Now these are the heads of their fathers’ households, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:
Parallel Translations
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Now these are the heads of their fathers’ households, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:
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These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.
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Now these are the heads of their fathers' houses, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Ezra 8:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezra 7:7 Some of the children of Israel, including some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
- 1 Chronicles 4:33 and all their villages that were around the same cities, to Baal. These were their settlements, and they have their genealogy.
- 1 Chronicles 9:1 So all Israel were listed by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience.
- 1 Chronicles 9:34 These were heads of fathers’ households of the Levites, throughout their generations, chief men. These lived at Jerusalem.
- 1 Chronicles 24:31 These likewise cast lots even as their brothers the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the priests and of the Levites; the fathers’ households of the chief even as those of his younger brother.
- 1 Chronicles 26:32 His brothers, men of valor, were two thousand seven hundred, heads of fathers’ households, whom king David made overseers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites, for every matter pertaining to God, and for the affairs of the king.
- 2 Chronicles 26:12 The whole number of the heads of fathers’ households, even the mighty men of valor, was two thousand six hundred.
- Ezra 1:5 Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up rose up to build Yahweh’s house which is in Jerusalem.
- Ezra 2:62 These sought their place among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they deemed disqualified and removed from the priesthood.
- Ezra 7:13 I make a decree, that all those of the people of Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, who intend of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you.
- Nehemiah 7:70-71 Some from among the heads of fathers’ households gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred thirty priests’ garments. Some of the heads of fathers’ households gave into the treasury of the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand two hundred minas of silver.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Read Ezra 7.
Read Ezra 7.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ezr 8:1 These [are] now the chief of their…
Ezr 8:1 These [are] now the chief of their fathers, and [this is] the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.
Ver. 1. These are now the chief of their fathers] The chieftains of those that went up with Ezra, beside those that went up at first with Zerubbabel.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Ezra, having received his commission from the king, beats…
Ezra, having received his commission from the king, beats up for volunteers, as it were, sets up an ensign to assemble the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, Isa 11:12. "Whoever of the sons of Sion, that swell with the daughters of Babylon, is disposed to go to Jerusalem, now that the temple there is finished and the temple-service set a-going, now is their time." Now one would think that under such a leader, with such encouragements, all the Jews should at length have shaken themselves from their dust, and loosed the bands of their neck, according to that call, Isa 52:1, Isa 52:2, etc. I wonder how any of them could read that chapter and yet stay behind. But multitudes did. They loved their ease better than their religion, thought themselves well off where they were, and either believed not that Jerusalem would better their condition or durst not go thither through any difficulties. But here we are told,
I. That some offered themselves willingly to go with Ezra. The heads of the several families are here named, for their honour, and the numbers of the males that each brought in, amounting in all to 1496. Two priests are named (Ezr 8:2) and one of the sons of David; but, it should seem, they came without their families, probably intending to see how they liked Jerusalem and then either to send for their families or return to them as they saw cause. Several of their families, or clans, here named, we had before, ch. 2. Some went up from them at that time, more went up now, as God inclined their hearts; some were called into the vineyard at the third hour, others not till the eleventh, yet even those were not rejected. But here we read of the last sons of Adonikam (Ezr 8:13), which some understand to their dispraise, that they were the last that enlisted themselves under Ezra; I rather understand it to their honour, that now all the sons of that family returned and none staid behind.
