Ezra 2


Ezra 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or the book of Ezra-Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible, which treats the book of Ezra and book of Nehemiah as one book. Jewish tradition states that Ezra is the author of Ezra-Nehemiah as well as the Book of Chronicles, but modern scholars generally accept that a compiler from the 5th century BCE is the final author of these books. The section comprising chapter 1 to 6 describes the history before the arrival of Ezra in the land of Judah in 468 BCE. This chapter contains a list, known as the "Golah List", of the people who returned from Babylon to Judah following Cyrus's edict "by genealogy, family and place of habitation".

Text

The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 70 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus.
An ancient Greek book called 1 Esdras containing some parts of 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah is included in most editions of the Septuagint and is placed before the single book of Ezra–Nehemiah. 1 Esdras 5:7-46 is an equivalent of Ezra 2.

The Community (2:1–63)

The list here is not an account the people who were recently back from the journey, but those who have arrived and settled down after returning from Babylon, where they currently reside in Palestine among the other inhabitants of the land – non-Jews and also the Jews who never left the land, "whom the Babylonians has left behind as undesirable". The genealogies apparently "function as authenticators of who has a right to be classified as an Israelite", because "those who could not prove their genealogy were excluded".

Verse 1

The number of the people here shows the depletion of the population; in time of Moses "the whole number of the people of Israel...from 20 years old and upward,... was 603,550" not counting the Levites, whereas in the time of David, "in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000", but now the returned exiles, including the priests and Levites, only "amount to 42,360". The listing of servants and animals reflects "the status of the exiles, their resources and capabilities".

Temple Gifts (2:68–69)

Those arrived back in Jerusalem and Judah gave freewill offerings "toward the rebuilding of the house of God".

Resettlement (2:70)

The conclusion of the list is similar to the beginning : "by affirming the resettlement of the exiles", as every person has now settled "in their own towns".