XXXVI.
Come to ruin and perifh, and their cit be deftroyed where they dwelt.
¥. 16. But they mocked the meffengers of God, and defpifed bis words, 8c.] Which was the treatment Feremiah and Ezekiel frequently met with: and mifufed his prophets; impritoned them, as Micaiab and Jeremiah were: until the wrath of the Lord arofe againft kis people; which burned like fire in his breaft, and broke out to the confumption of them, till there was no remedy, Or healing of them 5 there was no reclaiming or recovering of them, no bringing them to repentance, and no pardon for mentioned, according to the prophecy of Yeremiah, and where the Fews continued until the reign of the kingdom of Perfia, ¥. 11 —21.
¥.1. Then the people of the land took Feboabaz the fon of Fofiah, &c.) Of whofe reign, and of the three following, Febsiakim, Feboiachin, and Zedekiah, and the account of them, from hence to the end of y¥. 13. what needs explanation’ or reconciliation, fee the notes on 2 Kings xxiii. 31—37. and XXIV. 5, 6, 8, 10, 17, 18, 19, 20.
¥.14. Moreover, the chief of the priefts, and oj the people, tranfereffed very much after all the abominations of the heathens, &c.] The priefts, and even the chief of them, who fhould have inftruéted the people in the duties of religion, and retained them in the pure worfhip of God, thefe were the ringleaders of idolatry, who led the people to commit all the idolatries of the heathens round about and the chap-|the Chaldees, 8c.] Nebuchadnezzar ter is concluded with the proclamation of Cyrus king of Perfia, and with which alfo the next book it was the rebellion. of Zedekiah,; w
¥. 17. Therefore he brought upon them the king of 3 and though hich was the aufe and occafion of his coming againft them, yet it was the Lord that moved him to it, and gave him fuccefs: who flew their young men with the fword, in the boufe of the fanffuary; in the temple,- where they took fanétuary, imagining that facred. place would protect them from the rage of jthe enemy, but it did not: and had no compafion eae man or maiden, old man, or him that Stooped or age; ipared none on account of age or fex, ibut put them all to the fword, or carried them icaptive: he gave them into bis hand; that is, the Lord delivered them into the hand of the king of Babylon, for their fins.
¥.18. And all the veffels of the boufe of God; great and fmall, &c.| All that were left; for fome had been carried away in both the reigns preceding: and the treafures of the houfe of the Lord, and the treafures of the king, and of bis princes; which them; and of the people, all ranks and degrees of them, were corrupted with them; this was their cafe in feveral of the preceding reigns, and became the fpoil and booty of the foldiers: a// thefe be brought to Babylon;
the vefiels were laid up and reftored when Cyrus took it; but the now a little before the deftruction of them: azd treafures were no doubt in part taken for his own polluted the houfe of the Lord which he had ballowed in Ferufalem;, the temple dedicated to his worfhip there; this they defiled, by fetting up idols in it.
¥.15. And the Lord God of their fathers fent to them by his meffengers, &c.) The prophets of the Lord, to admonifh them of their idolatries, and to reprove them for them, to warn them of the wrath of God that would come upon them on that account, unlefs they repented and reformed; thefe were at the beginning of their apoftacy, and were fucceffively continued unto this time, as Abijah, Elijah, and others, in the firft times of it; Amos, [aiah, and others, in the middle of it; and Fere- ufe, and the reft divided in the army.