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II. That the Levites who went in this company were in a manner pressed into the service. Ezra appointed a general rendezvous of all his company at a certain place upon new-year's day, the first day of the first month. Ezr 7:9. Then and there he took a view of them, and mustered them, and (which was strange) found there none of the sons of Levi, Ezr 8:15. Some priests there were, but no others that were Levites. Where was the spirit of that sacred tribe? Ezra, a priest, like Moses proclaims, Who is on the Lord's side? They, unlike to Levi, shrink, and desire to abide among the sheep-folds to hear the bleatings of the flock. Synagogues we suppose they had in Babylon, in which they prayed, and preached, and kept sabbaths (and, when they could not have better, they had reason to be thankful for them); but now that the temple at Jerusalem was opened, to the service of which they were ordained, they ought to have preferred the gates of Zion before all those synagogues. It is upon record here, to their reproach; but tell it not in Gath. Ezra, when he observed that he had no Levites in his retinue, was much at a loss. He had money enough for the service of the temple, but wanted men. The king and princes had more than done their part, but the sons of Levi had not half done theirs. Eleven men, chief men, and men of understanding, he chooses out of his company, to be employed for the filling up of this lamentable vacancy; and here we are informed, 1. Of their being sent. Ezra sent them to a proper place, where there as a college of Levites, the place Casiphia, probably a street or square in Babylon allowed for that purpose - Silver Street one may call it, for ceseph signifies silver. He sent them to a proper person, to Iddo, the chief president of the college, not to urge him to come himself (we will suppose him to be old and unfit for such a remove), but to send some of the juniors, ministers for the house of our God, Ezr 8:17. The furnishing of God's house with good ministers is a good work, which will redound to the comfort and credit of all that have a hand in it. 2. Of their success. They did not return without their errand, but, though the warning was short, they brought about forty Levites to attend Ezra, Sherebiah, noted as a very intelligent man, and eighteen with him (Ezr 8:18). Hashabiah, and Jeshaiah, and twenty with them, Ezr 8:19. By this it appears that they were not averse to go, but were slothful and inattentive, and only wanted to be called upon and excited to go. What a pity it is that good men should omit a good work, merely for want of being spoken to! What a pity that they should need it, but, if they do, what a pity that they should be left without it! Of the Nethinim, the servitors of the sacred college, the species infima - the lowest order of the temple ministers, more appeared forward to go than of the Levites themselves. Of them 220, upon this hasty summons, enlisted themselves, and had the honour to be expressed by name in Ezra's muster-roll, Ezr 8:20. "Thus," says Ezra, "were we furnished with Levites, by the good hand of our God upon us." If, where ministers have been wanting, the vacancies are well supplied, let God have the glory, and his good hand be acknowledged as qualifying them for the service, inclining them to it, and then opening a door of opportunity for them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain These are now the chief of their fathers, and…
These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them,.... Which follows from hence to the end of Ezr 8:14,
that went up with me from Babylon; with Ezra the priest and scribe, the writer of this book:
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in the reign of Artaxerxes the king; that is, Darius Hystaspis, in the seventh year of his reign, see Ezr 7:1, though many think Artaxerxes Longimanus is meant.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The company that went up with Ezra, ver. 1-15.…
The company that went up with Ezra, ver. 1-15. He sends for the Levites, ver. 16-20. Proclaims a fast, ver. 21-23. Delivers the treasure he brought to the priests and Levites, ver. 24-30. Goes on to Jerusalem, ver. 31, 32. The treasure delivered in there, ver. 33, 34. The people offer, ver. 35. The king's commissions delivered to his lieutenants, ver. 36.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The genealogy of the chief persons who went with…
CHAPTER VIII
The genealogy of the chief persons who went with Ezra from
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Babylon, 1-14.
He gathers them together at Ahava; and finding among them no
Levites, he sends confidential persons to the river of Ahava,
who return with many Levites and Nethinim, 15-20.
He proclaims a fast at Ahava for Divine protection on their
journey, 21-23.
He delivers to the care of the priests c., the silver, gold,
and sacred vessels, that they might carry them to Jerusalem,
and deliver them to the high priest, 24-30.
They depart from Ahava, and come to Jerusalem, 31, 32.
The vessels are weighed and the weight registered, 33, 34.
They offer burnt-offerings to God, 35
deliver the king's commissions to his lieutenants, by whom they
are furthered in their work, 36.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Ezr 8:1. That went up with me from Babylon…
Ezr 8:1. That went up with me from Babylon — Multitudes of the Jews, who loved their ease better than their religion, thinking themselves well where they were, and either not believing that Jerusalem would better their condition, or being deterred by a prospect of the difficulties they might meet with on their journey, preferred staying in Babylon. Some, however, willingly offered themselves to go with Ezra, and the heads of their several families are here recorded for their honour, and the number of males that each brought in, amounting in all to one thousand four hundred and ninety- six.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain I. Respecting his Companions. Ezr_8:1-14
B.—EZRA’S OWN DOCUMENTARY REPORT
Ezr_8:1-36
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I. Respecting his Companions. Ezr_8:1-14
1These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. 2Of the sons of Phinehas; Gershom: of the sons of Ithamar; Daniel: of the sons of David; Hattush. 3Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh; Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males a hundred and fifty. 4Of the sons of Pahath-moab; Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males. 5Of the sons of Shechaniah; the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males. 6Of the sons also of Adin; Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males. 7And of the sons of Elam; Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males. 8And of the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him fourscore males. 9Of the sons of Joab; Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males. 10And of the sons of Shelomith; the son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and threescore males. 11And of the sons of Bebai; Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty and eight males. 12And of the sons of Azgad: Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males. 13And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males. 14Of the sons also of Bigvai; Uthai, and Zabbud, and with them seventy males.
