Ezra 2:64–69; Nehemiah 7:66–72; 1 Esdras 5:41–45
42,360: the total, the servants, the singers and the gifts
All three lists state the assembly as 42,360, more than the sum of the groups listed (29,818 in Ezra). Servants are 7,337 (1 Esdras 7,347); singers 200 in Ezra, 245 in Nehemiah. The library's Hebrew of Nehemiah lacks the verse with horses and mules. The gifts differ entirely.
Read Ezra 2:64–69; Nehemiah 7:66–72; 1 Esdras 5:41–45 in every edition
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Related (shared ancestry)
Gifts for the work
- Ezra 2:69
- 61,000 drams (darics?) of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, 100 priests' garments
- Nehemiah 7:70–72
- Governor: 1,000 drams of gold, 50 basins, 530 garments; fathers: 20,000 drams, 2,200 minas; people: 20,000 drams, 2,000 minas, 67 garments (41,000 drams in all)
- 1 Esdras 5:45 (KJV)
- 1,000 pounds of gold, 5,000 of silver, 100 vestments
Every witness, in order
Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
Original Ezra–Nehemiah
No original survives.
Same book in Hebrew tradition
Nehemiah 7:66–72 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.
forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore… seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and they had two hundred forty and five singing men and singing women… the Tirshatha gave… a thousand drams of gold
In the library's Hebrew (Leningrad) the horses-and-mules verse is absent, so 7:68 is the camels and donkeys; the KJV, like many Hebrew manuscripts, supplies it from Ezra 2:66.
Composed c. 2nd century BC (debated)
1 Esdras (Esdras A), library's Greek (Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Or tous les enfants d'Israël se montaient à quarante-deux mille trois cent quarante
1 Esdras 5:41. One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
כָּל־הַקָּהָל כְּאֶחָד אַרְבַּע רִבּוֹא אַלְפַּיִם שְׁלֹשׁ־מֵאוֹת שִׁשִּׁים… מָאתָיִם
the whole assembly together: four myriads, two thousand, three hundred sixty… (singers) two hundred
Ezra 2:64–65.
1611
1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
they were all in number forty thousand, beside menservants and womenservants two thousand three hundred and sixty. Their menservants and handmaids were seven thousand three hundred forty and seven
1 Esdras 5:41–42: the KJV's Greek divides 42,360 differently.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore… there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women… threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver
What changed, and why
The gap between 29,818 and 42,360 (12,542) has been explained by groups not itemized (including women, or the priests without genealogies), by the combination of several registers, or by copying. The agreement of all three versions on the total, despite disagreeing on the parts, suggests the total was fixed early. Singers "men and women" here are probably secular entertainers among the servants, distinct from the temple singers of 2:41.
What the evidence shows
- Ezra 2's groups add to less than its stated total.
- The library's Hebrew of Nehemiah 7 lacks the horses-and-mules verse.
- The difference is due to unlisted women and children.
Sources
- M. Segal, "Reconstructing the List of Returnees: A Text-Critical Solution to Ezra 2 || Nehemiah 7 || 1 Esdras 5," Textus 32 (2023) ↗
- H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- The Names of Those Who Came Home →Ezra 2 lists the returnees: eleven leaders headed by Zerubbabel and Jeshua; families and towns; priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants; and people who could not prove their ancestry, including priests barred until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise. The whole assembly is 42,360, with 7,337 servants and 200 singers. The same list appears in Nehemiah 7 and 1 Esdras 5, with many differences.
- Investigation: Who Returned? Lists, Land and Identity →Ezra speaks of "the children of the captivity" as if they were all Israel. But many Judeans stayed in Babylonia, many had never left Judah, and the land had other inhabitants. This investigation follows the waves of return, the numbers in the three versions of the list, who counted as a member, who did not, and the women and children of chapter 10 whose experience the book barely records.
- Returning Families and the Disputed Lists →With the wall complete, Nehemiah sets gatekeepers, singers and Levites, and puts Hanani and Hananiah over Jerusalem. The city is large but its people few. God moves him to gather the nobles and people to be registered, and he finds the register of the first returnees. Nehemiah 7:6–73 repeats the list of Ezra 2, with many differences in the numbers.