Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty.

Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number, I say, of the men of the people of Israel was this;

And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,

These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.

And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.

28:30 Urim and the Thummim. The mysterious Urim and Thummim, set in the twelve-jeweled breastplate of the high priest (Leviticus 8:8), evidently had something to do with recognizing God’s will for the twelve tribes in their wanderings and conflicts (Note Numbers 27:21; Deuteronomy 33:8; I Samuel 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Nehemiah 7:65). Exactly what they were and how they functioned has been the object of much speculation; if their meaning was something like “lights and perfections,” as most scholars believe, they must have been in some way a medium of special divine guidance during this strategic period in God’s plan for His people Israel.

8:3 thirty thousand. Since only twelve thousand men were in Ai (Joshua 8:25), it seems that such a large force may have been unnecessary, especially when augmented by five thousand more lying in ambush between Bethel and Ai (Joshua 8:12), and another large army led by Joshua on another side of the city (Joshua 8:13). It may be that Joshua did not know the number of armed men in Ai, or it may be that he wanted a large force available in event the nearby allied city of Bethel would decide to enter the fight. In any case, the mission was accomplished; the city and all its inhabitants were destroyed, as God had commanded. 8:28 Ai. The location of Ai is controversial. Liberal scholars have alleged that a mound traditionally identified as Ai had been destroyed long before Joshua’s time, and was not even inhabited at the assumed time of the conquest. On the other hand, modern conservative archaeologists have argued that a much more likely location for Ai has been discovered, the history of which apparently appears fit the Biblical account. However, the actual chronology of the conquest itself is still uncertain. 8:28 for ever. Ai was evidently reoccupied at a later date (note Nehemiah 7:32). Joshua had intended to destroy it so totally that it would never be rebuilt, and it was still desolate at the time the book of Joshua was written. The Hebrew word for “for ever” (olam) basically means a very long time, with no foreseeable end.

4:4 Deborah, a prophetess. Deborah was clearly a most remarkable woman, to be accepted as judge of Israel at this low ebb in their history. No other woman was ever so honored. Furthermore, she was a true “prophetess,” a position accorded to only four other women named in the Bible, in contrast to the great number of men recognized therein as prophets. The other four were Miriam (Exodus 15:20); Huldah (II Kings 22:14), the wife of Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 8:3), and Anna (Luke 2:36). However, just as there were many false prophets, so two false prophetesses are mentioned, Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14), and the Thyatiran Jezebel (Revelation 2:20).

2:3 written in the law of Moses. It is evident that the Israelites had access to the Pentateuch at this time, contrary to the speculations of critics who allege that these documents date from a much later period. Note also Nehemiah 8:1.

9:2 the Nethinims. See note on Nehemiah 11:21. These “first inhabitants” apparently were the Israelites, including men from Ephraim and Manasseh (see I Chronicles 8:3) as well as Judah and Benjamin, who first returned from Babylon to restore Jerusalem and the temple. With the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, many from the ten rebelling tribes migrated south and west to Judah in order to be near the temple. Some of their descendants went with the exiles to Babylon and some returned after the exile.

34:22 Huldah the prophetess. See note on II Kings 22:14. Most of the prophets called and used by God were men, but there were important exceptions (Exodus 15:20; Judges 5; Nehemiah 6:14; Isaiah 8:3; Luke 2:36; Acts 21:9). Huldah was the wife of Shallum and thus the aunt of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32:7), whose prophetic ministry had begun in Josiah’s thirteenth year as king (Jeremiah 1:2), just five years previous to these events (II Chronicles 34:8).

Introduction to Ezra Ezra is identified as “a ready scribe in the law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6). He is also called “Ezra the priest” (Ezra 7:11), a descendant of “Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest” (Ezra 7:1-5). Although not all conservative scholars agree, it is reasonably certain that Ezra himself wrote the book, as well as the two books of Chronicles. The last two verses of II Chronicles are almost the same as the first two verses of Ezra, the author thereby indicating that the one was intended as a continuation of the other. The combined accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah, along with the prophetic books of Haggai and Zechariah, tell the story of the returning remnant of Jews after their seventy-year captivity in Babylon, undertaking to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, its walls and the temple. It is interesting that, just as the exile from the land took place in three separate stages (II Chronicles 36:5-7; 36:8-10; 36:11-20), so the return took place in three stages. First, the returning remnant was led by Zerubbabel, as governor, together with Jeshua the high priest. They rebuilt the temple and reestablished the ancient worship. This story is recounted in the first six chapters of Ezra. It was during this period, extending over about eighty years, that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah exercised their ministry, encouraging the people to continue the work in spite of much opposition. The decree of the Persian emperor Cyrus, in about 536 B.C., initiated this phase. The second group came under Ezra, in about 458 B.C. following a decree by Artaxerxes that gave Ezra both political and religious authority over Jerusalem, as well as financing to furnish the rebuilt temple and restore it to some measure of its former dignity and beauty. The third wave came after another decree by Artaxerxes in about 445 B.C. given to Nehemiah, whose main commission was to rebuild the walls of the city. This mission is described in the book of Nehemiah. There are two sections of Ezra (4:8–6:18; 7:12-26) that were written in Aramaic. These were essentially letters and decrees, and presumably Ezra simply copied them as they were, without translating them into Hebrew (Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Near East at the time). It is also worth noting that one of the apocryphal books, I Esdras, purports to have been written by Ezra. However, it contains a number of contradictions with the canonical book of Ezra, with the latter rather obviously providing the true record.