II. Respecting a Rendering of this Band Complete. Ezr_8:15-20
15And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priest, and found there none of the sons of Levi. 16Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. 17And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, and to his brethren the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. 18And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; 19And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty; 20Also of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim: all of them were expressed by name.
III. Respecting the Preparation for the Journey, the Journey and Arrival in Jerusalem. Ezr_8:21-36
21Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. 22For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that 23seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us. 24Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, 25And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered: 26I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels a hundred talents, 27and of gold a hundred talents; Also twenty basins of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold. 28And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers. 29Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord. 30So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God. 31Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. 32And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days. 33Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad 34the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, Levites; By number and 35by weight of every one: and all the weight was written at that time. Also the children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt-offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he goats for a sin-offering; all this was a burnt-offering unto the Lord. 36And they delivered the kind’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the house of God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Ezr_8:1-14. The register of those heads of families who went up to Jerusalem with Ezra is here inserted as a second important document. It originated from Ezra himself, as the use of the first person in Ezr_8:1 shows; it is the foundation on which his narrative of his journey and activity in Jerusalem rests. It is distinguished from the register in chap. 2 by giving not only the names of the families to which those returning belonged, but also the heads themselves of those households who returned. It is as if they became gradually more and more conscious that the existence of the Jewish congregation no longer depended upon nationality, but the free resolution of individuals, that the individual accordingly, that especially the deciding heads of households had an entirely different significance from ever before, and that this their significance might be exhibited by their express mention by name in the sacred history. That the names of families here almost exclusively, yea, if we accept the very natural emendation in Ezr_8:3; Ezr_8:5; Ezr_8:10, are without exception the same as those that occurred already in chap. 2, is explained simply from the fact that of the families which returned with Zerubbabel, households had still remained behind in Babylon, which now with Ezra followed their relatives; and that this very relationship might have been decisive for the resolution to go up with Ezra. It is worthy of note that in this emigration just twelve families were represented. In connection with the importance then ascribed to the number twelve (comp. Ezr_2:1 sq.; Ezr_6:17; Ezr_8:35) Bertheau finds it probable that Ezra’s company was to be a representation of the congregation of Israel in its totality.—In Ezr_8:28-36 are found some other deviations, which now perhaps are worthy of consideration. As regards the sum total of those who returned with Ezra, it amounted to one thousand four hundred and ninety-six men and fifteen heads according to the Massoretic text; but according to Esdras one thousand six hundred and ninety men and thirteen heads without counting the priests and sons of David, whose number is not given, and in comparison with the number of the rest was perhaps but small, since Zerubbabel had already led back with him a relatively large number of priests and sons of David. In the numerical signs corruption might easily creep in, and we must leave it undecided, which statements are more correct.
Ezr_8:1. These are now the heads of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up.—= רָאשֵׁי אֲבֹתֵיתֶם רָאשֵׁי בֵית־אֲבֹתֵיהֶם, not only here but usually, house of their fathers=their household. The head of the house of their father=the head of the household. In a household, however, the sons are often again fathers, without their forming on this account households of their own. Thus often many fathers belong to the household, and under a common head of the household. Thus the head of the father’s houses can easily be head of fathers. The suffix of אֲבֹתֵיהֶם refers without doubt to the totality, that is, to the children of Israel. הִתְיַחַשׂ is first “record itself;” then the “register of families” is, however, sometimes used for the family itself. It is here added, because the name of the heads of households is to be followed by the name of the family to which they belonged.
Ezr_8:2. Here are first mentioned two heads of households of two priestly families; of the family of Phineas, who was a son of Eleazar, thus a grandson of Aaron, Gerson; and of the family of Ithamar, who was Aaron’s younger son (comp. 2 Chronicles 30, 29), Daniel; whether the latter is identical with the one mentioned in Neh_10:7 is uncertain. Both are to be regarded as accompanied by their households; for in Ezr_8:24 Ezra is able to select from the priests who went up with him, twelve to take care of the presents. Then follows a head of a household of the family of David, without doubt the king David, namely, Hattush, possibly to be identified with Hattush, the son of Hashaniah (Neh_3:10), but to be distinguished from the priest Hattush, Neh_10:5; Neh_12:2. It is questionable, however, whether he is not more closely defined by the first words of Ezr_8:3.
