, Harim) totaling 4,289; only 74 Levites; 128 singers, sons of Asaph; 139 gatekeepers; and the Nethinim (temple servants) and the children of Solomon's servants, 392 together.

Some "could not shew their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel": 652 of them. Among the priests, the sons of Habaiah, Koz and Barzillai "sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim."

"The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore, beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women." They bring 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys, and the chief fathers give 61,000 drams of gold, 5,000 pounds of silver and 100 priests' garments.

Families and towns

Two kinds of lists are joined. Verses 3–20 count families by ancestor (Parosh, Pahath-moab "of the children of Jeshua and Joab," Elam, Zattu, Zaccai, Bani, Bebai, Azgad, Adonikam, Bigvai, Adin, Ater of Hezekiah, Bezai, Jorah, Hashum, Gibbar). Verses 21–35 count by town, mostly in Benjamin and the hills north of Jerusalem: Bethlehem, Netophah, Anathoth, Azmaveth, Kirjath-arim, Chephirah, Beeroth, Ramah, Gaba, Michmas, Bethel, Ai, Nebo, Magbish, "the other Elam," Harim, Lod, Hadid, Ono, Jericho and Senaah (3,630, the largest group, location unknown). The towns fit the small Persian province around Jerusalem. Hebron and the south are absent, consistent with the Edomite (later Idumean) presence there.

Temple personnel

Priests outnumber Levites more than fifty to one, a striking imbalance that Ezra will meet again (8:15). Some Nethinim names look foreign (Mehunim, Nephusim, Sisera), suggesting that temple servants included families of non-Israelite origin who had long since joined Israel's worship.

The Tirshatha, and Urim and Thummim

Tirshatha is a Persian title, probably "the one to be respected," used of a governor (Nehemiah is called Tirshatha in Nehemiah 8:9; 10:1). Who held it here is not said. The verse says the barred priests must wait "till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim": that is, the question was left for a future decision by the sacred lots. It does not show that the lots were in use at the time; Jewish tradition held that they were lost with the First Temple. The Vulgate renders the phrase "a learned and perfect priest"; 1 Esdras 5:40 "a high priest clothed with doctrine and truth."

Barzillai

One priestly family took its name from an ancestor who married "one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite." The famous Barzillai who helped David (2 Samuel 17:27; 19:31–39) may be meant, but Ezra does not say so, and the site does not treat the link as proven.

Women and the unnumbered

Only men's ancestral houses are counted, yet the totals include "singing men and singing women" and 7,337 male and female servants. Wives, daughters and children are mostly invisible in the list, though 1 Esdras 5:1 says the families went up "with their wives and sons and daughters."

Three versions of one list

Ezra 2, Nehemiah 7:6–73 and 1 Esdras 5:4–46 give the same list. Nearly every number differs somewhere, yet all three give the same total, 42,360 (in the library texts checked). The site's sums, from the KJV text of each:

The library's Greek of 1 Esdras (Giguet's French) gives very different family numbers and a total of 42,340, and should be checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition before any of its figures are relied on.

Why 42,360 exceeds the parts

• Unlisted groups: the total includes people not counted by family, for example the priestly families who could not prove descent (no number), or women and children counted in the whole but not in the family lines (a minority view, since the family totals already seem to count persons).
• Different record layers: the list combines several registers from different times (returns under Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel and later), and the total came from a different register than the itemized figures.
• Copying: numbers written in words or numerals were easily miscopied; Michael Segal (2023) proposes a text-critical reconstruction explaining the three versions from a common earlier list. His proposal is a published hypothesis, not a reading found in any surviving manuscript.