¥.19. And they burnt the boufe of the Lord, &c.] The temple; of which, and what follows in this verfe, fee the notes on Fer. lii. 13, 14:
¥.20. And them that had efcaped from the fword, carried be away captive, &c.) The king of Babylon, or his general by his orders, excepting fome poor perfons left to till the land, fee Yer. lii. 14, 16. where they were fervants to him and his fons; his fon Evil-merodach, and his grandfon Belhazzar, fee Fer. xxvii. 7. and the note there: until the reign of the kingdom of Perfia; until that monarchy began, as it did upon the taking of Babylon by Cyrus king of Perfia. ‘This is the firft place we miah, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel, towards the clofe of meet with this name of Perfia in fcripture. The it: rifing up betimes, and fending; which is either to be underftood of the Lord, and as expreffive of his care and diligence, like the mafter of a family, folicitous for the good of it; or of the meffengers, the prophets, who made hafte to go or fend their prophecies and inftruGtions to reclaim the people; the phrafe is often to be met with in the prophecy of Yeremiah, fee ch. xi. 7. and the note there: decaufe he had compaffion on bis people, and on bis dwelling-place, being unwilling they fhould
Arabic writers differ about the origin of it; fome derive it from Pars the fon of Arfham ( Arphaxad) the fon of Shem; others from Pars the fon of Amur, the fon of Faphet, and others fay Pars was the fon of Elam, the fon of Shem, the fon of Noah?; but Bochart® feems to be righteft in the derivation _ of the word, who obferves from Xenophon * horfes were very rare in this country; and very few could ride them before the times of Cyrus, who taught his foot-foldiers to ride horfes; and hence it became came common, fo that none of the beft men of the land cared to be feen on foot; yea, he made a law, that it fhould be reckoned infamous, if any of thofe he had taught the art of riding, were feen to go on foot, though ever fo little a ways from this fudden change made in his time, the people were called Perfians, and the country Perfia; in the Arabic language, Pharas fignifying a horfe, and Pharis an horfeman; and the fame writer obferves, that hence it is that no mention is made of this in the name of Perfia, by Jfaiah and Feremiah; but by Ezekiel and Daniel, who were cotemporary with Cyrus; and in this book andthe following hi- {torical ones, which were wrote after the Babylonifh captivity, as their hiftory fhews; and that this book was, is clear from the preceding claufe, as well as from the three laft verfes.
y¥.21. Lo fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Feremiah, &c.| That is, the ews were fo long fervants in Babylon, as in the preceding verfe, accomplith Feremiak’s prophecy of it, ch. xxv. 12. and xxvii. 7. and xxix. 10. until the land had enjoyed her fabbaths, the fabbatical years, or feventh year-fabbaths, which, according to the law of the -Jand, was to reft from ‘being tilled, Lev. xxv. 4. which law had been negleéted by the \fews, and s1ow whether they would or no, the land fhould have reft for want of perfons to till it: for as ¢hreefcore and ten years, as threatened in Lev. xxvi; 34, 35. on which text Yarchi obferves, that at the deftruction of the firft temple the law concerning the {abbath,-or reft of the land, had been negleéted 430 years, in which fpace were 69 fab-. batical years; and, according to Maimonides sit was at the end of a fabbatic year that the city and. temple were deftroyed, and fo juft 70 years had been neglected, and the land was tilled in'them as country jin other years, and now it had reft that exact num-. ber of years; but of this we cannot be certain, though it is probable. ‘Sas
¥. 22, 23. Now mm the firft year of Cyrus king of Perfia, 8c.) Thefe two verfes are the fame with which the next book, the book of Ezra, begins, where they,will be explained; and thefe two books, the one ending, and the other beginning with the fame words, is a ftrong prefumption, that one-and the fame perfon, Ezra, is the writer of them both; to lor rather, asa learned ° writer conjeCtures, thefe two verfes are added by fome tranfcriber, who haying finifhed the book of Chronicles at ¥. 21. went on with the book of Bzra, without any ftop, but perceiving his miftake, broke off abruptly; for: {o it is plain thefe verfes conclude; however this fhows, as the fame writer obferves, that the book of Ezra followed that of the Obromicles, in the Hebrew copies, though it now does not..