Ezr_8:3. Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh.—The twice-repeated מִבְּנֵי following one another and unconnected is striking. The Sept. has supplied an “and” before the second, so that it designates at once two families as such to which the head of household next following belongs. But this is certainly only to improve the text which was at that time just the same as ours. Esdras, on the other hand, has Λαθοὺς τοῦ Σεχενιόυ, since it renders the חַטּוּשׁ of Ezr_8:2 by Λαθούς, attached מִבְּנֵי שְׁכַנְיָה of verse 3 as a much closer definition, and besides read the singular בֵּן for מִבְּנֵי. It is very probable that there has been a corruption of the text in this passage, and the conjecture that Esdras makes recommends itself all the more that חַטּוּשׁ in 1Ch_3:22 is adduced as a son of Shemaiah, and therewith also is a grandson of Shechaniah [so Rawlinson.—Tr.] Accordingly we have left in Ezr_8:3 only the family of Pharosh, as such, to which Zechariah with his household belonged. The next clause we may translate: And with him belonged genealogically one hundred and fifty men, since התיחשׂ is taken as preterit., and the singular is explained from the fact that it precedes the verb. התיחשׂ might, however, be a noun, so that the sense would be: and with a family, לִזְכָרִים = of men.
Ezr_8:5. Of the sons of Shechaniah the son of Jahaziel.—It is singular that the son of Jahaziel is not mentioned by name. The Sept. has ἀπὸ τῶν ὑιῶν Σαυόης Σεχενίας ὑιὸς ’Αζιήλ, and Ezr_8:32 essentially the same Ζαθόης seems. to be the same as זַתּוּאEzr_2:8. Thus the Sept. and Esdras seem to have read מבניזתוא, so that it is to be translated: of the children of Zattu, Shechaniah, the son of Jahaziel [so Rawlinson.—Tr.]
Ezr_8:9. Here the sons of Joab are treated as a particular family, whilst in Ezr_2:6 they are counted with the sons of Jeshua as of the family of Pahath-Moab. Probably only a few of them belonged to those who returned under Zerubbabel, so that they were then not counted with that family with which they were nearest related, although the number of the children of Pahath-Moab, in consequence of this, became rather large.
Ezr_8:10. Here the Masoretic text has: of the sons of Shelomith the son of Josiphiah.—It is the same as in Ezr_8:5, according to the Sept. and Esdras, and we are to read: Of the sons of Bani (comp. Ezr_2:10) Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah [so Rawlinson.—Tr.].
Ezr_8:13. And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these, Eliphelet, etc.—It is strange that a common head of a household should be mentioned first. Keil supposes that the sons of Adonikam, here referred to, because they did not constitute a proper father’s house, are embraced together with the sons of Adonikam, who returned under Zerubbabel, and distinguished from the latter as אַחֲרֹנִים. But all the new comers here mentioned would have united with their fellow-members of the same families who already dwelt in Judah from the time of Zerubbabel. Besides the reference to those who previously returned is so entirely without support that אחרנים cannot well be explained from it. Perhaps the meaning is: not a first-born of the first line, who as such would have been head of the father’s house, but only a later born, none of whom had the dignity of a head of a father’s house, but only that of subordinate heads of families. Accordingly only lesser divisions of that father’s house went up with Ezra. Thus would אחרנים be explained from the same circumstance from which the name of a common head of a household fails. It is true we must then suppose that אחרנים had gained such a general sense in itself that it had become a technical term for those later born.
Ezr_8:14. Instead of one head of the sons of Bigvai, two are mentioned, Uthai and Zabbud, yet not as later born sons, but as it seems as real heads of father’s houses. The author of Esdras 8:40 has οὐθί ὁ τοῦ ’Ισταλκόυρου, so that it might be asked, whether the two names are not to be reduced to one.
Ezr_8:15-20. Above all Ezra was anxious to gain for the emigration some persons capable of ministering in the worship. Ezr_8:15 is probably to be translated: I gathered them together to the river, that runneth to Ahava, not that floweth into the Ahava. Ahava is probably the name of a place or region, after which the river there flowing was named; in Ezr_8:21 it occurs briefly as נָהָר אַהֲוָא, and in Ezr_8:31נְהַר אַהֲוָא, which is either: the river of Ahava; or also after the analogy of the נְהַר פְּרָת, the river Ahava. Where we are to seek the river and region is not known; probably, however, in the vicinity of Babylon; probably it is a tributary or canal of the Euphrates, according to Ewald, Gesch. IV., S. 154, perhaps the Pallacopas, in favor of which is certainly the name (פּלג אהוא), and indeed the more northern, which lay more in a direction towards Canaan.1—And I viewed the people.—Respecting the lengthened form by the addition of the וָאָבִינָה ,ה here and וָאֶשְלְחָה in ver 16, comp. Ewald, § 232, g [Green, § 99, 3.—Tr.].
