The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 18

of the king· ; the inspired historian makes known the secret working of God. We know nothi_ng of _the Divi~e heart-stirrings _which precede th~ _great movements_ of our age. God_ 1s beh~nd the kmg and we ~e~ him not. . Tl_1e political serves the spiritual. . Let us nghtly mterpret our heart-stirrmgs ; God 1s m them, they have great meanmge. ~hey are more than the beatings of a pulse, they are the beginnings of spiritual liberty. Heaven has various ways of stirring our souls. 2. A secret commence- ment. The restoration of Israel began in the secret stirrings of one heart. It did not begin with the crowd, but with the individual. And so great religious move- ments generally commence in the secret awakening· of the one man. See ilie power of a God-moved heart. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Restora- tions are in the heart before they are in the world. 3. An unlikely commencement. The Jews were looking for a rod out of the stern of Jesse to restore them; God sent an alien deliverer. .A man of war becomes a man of peace ; a man of conquest becomes an emancipator of the people. God employs unexpected agencies. Great religious movements often have unlikely beginnings. 4. An effectual commence- ment. The stirring of the heart of Cyrus had great possibilities in it-it expanded into a temple of worship ; its pulsations are felt in our own age. II. THAT THEY ARE TIMED BY THE FAITHFUL PROVIDENCE OF GoD. "That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled." Thus the captivity of Israel terminated in the set time of God. 1. The mercy of God. In the pro- clamation of Cyrus to the wretched slaves see the Divine mercy to those most unde- serving of it ; the word of God is a merciful message to man, it is a word of liberty, that the ruined temple of life may be rebuilt. 2. The .fidelity of God. Israel had the promise of liberty fulfilled ; so all the promises of God respecting the future glory of the Church will be accomplished. 3. The purpose of God. The captives were not to go out of bondage merely for their own freedom and enjoyment; but to build the temple of the Lord. Men are freed from the tyranny of sin that they may establish the kingdom of heaven; they must be liberated before they can build. This is the Divine purpose in the salvation of men, that they may engage in pro- moting spiritual good. IlL THAT THEY OFTEN REVEAL IN MEN UNEXPECTED EXCELLENCES OF MORAL CHAllACTER. 1. The hidden excellences of men. The Jews probably did not ex- pect much aid from Cyrus ; but he had excellences of knowledge, of grace, they little suspected. God saw this and used him. Men are often better than we know, and are more prepared to aid the work of God than we suppose. 2. The revealed excel- lences of men. Cyrus incidentally shows by his proclamation the good that is in him. Ti.mes of religious revival reveal unexpected abilities in men ; then the dull man becomes brilliant; the man of little opportunity becomes rich in knowledge ; the cold man becomes generous in gift. 3. The utilised excellences of men. .All that is good in men God uses for the welfare of his Church. JV. THAT THEY ARE OI!"I'EN FURNISHED WITH NEEDFUL MATERIAL AID IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED MANNER (ver. 6). The departure of such a people would require great preparation, and wo?-1d necessitate gre_at expen~e. How are the cap~ves to meet it ? The proclamat10n of Cyrus provides for it. A wondrous providence often causes the world in unexpected ways to minister to the temporal needs of the Church ; men of the world often help to erect a temple in which they are little in- terested, and into which they will never tnter. V. TIIAT AT BUCH TIMES SPIRITUAL THINGS ARE RESTORED TO THEIR RIGHTFUL SERVICE (ver. 7). ~he vessels of G:od were b_ro_ught fr?m the heathen temp~e and given to the returning Jews. In times of rehg1ous revival money, talents, children, e.11 are brought from the possession of sin and placed in the service of God. Heaven now proclaims liberty to the captive 1-E.  EXPOSITION. 8. Number of these last two classes to- CHAPTER II. gether (ver. 68). THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO RETURNED 9. Account of those who could not show J'ROM 0APTIVITY WITH ZERUBDAJlEL, AND their genealogy (vers. 59-63). fHE NAMES Oil' THE CHIEFS (eh. ii. 1-64). 