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 2:42). Compare 1 Chronicles 24:20-31; 1 Chronicles 25:1-31; and 1 Chronicles 26:1-19. Of the first class, only two families seem to have returned—those of Jeshua and Kadmiel, both of which traced their descent to a certain Hodaviah, or Judah (Ezra 3:9).