Ezr_8:16. The Sept. translates: And I sent to or for Elieser, etc. [so A. V.]. This might mean in connection with Ezr_8:17 : I sent thither in order to have him come and use him as a messenger to Iddo. We may, however, take the לְ in this later usage of the language with the Vulg. and many interpreters without hesitation, as nota accus., according to 2Ch_17:7, where it is used in this very way with שׁלח, thus: I sent Elieser, etc. The first name messengers were רָאשִׁים, probably heads of little communities; the remaining two מְבִינִים, that is, teachers, Neh_8:7; Neh_8:9; 1Ch_15:22; 1Ch_28:8, etc. Keil takes it in a more general sense, judicious, prudent; but this is opposed by its connection with רָאשִׁים and the circumstance that Ezra would have sent men who could make an impression in accordance with their entire position. According to Ezr_8:15 these men did not belong to the Levites, who usually carried on the office of instruction, comp. 1Ch_15:22; 1Ch_28:8, etc. But scholarship in the Scriptures might have gradually become more widely diffused, especially in Babylon. It is possible, also, that they were priests. In Ezr_10:15; Ezr_10:18-31, many of the names here mentioned recur again; but probably different persons were meant there.
Ezr_8:17. And I sent them with commandment; thus the Qeri. According to the Kethib, whether now the ו in וָאוֹצִאָה be genuine, or first added by the Masoretes, it is to be understood: I had them go forth, עַל־עִדּוֹ הָרֹאשׁunto Iddo.—עַל, according to later usage is for אֶל־. What kind of a head or chief Iddo was, what society he was of, whether merely religious, or also learned, why Ezra did not above all seek to influence Iddo himself to the return to Palestine: all this we must leave undetermined.—At the place Casiphia.—We know not, as a matter of course, how we are to take the clause בְּכָסְפְּיָא חַמָּקוֹם. The Sept. and Esdras have not regarded כספיא as a proper name. The former has ἐν ἀργυρίῳ τοῦ τόπου, and the latter makes Iddo the head of the treasury without doubt in Babylon. It is probable, if it be a place, it is one in the vicinity of Babylon and Ahava.—To his brethren, etc.—אָחִיו הַנְּתוּנִים, which thus gives no sense, should probably be: to his brothers (the Levites) and to the Nethinim, namely, besides to himself, I ordered them to go; not to his brothers, the Nethinim [as A. V.]; for that Iddo himself was one of the Nethinim is improbable from his honorable position; that they, moreover, should be designated as his brethren without any natural relationship would be against all analogy.—To bring us ministers for the house of our God.—Those are especially meant who, when they had performed the service in the house of God at the feasts, should be able besides to instruct the people in the law.
Ezr_8:18. And they brought us.—וַיָּבִיאִוּ is written with dagesh in א as Gen_43:26, as also תָּבִיאִוּ, Lev_23:17, as then ח ה and ע sometimes occur with dagesh, “quorum omnium ratio nota est in Arcanis Cabbalæ,” R. Mose bar Nachman in Comm. upon Jezir fol. 61.—Under the gracious help of God (יָד, as Ezr_7:6), and through the influence of Iddo, they gained forty Levites and two hundred and twenty Nethinim. first of all the אִישׁ שֶׂכֶל (that this is a proper name is shown by the וְ before the following names), a descendant of Mahli, the grandson of Levi (Exo_6:16; Exo_6:19; 1Ch_6:4), then Sherebiah, who again occurs in Ezr_8:24 and Neh_8:7; Neh_9:4; also Neh_10:13; Neh_12:24; then in Ezr_8:19 Hashabiah, who likewise is again mentioned in Ezr_8:24; Neh_10:12; Neh_12:24, and finally Jeshaiah, who does not again meet us in Ezra or Neh.; in Ezr_8:20 the Nethinim, who had been appointed already by Jeshua (comp. note on Ezr_2:43 sq.), then more definitely as it is here alone mentioned, by David and the princes, that, is, the high officials, to perform the heavier work for the Levites. The last words of Ezr_8:20 mean2 according to 1Ch_12:31; they were all expressed by name (particularly), namely, for the going up with Ezra.
Ezr_8:21-30. The final preparation for the departure; at first the arrangement of the feast. The fasting had the purpose of imploring from God a way straight or level, free from hindrance, thus a prosperous journey. As an evidence of a penitent self-humiliation, it contributed to gain the favor of Him who, since He is throned on high, can only dwell among the lowly (Isa_57:15), so already Jdg_20:26; 1Sa_7:6; Joe_1:14; 1Ch_20:3.
