They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and 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.
A register God chose to preserve
Edward Dennett draws his point from the mere fact that such a list survives.
Edward DennettThe 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.
F. B. HoleGod 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.
Zerubbabel named first
The order of the names carries meaning. The Bible Treasury notes that the royal name stands first, though the crown itself was gone.
The Bible TreasuryThey 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.
F. B. HoleThe 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.
Who the two leaders were
Arno Gaebelein traces the family lines behind these two names. He also spots a gap in the count.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThere 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.
Familiar names, different men
Two names here match far better-known people elsewhere in the Bible. Leslie Grant rules out the first.
Leslie M. GrantThe 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.
Morrish Bible DictionaryOne who returned from exile, Nehemiah 7:7: supposed, as in the margin, to be the same as Seraiah in Ezra 2:2.
A small company at the right place
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.
Michael Hardt"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.
F. B. HoleThere 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.
Summary
- 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.