long as foe lay defolate, foe kept fabbath, to fulfil
MDE HIS book in the Vulgate Latin| yout and Aradic verfions, is called the eye sirft book of Ezra; Nehemiah be- “8. ing reckoned the /econd; but with N7ig -the ews both were accounted yy, but one book *; in the Syriac EX “ms verfion, it is called the writing or book of Ezrathe prophet; and this title is given him, both by ews and Chriftians*; in the Arabic verfion, it is called the firft book of Ezra the prieft, fkilful in the law; and that he was a prieft, is clear; fince he was the fon of Seraiab the high-prieft, who was flain by Nebuchadnezzar, and the younger brother of ‘fofedeck, who fucceeded his father as high-prieft, and uncle to Fo/hua that fucceeded him; and he was alfo a ready fcribe in the law of Moj/es, fee ch.vii.1, 6,10,11, 12. That Ezra was the writer of this book, is believed by
‘TH IS chapter informs us of the proclamation of Cyrus king of Perfia, for the Fews to. return to their own country, and rebuild their temple, ¥. 1—4. and that upon it, the chief of them rofe up for that purpofe, whofe hands were ftrengthened and fupplied by thofe about them, ys 5, 6. and particularly by Cyrus, who gave orders that the vefleis belonging to the temple fhould be delired to them, ¥. 7—11.; |
¥. 1. Now in the firft year of Cyrus king of Perfia, &c.] Not in the firft of his reign over Perfia, for he had been many years king over that, and now had all the kingdoms of the earth given him, y. 2. but over Babylon, and the dominions belonging to it, which commenced with Darius upon the taking of Babylon, he reigned in all 30 years, as Cicero ® from a Perfian writer relates; or 29, according to Herodotus"; but in what year this was, is not certain; Africanus’ has proved, from various hiftorians, that it’was the firft year of the 55th Olympiad, perhaps about the 20th of Cyrus’s Perfian - government*; fee the note on Daa, x. 1, that
QDRE GS Roe NOUS RS ED) COE OIL the Fews *, and by the generality of Chriftians; only Huetius * thinks, that the fix firft chapters were written ‘by another hand, but his reafons are not fatisfactory; and it has been univerfally received as canonical by all; it agrees. with the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, and ferves to illuftrate them; it is of ufe for the continuation. of the facred hiftory, to point at the fulfilment of prophecies concerning the return of the Fews from captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple; and to give us an account of the ftate of the church in thofe times, the troubles and difficulties it met with, and what care was taken to. keep the tribes and families diftinct, that it might be known from whom the Meffiah fprung; this book contains an hiftory of 70 years, according to the calculation of bithop Ujher *; from A, M. 3468; to A. M. 3538.
the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Feremiah, might be fulfilled; which foretold that the Fews fhould return from their captivity at the end of 7o years, which fell on the firft of Cyrus, reckoning from the 4th of Febotakim, and the firft of Neduchadnezzar, fee Fer. xxv. 1,11, 12, and xxix. 10. the Lord flirted up the fpirit of Cyrus king of Perfia; who has the hearts of all men in his hands, and even of the kings of the earth, and can turn them as he pleafes; he wrought upomhim, put it into his heart, enlightened his mind, fhewed him what was right, and his duty to do, and preffed him to the performance of it; fo that he could not be eafy until he had done it, and he was made thoroughly willing; and even eager to do it: that be made a proclamation throughout all bis kingdom, and put ir alfo in writing 5 gave it in writing to his heralds to read and proclaim throughout all his. dominions: Saying 5 as follows.
¥. 2. Thus faith Cyrus king of Perfia, &c.} Of whom, and this edict of his, J/aiah prophtefied 200 years before he was born, Jf: xliv. 28. zhe Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of thé earth; many he had conquered before he took Babylon, and then the whole Babylonian monarchy fell into his hands. | Herodotus ' fays, he ruled over all Afia, Xenophon™ reckons up many nations that were under his government, Medes and Hyrcanians, Syrians, Affyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Carians, Phenicians, Babylonians, Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, Sace or Scythians, Papblagonians, Megadinians, and many other. nations, the Greeks inhabiting 4/a, and the Cyprians, and Egyptians; and elfewhere he fays", the borders of his kingdom were, to the eaft the Red-fea, to the north the BuxizePontus, to the welt Cyprus and Egypt, and to the fouth Ezbiopia. And the poffeffion of thefe kingdoms Cyrus aicribes, not to his own martial courage and fkill, but to the providence and difpofal of the God of heaven, which he feems to have had fome notion of: and be hath charged me to build him an houfe at Ferufalem, which is in Fudab,; in the prophecy of J/aiab, which, according to Foféphus°, he had feen and tead, and believed it to be a charge upon him, and a command unto him to rebuild the temple at Jeru/alem; however, to give leave for the rebuilding of it, and to encourage to it, and affift in it; an Arabic writer fays ’, that Cyrus married a fifter of Zerubbabel, and that it was at her requeft that the ews had leave to return; which is merely fabulous.