Ezr_8:22. To implore the help of God, had a special impulse in the circumstance that Ezra and his companions had expressed a trust in God before Artaxerxes which they would not have confirmed if they had not especially relied upon God; if they had been willing to claim earthly means of protection. To show this trust in God was certainly important, because Artaxerxes’ respect for the Jewish religion might be best strengthened in this very way. They acknowledged that the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and wrath is against all them that forsake Him.—We might expect the words: forevil; but His strength and His wrath=His power of opposing, is sufficiently clear; it is as if the previous clause were: His goodness and favor are over, etc.; so that the words “for good” might have been left out.
Ezr_8:23. We fasted and besought our God.—This should be followed by זֹאת and not עַל־זֹאת ּעַל־זֹאת, seems to refer back to Ezr_8:22 in the sense of therefore. Yet it is at least questionable whether it may not after the verb of asking, likewise introduce the object, comp. עַל־זֹאת with התפלל (Psa_32:6), and indeed notwithstanding the מִן before אֱלֹהֵינוּ.—And He let Himself be entreated for us.—This is at once manifest in the successful progress of the journey.
Ezr_8:24 sq. The appointment of guardians of the treasures.—And I separated twelve of the princes of the priests.—Instead of לְ before שֵׁרֵבְיָה, we are to read וְ with Esdras 8:54; for Sherebiah, etc., did not belong to the priests, but to the Levites. In addition, therefore, to the twelve princes of the priests, there were accordingly twelve Levites, as those to whom Ezra weighed the treasure and gave it in charge.
Ezr_8:25. And I weighed, etc.—ואשׁקולה is written with ו after ק because the Sheva of ק was meant to be heard, and indeed as Chateph Kametz, and it is probable that this form is to have the same vocalization in the next verse, as then J. H. Mich. found it to be so in many MSS. The other view that it was to be spoken with Chateph Patach was held because the וְ was lacking after ק, as likewise in Jer_32:9. The silver and gold were a heave-offering, תְּרוּמָה, that is, a present to the house of God, that the king and his counsellors had set apart, comp. Ezr_7:15-16; Ezr_7:19. הֵרִים in connection with תְּרוּמָה means: to take off from the other possessions something, in order to consecrate it to God. The article before הְרִימוּ represents the relative pronoun as 1Ch_26:28; 1Ch_29:17; 2Ch_29:36, etc.; comp. Ew. 381, b.—הַנִּמְצָאִים (with kametz under צ instead of sheva on account of pause, comp. Est_1:5). These are those who were happened upon or met.
Ezr_8:26-27. What Ezra weighed, עַל־יָדָם, in their hands, as Ezr_1:8. With respect to the talents comp. Ezr_7:22; the darics, Ezr_2:69; the covered cups, Ezr_1:10. Finally there were two copper vessels of excellent polish. מֻצְהָב cannot very well be part. Hophal; in connection with נְחשֶׁת, it would just as well as the following טוֹכָה have the fem. form. It seems to be a noun formed like ,וּצָק מוּעָף ,מֻטָּה (Isa_8:8) with the meaning of polish. צָהֹב occurs Lev_13:30; Lev_13:32 of bleached hair, become somewhat fox-like by leprosy; the root, צהב, is, however, certainly connected with זהב, Arab. sahaba, and the other roots in צה and צח, whose meaning extends to: to be bright. הֲמוּדוֹת is properly a noun=lovelinesses, comp. כְּלֵי חֲמוּדוֹת, 2Ch_20:25.
Ezr_8:28. The sacredness of the guardians as such, especially of the treasures entrusted to them as a heave-offering to the Lord is emphasized by Ezra, in order to make them right watchful with reference to them until they shall have delivered them up.
Ezr_8:29. הַלִּשְׁכוֹת is acc. of direction, but not stat. constr. as the article shows. The לִשְׁכוֹת are, because almost exclusively the temple-chambers, sufficiently definite of themselves. בֵּית יְהוָֹה is in apposition with the foregoing.
Ezr_8:31-36. The journey and arrival in Jerusalem.
