Bible Commentaries
Go deeper in Scripture
Browse trusted public-domain commentary alongside DiscipleDeck Bible study. References inside each commentary open Bible previews in place.
27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:40
The Levites. The non-priestly Levites are divided into three classes:— 1. Ordinary Levites (Ezra 2:40); 2. Choral Levites (Ezra 2:41); and Levites descended from those who had had the charge of the temple gates (Ezra 2:…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:41
The singers, the children of Asaph. See 2 Chronicles 25:1. It is remarkable that no descendants of either Heman or Jeduthun (ibid.) took part in the return.
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:42
The porters. Six families of doorkeepers returned; three of which bear old names, those of Shallum, Talmon, and Akkub (1 Chronicles 9:17), while the other three have names that are new to us. One hundred and thirty-nine…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:43
The Nethiaims. See note on 1 Chronicles 9:2.
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:55
Solomon's servants. Solomon formed the remnant of the Canaanitish population which survived at his day into a separate servile class, which he employed in forced labours (1 Kings 9:20, 1 Kings 9:21). It would seem that…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:59
Tel-melah is probably the Thelme of Ptolemy ('Geograph.,' 5.20), a city of Lower Babylonia, situated in the salt tract near the Persian Gulf. Hence the name, which means "Hill of Salt." Cherub is no doubt Ptolemy's Chir…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:61-63
The privileges of the priesthood. We are here forcibly reminded— I. THAT THE PRIESTHOOD HAD ITS PRIVILEGES. These were— 1. They were sanctified to the service of God. 2. They ate of the most holy things. II. THE LAW PRI…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:61
Of the children of the priests. Some of those who claimed to be descendants of Aaron, and therefore priests, had also lost the evidence of their descent. This loss was held to disqualify them from the exercise of the pr…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:63
The Tirshatha. As "Shesh-bazzar" was the Babylonian name of Zerub-babel (Ezra 1:8), so "the Tirshatha" seems to have been his Persian title. The word is probably a participial form from tars or tarsa, "to fear," and mea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:64
The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore. Ezra's numbers, as given in detail (verses 3-60), produce when added together a total of only 29,818; Nehemiah's items (Nehemiah 7…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:65-67
THE NUMBER OF THE SLAVES, HORSES, MULES, CAMELS, AND ASSES OF THOSE WHO RETURNED (Ezra 2:65-67). It may seem strange that matters of this trivial character should be recorded with such exactness in Holy Writ; but enumer…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:65
Two hundred singing men and singing women. Nehemiah says two hundred and forty-five, and so the apocryphal Esdras. Perhaps, in the great default of Levites, the services of these persons may have been used to swell the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:67
Their asses. The ass (we see) is still, as in the earlier times, the chief beast of burden employed by the Israelites. Horses are rare, camels and mules still rarer; but most emigrant families had, it would seem, one as…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:68-70
The arrival. After the muster-roll, as described to us in Ezra 2:1-67 of this chapter, the next thing, naturally, is the expedition itself. In the present instance, however, this is disposed of in a couple of syllables.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:68-70
EXPOSITION THE OFFERINGS MADE BY THE RETURNED EXILES ON THEIR ARRIVAL AT JERUSALEM (Ezra 2:68-70). It has been customary among the pious of all ages and countries to make thank-offerings to the Almighty on the accomplis…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:68
Some of the chief of the fathers. That is, "Some of the heads of families." Each family went up under a recognized head or chief, the number of such heads being, as it would seem, nearly a hundred (Ezra 2:3-61). When th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:68-70
Social and spiritual gradations. The company that came out of Babylonian captivity was by no means a disorderly or unorganized multitude. It was well officered, and was divided and subdivided into ranks. It probably mar…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:69
After their ability. As each was able; the richer more, the poorer less. Threescore and one thousand drams of gold. The word translated "dram" is darkemon, which appears to be the Hebrew representative of the Persian wo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 2:70
In their cities. Not in Jerusalem only, but in the neighboring towns also, e.g. Bethlehem, Anathoth, Ramah, Gaba, Michmash, Bethel, Ai, Nebo, and Jericho (see above, comment on Ezra 2:1). All Israel. Ezra very determina…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 3:1-7
§ 2. RESTORATION OF THE ALTAR OF BURNT SACRIFICE, AND CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. EXPOSITION RESTORATION OF THE ALTAR (Ezra 3:1-3). On their arrival in their own land, the exiles, it would seem, proceeded f…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 3:1
When the seventh month was come. The seventh month was Tisri, and corresponded nearly to our October. It was the most sacred month of the Jewish year, commencing with a blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation on the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 3:1-3
The first sacrifice. The third chapter begins much as the second chapter concluded, with a picture of the restored Israelites in their respective "cities" or homes. But they do not stay there very long. The temple and t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 3:1-3
The altar rebuilt. The return from Babylon is supposed to have been in the spring. The first employment of the people would be to construct for themselves huts, or so to repair dilapidated buildings as to make them fit…
The Pulpit Commentary on Ezra 3:1-7
Acceptable service. When the 42,000 Israelites arrived in the land whither they went forth, they took peaceable and glad possession of their old homes; many, if not most, of them returning to the very fields and homeste…