¥. 3. Who is there among you of all bis people, &c.] The people of God, the J/raelites, as well of the ro tribes, as of the two of Fudah and Benjamin for this edict was publifhed throughout all his dominions, where were the one as well as the other: bis God be with him; to incline his heart to go, to protect himin his journey, and fucceed and profper him in what he goes about: and let him go up to Ferufalem, whichis in fudab, and build the boufe of the Lord God of Ifrael, he is the God; the one only living and true God: which is in Ferufalem; who has been in former times, and is to be worfhipped there; though Aven Ezra fays, this is to be connected with the houfe of the Lord; as if the fenfe was, to build the houfe, that was in whofe prefence was neceffary both to direct in the — building of the temple, and to animate to it, and done when come to Ferufalem, ch. iil. 2, 3. with all them whofe /pirit God raifed to go up, to build the boufe of the Lord which is in Ferufalem; God who works in men doth to will and to do, wrought powerfully by his Spirit on their -hearts, inclined their minds, and made them willing to go up, and fet about this work; and fuch a divine, powerful, and efficacious operation upon them, was neceffary to engage them in it, fince the embaraf{ments, difficulties, difcouragements and objections were many: fome of them were well fettled, and had contracted a pleafing acquaintance with many of their neighbours, and indeed to moft of them it was their native place; and as forfudea and Feru alem, they knew nothing of, but what their fathers had told them; the way to it unknown, long and dangerous, at leaft fatiguing and troublefome to their wives and children; and‘fudea and Ferufalem defolate and in ruins, and in the hands of enemies, from whom they had reafon to expect trouble. _ ¥.6. And all they that were about them, &c.] Their neighbours, the Chaldeans: firengthened their hands with veffels of filver, with gold, with goods, and with beafis, and with precious things; which they eicher did of themfelves at their own motion, or by the direction and example of Cyrus, ¥. 4. and perhaps many of them to ingratiate themfelves into the favour of their new monarch: befdes all that was willingly offered: by the rich Jews, who thought: fit, at leait for the prefent, to remain in! Babylon. ¥. 7. And Cyrus brought forth the veffels of the houfe of the Lord, &c.] Or ordered them to be brought forth: which Nebuchadnezzar bad brought forth out of Ferufalem, out of the- temple there, when he took it and burnt it: and had put them in the houfe of his gods; in the temple of Belus at Ferufalem, or to be built there; and fo our verfion connects them, putting thofe words into. a parenthefis, be is God; but this is contrary to the ac- Babylon, fee 2 Chron. xxxvi. 7. Dan. i. 2. and y- 2, 3. by which means they were providentially preferved. ° | cents. y. 8. Even thefe did Cyrus king of Perfia bring
¥. 4. And whofoever remaineth in any place where he fojourneth, &c.| Is left behind, and can’t go up thro’ poverty, not having a fufficiency to bear his charges in his journey toYeru/alem: let the men of bis place belp bim with filver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beafts; with money to bear the expences of his journey, with goods to furnifh his houfe, or trade with, when he came to ¥udea, and with cattle to carry him, and his goods, and to the ground with, when he came thither; and the men exhorted to this are either the Gew/iles that dwelt in the cities where thefe poor Fews were, or the richer Jews, who chofe as yet not to go up until they faw how things would fucceed; and are therefore called upon to affift their brethren who had a@ will, but not ability: befides the will-offering for the houfe of God that is in Ferufalem, which they freely gave, and fent by them for the rebuilding forth by the hand of Mithredath the treafurer, 8ec.} Or Mithridates, a name common with the Perfians, from their god Mithras, the fun they worfhipped ¢ and numbered them unto Shefbbazzar prince of Fu- \dab; delivered them by tale‘to him;: who, accords ing to the Fewifh Rabbins, as Farchi fays, was Da- #ie/, who was fo called, becaufe he ftood in fix tribulations; but it does not appear that Damiel werit tilljup to Feru/alem with the captivity, as this man did, but remained at Babylon; rather, with Aden Ezra, it is beft by him to underftand Zerubbabel, who did go up, and was the prince of Fudab; and Cyras in his letter*to the governors of Syria, ex- _ prefsly fays, that he delivered the vefléls to Zerubdadel, the prince of the Yews. He had two names, Shefhbazzar, which fignifies he rejoiced in tribulation, and Zerubbadel, which fignifies either the feed of Babylon, being born there, or difperfed, or of the temple. a ftranger there, as others. i) Jenn Tete ¥. 5. Then rofe up the chief of the fathers o Fudah and Benjamin, &c.| Princes of thefe tribes, and heads of families in them, and of fome other tribes too, though chiefly of thefe, as appears from the veflels delivered, as follows: 30 chargers of gold, 1000 chargers of filver; thefe, according to Ben Melech, were veffels in which water was put to