Ezr_8:31. They began their journey from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month. The interval from the first had been occupied by that which is narrated in Ezr_8:16-30. The statement in Ezr_8:15 that they had encamped only three days on river of Ahava is probably not to be understood as if they after three days had again broken up (Berth.), but indicates either the point of time when that which is mentioned in Ezr_8:15 sq. occurred (comp. v.32), namely, when Ezra observed the lack of Levites (Keil); or it means to say that after three days they had gone somewhat further on their way, but without leaving the river Ahava, towards a region where they could unite with those coming from Casiphiah, from thence them entering upon their journey proper.
Ezr_8:32. When then they had come to Jerusalem, according to Ezr_7:9, on the first day of the fifth month, then after a lapse of three and a half months, they remained there three days, that is, rested, until they understood something further, just as Nehemiah in Ezr_2:11, whilst without doubt they already made preparation for the delivery of the treasures.
Ezr_8:33. Now on the fourth day they weighed out the treasures in the hand (Ezr_8:26) of the priest Meremoth ben Uriah, whom we find again Neh_3:4; Neh_3:21, and probably also Neh_12:3, and Eleazar ben Phinehas, who is not further mentioned, and two Levites, Jozabad ben Jeshua, who may be identical with the one mentioned in Ezr_10:23, and Noadiah ben Binnui, whose family is mentioned likewise in Neh_10:10; Neh_12:8.
Ezr_8:34. By number and weight of every one, that is, as it was for each and every number and weight. The weight was written then at that time, as Neh_4:16, in a public document, so that the correct preservation might be confirmed.
Ezr_8:35. In order now to secure for themselves a good reception with the Lord, they offered above all burnt-offerings, whereby they rendered homage to Him, dedicated themselves to Him (comp. notes upon Ezr_3:3), and indeed for all Israel, in their name and as their representatives, conscious indeed that they had value before God only as a part of this whole, or rather as in union with entire Israel. They offered twelve bullocks (comp. Ezr_6:17), besides ninety-six rams (ninety-six as intensification of twelve) and seventy-seven lambs (seventy-seven as intensification of seven, the number seven expressing the covenant-relation), as a foundation of the burnt-offering, however, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering, because only the reconciled can do homage to the Lord in a proper manner and worthily dedicate themselves to Him.
Ezr_8:36. In order now to put themselves in a good relation with the satraps and governor in Abar Nahara, they delivered to them the decree of the king. The satraps, אחשׁדרפנים, Persian (according to the inscription of Behistun), khshatrapava, from khshatrapavan, from which the noun in the Hebrew expression of the word is explained, prop.=land-protector3 (comp. Est_3:12; Est_8:9; Dan_3:2), come into consideration as military officers, alongside of the governors, פַחֲווֹת, as the presidents of the civil government.—And they furthered, etc.—These closing words are certainly to be referred to those Persian magnates, to whom indeed this supporting was commanded by the royal edict, Ezr_7:20-24. נִשָּׂא as Ezr_1:4. The Perfect נִשְּׂאוּ with וְ simply continues the narrative as וְקִבְּלוּ in Ezr_8:30.
THOUGHTS UPON THE HISTORY OF REDEMPTION
Ezr_8:1-14. So long as God was obliged to dwell in a particular temple, in the midst of His congregation, yet separated from them, mediatorial persons were still necessary, namely, priests, and a worship of sacrifices; Jerusalem must still remain the proper place of worship, and Judah be the holy land as no other land could be. And the congregation in the dispersion must regard it as their sacred duty, over and over again to put themselves in relation to the temple and Jerusalem, and send thither whole bands, in whom the longing for the land of their fathers awoke, to the enlargement of the principal congregation, or yet at least little embassies (comp. Zec_6:9), to enliven the communion with it, so likewise to take part, when opportunity offered, either in person, or at least through representatives, in the offering of sacrifice in the legitimate place of sacrifices. This common relation to the one centre and hearthstone of their religious life, constituted a bond, which held the people together in spite of every scattering and spreading out, yes, cultivated the feeling of a grand unity; and even if this bond was only an external one, it yet was all the more important, the weaker the internal bond was in the times of the law and the letter of the law. Christendom is united by the internal bond of one common faith and the most comprehensive love. Would then that this may never prove internally weaker! Would that in spite of all distances and separations, all might remain ever truly and vitally conscious of this, that they may constitute more than the people of the old covenant one only great union the body of the Lord! What can be more exalting and strengthening than this consciousness that we do not stand alone, do not struggle alone, do not suffer alone, do not rejoice alone, but that the Lord has in every land a people, a great and united people?
