That many returned out of Babylon upon Cyrus’s proclamation we were told in the foregoing chapter; we have here a catalogue of the several families that returned, Ezra 2:1. I. The leaders, Ezra 2:2. II. The people, Ezra 2:3–35. III. The priests, Levites, and retainers to the temple, Ezra 2:35–63.

We may observe here, 1. That an account was kept in writing of the families that came up out of captivity, and the numbers of each family. This was done for their honour, as part of their recompence for their faith and courage, their confidence in God and their affection to their own land, and to…

Here is an account, I. Of the priests that returned, and they were a considerable number, about a tenth part of the whole company: for the whole were above 42,000 , and four families of priests made up above 4200 ; thus was the tenth God’s part—a blessed decimation.

Here is, I. The sum total of the company that returned out of Babylon. The particular sums before mentioned amount not quite to 30,000 (29,818), so that there were above 12,000 that come out into any of those accounts, who, it is probable, were of the rest of the tribes of Israel, besides Judah and…