1 Chron. ix. } and the priefts and the Levitess..
to fet the veffels in their proper places; and particularly to affift in the fetting up of the altar, and — to offer facrifices on it, which was the firft thine y¥. 9. And this is the number of them, &c.] Of
LS wath hands in; but rather they were, as ban Ezra obferves from the Ferufalem Talmud", vetfels in which they gathered the blood of lambs and bullocks flain for facrifices: 29 knives; which becaufe the handles of them were of gold or filver, were valuable, and might be very large knives, and what the priefts ufed in flaying and cutting up the facrifices. ¥.10. Thirty bafons of gold, &c.] Cups or difhes with covers, as the word feems to fignify; but, according to Farchi and Aben Ezra, they were veffels in which the blood of facrifices was received, and out of which it was fprinkled on the altar: Silver bafons of a fecond fort 410; perhaps leffer than the other, however not fo valuable, being of filver; in the apocryphal Ezra, ch. ii. 13. the number is 2410; and in the letter of Cyrus, before re-
. puis chapter coftains a- lift of thofe that went up from’ Babylon to Ferufalem, of their ferred to, it is 2400: and other vefféls 1000; which are not particularly mentioned; Yanius and Tremellius render the words, other veffels by thoufands, there being.near 3000 that are not defcribed, _ ¥. 1%, All the veffels of gold, and of filver, were 5400, &c.] Thole that are mentioned make no more than 2499, which dben Ezra thinks were the larger veffels; but this general fum. takes in great and f{mall, asin 2 Chrou. xxxvi. 18. in the letter of Cyrus, before mentioned, thefe vefféls are more particularly defcribed, and their feveral numbers given, which together amount to the exact'number in the text 5400; the apochryphal Ezra makes them 5469: all thele did Shefbbazzar bring up with them of she captivity, that were brought up from Babylon unto Ferufalem;.of. whom there is a large and particular account in the following chapter.
return again;,for that Nehemiah came.to Ferufalem in the 20th year of Artaxerxes, Neb. i. 1. and leaders, their chief men, princes and pricfts, ¥. 1, 2. of the people defcribed by their families, towns and cities, and number of perfons, ¥. 3—35. of the priefts, Levites,-and Nethinim, ¥. 36—58. and of thofe that could not make out their genealogy, people and priefts, ¥. 59-63. and then the fum total of the whole congregation is given, ¥. 64. befides men and maid-fervants, finging men women; and cattle of divers-forts, ¥.65—67.)year and the chapter is clofed with an account of the that Mordecai brought up ‘his niece in the city of Shujban, in the times of Abafuerus, is certain; and this with refpect to both, is denied by others‘, who take them to be different men of the fame name; and the fame writer is of opinion, that Seraiab, and who is called dzariah, Neb. vii. mois the fame with Ezra, who therefore muft, and did andjreturn, fince he went up to Yerufalem in the 7th of Artaxerxes, ch. vii. 1, 7, 8. as for the others, we know nothing mere of them than their free-will-offerings of the principal men tow the building of the temple, and of the fettlement of the people in their refpective cities, ¥. 68, 69,
_¥.1. Now thefe are the children of the province,
&c.] Either of the province of Babylon, as Aben Ezra, where they were either born, or had dwelt | for many years; or elfe rather, according to Farchi, of the province of Fudea, as it is called, ch, v. 8. once a flourifhing kingdom, but reduced to a province of the Babylonian monarchy, now in the hands of the Medes and Perfians, of which province they and their fathers originally were:. chat went out of the captivity, of thofe whith had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, who either in perfon, or in their parents, were carried captive by him, and who were the tribes of Fudah and Benjamin and they are only mentioned, becaufe they were the principal that returned, though there were fome of the other tribes.that alfo came up with them: and came again unto ferufalem and Fudab, every one unio bis city; that he dwelt in before, or names: the number of the men of the people of I/- rael; either of the principal of them betore named, or of the common people, which next follows.
