And these are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city,
Ezra 2 is a long list of names and numbers, and verse 1 is its heading. In one sentence it says who these people are, where they had been, and where they went: a nation carried off to Babylon, and a small company now walking home.
They are not called a kingdom here, but the people of a province — a district inside someone else's empire. One writer hears honesty in that word:
What a humbling description: "the people of the province who came up out of the captivity"! Pride forgets and hides such things. Faith, cleared and cheered by grace, can afford on the darkest day to admit the truth: Israel may change, but the Lord does not change. That is why the sons of Jacob are not destroyed. His own people may well be ashamed of themselves; they glory in Him alone, and in His grace toward them. Yet they were still under the Gentile powers, as Christ Himself pressed home to their rebellious spirits.
The verse says they came up out of the captivity. One commentator sets this return beside the earlier rescue from Egypt, and notes how few joined it:
As we all know, God redeemed the people out of Egypt, and still they failed completely. They fell again and again into idolatry under their kings, until the captivity in Babylon came. When the foretold period had passed, Cyrus allowed a return to rebuild the temple, and we read, "Now these were the people of the province who came up OUT of the captivity" (Ezra 2:1). Once more God called His people out, though only a few of the many answered.
A register of families and head-counts can look like dry paperwork. One writer reads its survival as a sign of what God thought of these people, however little they grasped His plans:
The very existence of this list shows how precious to God was the response His grace had produced in the hearts of His people, however weakly they had entered into His thoughts about His house. That is why He has kept it on record. It is evidence that He looks with joy on the smallest fruits of His Spirit's work, and that He knows the names of His people and makes them known. This encourages everyone to walk in His ways, to stand with His interests, and to stay faithful in times of corruption and falling away.
Names and numbers can seem like the least spiritual part of the Bible. One writer ties this list to what the New Testament says about God's memory:
This chapter contains the names of the returning remnant. It is a sample page of the records God keeps. From it we may learn that He remembers His people, that He knows them by name, and that He does not forget their works. Nehemiah repeats this list (chapter 7), and adds a record of those who helped build the wall. He has a book of remembrance (Mal. 3:16). The apostle reminded the Hebrew believers of this when he wrote: "For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do" (Heb. 6:10).
Each one returned to his own town — and with the return came a new seriousness about who belonged. Dennett links that new care to what the exile itself had been:
In the land of their exile they had not taken the same care over who had a right to a place and who was qualified. Babylon stands for the corruption that holds God's people in bondage through their sins. So their time in captivity was a careless time. They were suffering under the hand of their God, yet it was still a time of confusion and disorder. It had to be, since they had no temple, no sacrifices, and were without the Lord's presence. But now, through the mercy of their God, there had been a recovery... and now that the Lord's house was to be their centre once more, they were right to examine the claim of everyone who had returned from Babylon.
Commentators differ on how far this company should be called the faithful remnant. Rossier stops short of that title, yet still holds them up as a pattern:
This remnant of Judah returned to Jerusalem under Cyrus, to wait for the Messiah and welcome Him. They are not the true remnant. Even so, the Holy Spirit presents them as showing the marks a believing remnant should take on in a time of ruin. They are a most helpful example for us Christians, who now find ourselves among the ruins of Christendom: an example that teaches us how we may be witnesses of God in hard circumstances.
- Province, not kingdom — the heading admits how far they had fallen. Faith can own that, because God has not changed.
- Out of captivity — God called His people out a second time, and only a few of the many answered.
- Counted by name — the list survives as proof that God takes joy in the smallest fruit of His work and knows His people by name.
- Not forgotten — Ezra's page matches God's book of remembrance. He does not overlook work done for His name.
- Home, and careful — captivity bred carelessness about who belonged. Back with God's house at their centre, the returning company tested every claim.
who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel
God keeps a list. Ezra 2 records who left Babylon for Jerusalem, and verse 2 names their eleven leaders — a governor from David's line, a priest, and nine more.
Edward Dennett draws his point from the mere fact that such a list survives.
The very existence of this list shows how precious to God was the response His grace had produced in the hearts of His people. They may have had only a weak grasp of His thoughts about His house. Even so, He kept this list on record. It is evidence that He looks with joy on the smallest fruits of His Spirit's work. It shows too that He knows and announces the very names of His people, to encourage everyone to walk in His ways.
There is a quieter side to the same record. F. B. Hole notices who is missing from it.
God took note of them and put their names into His record. Those whose hearts did not stir them up to go He passed over in silence. Let us take note of this.
The order of the names carries meaning. The Bible Treasury notes that the royal name stands first, though the crown itself was gone.
They were still subject to the Gentile powers, and Christ Himself pressed this on their rebellious hearts. His first coming did not change it, because they were sinful and unbelieving... So the first named is not the high priest, but the heir without the throne of David.
Hole names the office Zerubbabel held and the size of the company these two men led.
The first name mentioned is Zerubbabel, who became the "Tirshatha," or civil governor; the second, Jeshua, the priest called Joshua in the books of Haggai and Zechariah. These were the leaders in the migration of 42,360 people, besides some servants and other possessions. The kingdom was not restored, as though the times of the Gentiles had ended.
Arno Gaebelein traces the family lines behind these two names. He also spots a gap in the count.
There were twelve leaders. Ezra gives only eleven. Nehemiah's record adds one more name, Nahamani, making twelve in all. Zerubbabel was the leader of the returning captives. His name means "seed of Babylon." Scripture calls him the son of Shealtiel, the son or grandson of Jeconiah, so he was a descendant of David. His name appears in the two genealogies of Matthew (1:12) and Luke (3:27)... The second leader was Jeshua, also called Joshua. He was a son of Jehozadak and grandson of the high priest Seraiah. Zerubbabel the royal leader, son of David, and Joshua the high priest are both types of Christ.
Two names here match far better-known people elsewhere in the Bible. Leslie Grant rules out the first.
The Nehemiah mentioned here cannot be the Nehemiah whose book follows Ezra, for he did not come at first, nor with so large a company (Nehemiah 2:9).
Some of the names themselves shift between Ezra's list and Nehemiah's. Two examples: Seraiah here is thought to be the man called Azariah in Nehemiah 7:7, and Mizpar here appears there as Mispereth.
One who returned from exile, Nehemiah 7:7: supposed, as in the margin, to be the same as Seraiah in Ezra 2:2.
Forty-two thousand people were nothing beside the nation's former size. Michael Hardt puts the objection those returning had to face into plain words.
"How can a minority be right? When Israel left Egypt, they were 600,000 men plus families. When they entered the land of Canaan, they were about the same number. Since then, the people must have grown. And now there were just 43,000 who think Jerusalem is the place to be." But faith does not look to the numbers for guidance, but at God's word.
Hole names the first mark of a real revival, and answers the charge that these people were just a party gathered around a man.
There was a definite revival, and the first mark of it was this: they got back to God's original centre. Compared with the whole number of scattered Jews they were only a few. Many worldly people may have nicknamed them "Zerubbabelites." Still, they were not that. They were simply a few who cared for their God and sought His original centre.
- Recorded — the list survives as evidence that God takes joy in the smallest fruits of His Spirit's work, and that He knows His people by name.
- Omitted — God passed over in silence those whose hearts did not stir them up to go. The record marks who went and who stayed.
- Ranked — Zerubbabel stands first: the heir without David's throne, made civil governor under a Gentile empire. The kingdom itself was never given back.
- Paired — the royal leader from David's line and Jeshua the high priest are both types of Christ.
- Few — 42,360 out of a people that once counted 600,000 men and their families. Faith looked at God's word, not at the numbers, and went back to His centre.