10. General summation (ver. 64). It has been argued that the whole of this Ver. 1.-These are the children of the province. I. e. of Judrea, which was a pro- chapter is out of place here, and has been vince of Persia, distinguished here from transferred hither from Nehemiah (eh. vii. Babylon, which was one of the capita.ls-a 6-73), where it occupies its rightful position mode of speech indicating the foreign stand- (Bishop A. Hervey). According to this view, point of Ezra.. Unto Jerusalem and Judah, the list is one embodying the results of the every one unto his city. Jerusalem was not the only site occupied by the people on census ·made by Nehemiah, not a list of their return. Many took up their a.bodes in those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerub- the neighbouring towns and villages, such babel. But it seems strange that such a as Jericho, Tekoah, Gibeon, Mizpa.h, Zanoah, theory should ever have been seriously &c. (see Neh. iii 2-19, and vii. 20-35). maintained, since not only does Ezra declare These were chiefly persons whose families had belonged to those places. the list to be a catalogue of those "which Ver. 2.-Zerubbabel, J"eshua, &c. In the came with Zerubbabel" (ver. 2), but Nehe- corresponding verse of Nehemiah (vii. 7) miah himself warns us that it is "a register there are twelve names, one of which (it is of the genealogy of them which came up at probable) has accidentally fallen out here. the first" (N eh. vii 5). The Jews, like The twelve are reasonably regarded as either the actual heads of the twelve tribes, or at other Semitic races, especially the Arabs, any rate as representing them. N ohvith- set great store by their genealogies ; and, to sta.nding the small number among the re- secure a sound basis for these in the restored turned exiles who belonged to other tribes community, it was essential that a correct than those of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, record should be kept of the families by there was a manifest wish on the part of the which the state was re-established. Already chiefs to regard the return as in some sort that of all the tribes (see eh. ii. 70 ; vi. there was a large number of Jews among 17 ; viii. 35, &c.). The number of the men. the captives " which could not show their The lists in Nehemiah and the a.pocryplrnl father's house, or their pedigree, whether Esdras differ in many details, and furnish they were of Israel" (ver. 69). It was strong evidence of the corruption to which essential, according to Jewish ideas, that numbers are liable from the mistakes of copyists, and the facility of error when such ignorance should, at the least, be there is no check from the con text. Of arrested, and not spread through the nation. the forty-two numbers here given by Ezra Hence the elaborate genealogies with which (vers. 3-60), as many as eighteen differ from the first Book of Chronicles opens (chs. i.- the corresponding numbers in Nehemiah. viii. ), and hence also the present list. The difference, however, is mostly small ; and even the sum of the differences is tifrial The list may be divided into ten parts : - (see comment on ver. 64). 1. Enumeration of the leaders (ver. 2). Ver. 20.-The ohildren of Gibbar. For 2. Numbers of those who returned, ar- " Gibbar " we should probably reacl ranged according to families (vers. 3-19). "Gibeon," which occurs in the correspond- 3. Numbers of those who returned, ar- ing passaae of Nehemiah (vii. 25). The ranged according to localities (vers. 20-35). writer at this point passes from persons to places, me.king the latter portion of his list 4. Numbers of the priests, arranged ac- topographical. Gibeon was a well-known cording to families (vers. 36-39). town in Benjamin (Josh. xviii. 25). Other 6. Numbers of the Levites, arranged Benjamite towns in the list are Anathoth, 1imilarly (vers. 40-42). Ra.mah, Gaba, l\Iichmas, Bethel, and Jericho. 6. Families of the N ethinim (vers. 43-54). It would seem that the descendants of the captives can-ied off from these places re- 7. Families of "Solomon's servants" tamed a. traditional knowledge of the locality (vers. 55-57) to which they belonged. EZRA. 0 18 THE BOOK OF EZRA. [CH. II. 1-67.