¥. 3. The children of Parofh,.2172.] From hence, to. the end of ¥. 35. a lift is given of the captives that returned, defcribed by the families they were of, their anceftors from, whence they fprung, or the towns and cities to which they originally belonged,, and by their numbers; otherwile nothing more of them is known.,;
¥. 36. The priefis, &c.] An aecount of them is given in this, and the three following verfes, and only four families are mentioned; thofe of Fedaiah, Immer, Pafbur, and Harvim, and the number of them amounted to 4289; thefe, according to the Fews, were heads of four courfés, which were all that returned from Badylon*.
W¥.40. The Levites, &c.] Singers and porters, who are reckoned in this, and the two following verfes, whofe numbers were no more than 341; whereas in the times of David, they were 38,000, 1 Chron, XXill..3.
¥.43. The Nethinims, &c.] Suppofed by Aben Ezra and archi to be the Gibeonites, who were was now afligned to him by lot, fee Ned. xi. 1, given by Fofbua, as the word Nethinim fignifies, to the congregation, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water; but rather were thofe that were given by head of them, the prince of 3udab; and the, chief David to affift the Levites; of thefe is an account that came with him, are the 10 following; Fe/bua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilfhan, ‘Mijfpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanab, the firtt of thefe Fefoua, was Fofnua the high-priefty the fon of ofedeck, Hagg. i. 1. Dr. Lightfoot * thinks, that “Nebemiah is the fame, whofe name the following book bears; and that Mordecai is he who was uncle to Efther, fo Aben Ezra; but if fo, they muft both from hence to the end of y¥. 58, together with thofe who defcended from So/omen’s fervants, who feem to. be the remains of the Cauaanites in the land, whom Solomon made bond-fervants of, 1 Kings ix. 20, 2£. 2 Chron. ii. 17.. who, and their pofterity, became profelytes; or thofe fprung from men that were domeftic fervants of So/omon’s, and va- the Nethinim, and thefe together, were three hun-[ings, and of the peace-offerings and meat-offeri which belonged to the priettd, which the y¥.59. And thefe were they that went up from forbid hefe to eat of, who were rejected fron the
Tel-melab, Tel-barfa, &c.] Places in the land of Babylon, fee If. xxxvii. 12. Ezek. iii. 15. Addan, and Immer, but they could not foew their father’s houfe, and their feed, whether they were of I rae]; thefe were fuch that profefled the Fewifb religion, and went for ews in Babylon, but could not trace their pedigree, and tell what family were of, ‘who their anceftors, and where they priefthood: 7i/) there food up a pric with Urimand. _ Cherub, Thummim; as yet there was not any. prieft thac. had them; they were not to be found at the returm’ - from Babylon, the governor might hope re be found, and a pricft appear clothed with them, when it might be enquired of the Lord by them, they whether fuch priefts, before defcribed, might eat’ hadjof the holy things or no; but fince the “ews*:
lived in Judea, they had loft their genealogical tables, if they ever had any, and could not make it out, whether their parents were J/raclites, or profelyted Gentiles; or they were fuch who had been expofed, and taken out of the ftreets, and their parents unknown.
- ¥. 60. Lhe children of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Ne- ‘koda, 652.) Thefe, though their immediate parents, were known, yet by their being mentioned here, it feems as if they could not carry their genealogy farther, and make it clearly appear what was the houfe of their fathers, or what their family.
¥.61. And of ibe children of the priefts,8ec.] Who could not maké out their pedigree, for thofe that could are, mentioned before: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillat; how the latter came by this name, follows: which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their names this man married a woman that defcended from the famous Barzillai the Gileadite, in the times of David; and the priefthood being in difufe, and mean, and defpicable in Babylon, he chofe to take the name of his wife’s family, and pafs for a defcendant from that, and perhaps deftroyed, or at leaft neglected to take care of the genealogy of his own family.
¥. 62. Thefe fought their regifter among thofe that were reckoned by genealogy, &c.| To find their names written and regiftered there; for the Fews kept public regifters of their priefts, their defcent, marriages, and offspring, that it might be known who were fit, and who not, to officiate as fuch: but they were not found; their names were not there; nor any account taken of them: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priefibood; were not fuffered to attend at the altar, and offer facrifice, and enjoy the privileges belonging to that office.
y¥. 63. And the Tirfoatha faid unto them, &c.]