Introduction to I Chronicles The two books of Chronicles, like the two books of Samuel and the two books of Kings, were originally one book. I Chronicles deals mainly with the reign of David, substantially paralleling but abbreviating Samuel’s accounts. II Chronicles begins with the reign of Solomon and continues through Judah’s entire history to the time of the Babylonian invasion and exile, thus paralleling the two books of Kings. However, Chronicles all but ignores the corresponding history of the northern kingdom. There are many indications that the two books of Chronicles date from the post-exilic period (for example, some of the genealogies in the first nine chapters extend into that period; also, the note in the final two verses of II Chronicles speak of the decree of Cyrus authorizing the rebuilding of the temple), and this suggests that Ezra the scribe probably was the final editor and author. In fact, there exists significant evidence that Chronicles was originally one book with Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra’s authorship is not unquestioned, of course, but it seems reasonable and is confirmed by almost unanimous Jewish tradition. Thus, the books of Chronicles were written long after Samuel and Kings, and the Chronicler no doubt had these two (or four) books to select from in developing his account. There were also numerous other ancient documents and records available, some of which are actually mentioned in the Bible. Note for example, the mention of the writings of the prophets Nathan and Gad (I Chronicles 29:29). In II Chronicles the authors mention: “the book of the kings of Judah” (II Chronicles 16:11); “the book of the kings of Israel” (II Chronicles 20:34); and the “book of the kings of Judah and Israel” (II Chronicles 25:26). There are numerous other sources listed, some twenty in all. Since all these ancient documents are lost, there is no way of knowing which of them were used by Ezra (or whoever the Chronicler may have been). He undoubtedly used Samuel and Kings, since many sections in Chronicles are almost exact quotes (I Chronicles 11:1-3 with II Samuel 5:1-3). A natural question is why such duplication was necessary, when the four books of Samuel and Kings were already available. From the viewpoint of the returning exiles, however, it was important for them to have a document establishing their ties with their founding fathers, with their continuing role in the plan of God for His chosen people, and with the eventual Messianic kingdom. Therefore, the detailed genealogies and the strong emphasis on David and the Davidic line leading ultimately to the Messiah are again recorded in these books. This theme not only explains why certain events were duplicated but why certain new records were added and why there were many omissions. As far as the latter are concerned (the events of Saul’s reign, the history of the northern kingdom, David’s sin and Absalom’s rebellion, Solomon’s moral decline in his later years), these were records of failure and rebellion which had no ultimate bearing on that great theme which the Chronicler needed to emphasize. The ultimate apostasy of Judah and her exile, of course, had to be included to explain the situation in which the returning exiles now found themselves. Just as there is duplication in the four gospels of the New Testament, so also there is duplication between the book of Chronicles and the books of Samuel and Kings. Nevertheless, in both cases, the superficial amount of duplication merely serves as confirmation of the historicity of the events from a different perspective and also provides additional information. The net effect of this duplication is to give a greater in-depth understanding of God’s great plan.

2:2 Zerubbabel. This verse lists the leaders of the returning exiles. Zerubbabel was governor and Jeshua high priest. The Nehemiah and Mordecai included in this list are not the same as the Nehemiah who became governor many years later (Nehemiah 1:1) or the Mordecai who was Jewish leader in Persia during the days of Queen Esther (Esther 2:5).

4:8 Artaxerxes. This is believed to be either the short-lived King Smerdis, who succeeded Cambyses, or the emperor who granted Ezra the decree he requested to go to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:13), and later to Nehemiah as well (Nehemiah 2:1-8). He was, thus, possibly the stepson of Queen Esther.