By whom Farchi underftands Nebemiah, and obferves, that their Rabdins fay, he was fo. called, becaufe the wife men allowed him to drink the wine of the Gentiles, he being cup-bearer:to the king; but Aben Ezra, with greater probability, takes it to be a name of honour and grandeur fufficient to carry their goods or baggage; fo copies of the Vulgate Latin read 636 horfes*)
in the Chaldee language, as a prince or governor;
and no doubt Zerubbabel is meant, the prince of they came to the houfe of the Lord that is at acknowledge, that thefe were one of the five things wanting in the fecond temple; it is all one, as the Talmudifis* exprefs it, as if it had been faid, until. the dead rife, or the Meffiah comes; and who ‘is come, the true high-prieft, and with whom are-the true Urim and 7 bummim, lights and ‘perfections to the higheft degree, being full of grace and truth; of the Urim and Thummim, fee the note on Exod. XXViii. 30.,
¥. 64. The whole congregation togethers was 42,360.] But the fums before given make no more, with Zerubbabel, and the 10 principal men, than 29,829, fo that there are more than 12,000 wanting; wherefore in anfwer to the: queftion; where are the 12,000? the Yews fay in their chro~ nology *, thefe are they of the other tribes, who fet up the altar on its bafes; and gave money to the mafons, ©. ch. iii. 1, 3, 7. this was a much larger number than were earried” captive; fee 2 Kings xxiv. 14, 15. Fer. lii. 28, 29, 30. but not to be compared with the number that ¢amte out of Egypt, Exod. xii. 37. An Arabic writer» makes them 50,000, but wrongly. - - SF RE
¥. 65. Befides their fervants and their maids, of whom there were 7337, &c.] This fhows, that the greater part. of thofe that returned were. of the poorer fort, fince there were fo few fervants that be longed unto them; thefe came not inte the above account: and there were among them 200 finging men, and finging women, among the fervants, who were kept by perfons of figure for their pleafure and: recreation; fee Hcc/. ii. 8. for that thele were fuch as were employed in facred fervice, is not fo lear; efpecially the latter; though fome conclude it from 1 Chron. xxv. 5,6. but rather they were fuch as were employed at marriages, feftivals, and funerals;' though archi thinks they were ee | the returning captives, to make them chearful; they travelled along, fee Jf Iv. 12. Peak
¥. 66, 67. Their horfes were 736, their mules 245, their camels 435, their affes 6720.) So that the far greateft part of them muft walk on foot, fince thefe can be thought to be little more tha
¥. 68. And fome of the chief of the fathers.
the Fews, the fame with Shefbbazzar, ch. i. 8. according to Guffetius”, this office was the fame with that of the king’s commiffary ina province, delegated to carry his orders, make them known, and| fee them put in execution; and that this name Tirfoatha, is the fame with Tithrauftes in Elian *; but that feems to be not the title of an office, but lem, &c,]- That is, when they came to the: where it formerly ftood, and where were: ruins of it: offered freely for the boufe of Gos et i# up in its place; to rebuild itu; where it formerly ftood; this they did befic free-will-offerings they brought with them Badylon. | | a the, perfonal name of a man that was a chiliarch:
¥. 69. They gave after their abil unto be 83, that they foould not eat of the moft holy things; as of the fhew-bread, and thofe parts of the fin-offerfure of the work, 61,000 drams of gold, 8zc.} 7 Darcemons or Darics were a Perfian
' © Ed, of Sixtus Y. and the Lova which, according to Brerewood*, was of the value of fifteen fhillings of our money, and fo this quantity of them amounted to 45,750 pounds; but according to bifhopCumberland'they wer: of the value of twenty fhillings and four pence of our money, and fo came to upwards of 61,000 pounds; thefe every one, according to his ability, put into the common ftock or treafury for the work of building the temple; the Vulgate Latin ™ reads 40,000: and 5000 pound of filver; and.an Hebrew mina, or pound, being of our money feven pounds, ten fhillings, according to Brerewood", amounted to 31,250 pounds; but others ° reckoning a’ dram of gold at 10 fhillings, and a mina or pound of fil-