Ezr_8:15-20. The relation to the God of Revelation who would be conceived, not according to common notions or ideas, but according to His historical manifestation of Himself, and on the ground of the acts of redemption wrought by Him, would be honored according to the regulations given by Himself,—begets by internal necessity the need of instruction and training. It cannot be maintained in any other way than by the parents’ making known to their children, and the learned to the unlearned, the Providences and Histories through which the true God has come near to the understanding, and that trained and suitable persons should cultivate the divine service in a proper manner. The idea, that religious knowledge, so far as it is necessary or desirable, makes its appearance in every man of itself, has no place except in the sphere of natural religion, and is connected, if it has become more general in our day, with a falling away from the religion of revelation to the religion of nature. It thus had its good ground that Ezra would not go up to Jerusalem and enter upon the work of elevation of the congregation at that place, without having gained above all a sufficient number of persons for his emigration, who might stand at his side, as instructors and helpers in the worship of God. And for those who would cherish the true religion, it should ever be a chief care to attract suitable teachers and ministers to the church, whilst now, sad to see, it seems as if it were thought that, at any rate, they could be dispensed with.
Ezr_8:21-30. Already in Isa_52:11 the encouragement: depart, depart, go ye out from thence, is connected with the admonition, be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord. Ezra might even, without this, have felt himself called upon to prepare himself and those who accompanied him by fasting; that is, by self-humiliation, for the journey to Jerusalem. But since he carried with him vessels and treasure designed for the house of the Lord, and in so far sacred; in other words, since his journey ministered not to ordinary, but sacred purposes, by which properly all who took part received a higher significance, purification and sanctification by true and genuine fasting, were an especially indispensable prerequisite. No one can essentially further the cause and honor of God in a free and conscious manner without previously doing what fasting signifies—namely, chastising, yea, overcoming his soul—that is, his old man. He who has accomplished this will then have a keener feeling also for the particular obligation imposed upon him by his calling or his task, especially for the sacred duty conscientiously to watch that that which has been intrusted to us of blessings or gifts shall be truly serviceable for the higher ends for which they were given to us. He will understand the connection between the two when Ezra says: at first, be ye holy to the Lord, and the Vessels are holy,—so watch and take care, etc.
Ezr_8:31-36. Men like Ezra, who know that they are instruments in the hand of the Lord, and indeed for the accomplishment of a high mission, may reckon with the confidence of heroes on especial divine protection and support in the midst of all the dangers threatening them: “And although all the devils would withstand us‚” etc. What, however, is secured to them in this respect by God cannot be for them a motive for giving themselves over to a false security, but only become an impulse for them to make use of all that is entrusted to them, with all the more conscientiousness for the accomplishment of its purposes. At the same time they would be very careful, like Ezra, when he ordered the weight of the gifts brought by him to be written down, of securing their good name against any wicked slanders that so easily are raised against them. That the returned exiles so soon offered sacrifice to the Lord, and indeed burnt-offerings, with the sin-offerings belonging to them, expresses, moreover, the knowledge that the mere offering of external gifts, however great they might be, amounted to nothing; that an internal gift, namely, that of the heart, by internal worship, must be added, yea, that it alone, if it be of the true kind, gives worth to all the rest.
When the returned exiles laid claim to protection and support on the part of the magistracy through the handing over the decree of the king to his officers, they subordinated themselves to them thereby at the same time. As they thus through their sacrifice gave to God what belonged to God, so through the decree of Artaxerxes they gave to the state what the state might expect.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Ezr_8:15-20. The importance of teachers and other officials in the congregation. 1) Ezra, although there were priests enough in Jerusalem, felt the absence of Levites and other persons of lower rank, who there might care for the divine service, and also instruct the people. 2) He seeks to procure them before he undertakes anything further. 3) He gains them through the experienced help of God.—Starke: That Ezra seeks to supply the lack of Levites, and sends so far for them, shows his zeal for the house of God, and indicates how much we should make of wise ministers of God, should it ever be necessary to bring them from afar. We need also frequently such persons as may fill the lower offices more pressingly than others who sit in exalted stations; and we must have more village-pastors than doctors of theology and superintendents. He who is of a sincere and unenvious disposition in the ministerial office will not always be alone, but can very well endure, yea, desires and assists, that more laborers and colleagues may be procured alongside of him, Num_11:29; Mat_9:37.
Ezr_8:21-30. Respecting the true preparation for the most important journey. 1) By fasting or overcoming one’s self; 2) By watchfulness with respect to the blessings and gifts that serve to glorify the divine name; 3) By conscientious execution of the higher duties.—Starke: Although Christians are not bound to any particular time of fasting, yet they should ever lead a temperate and moderate life, in order that they may be the more qualified for prayer, 1Pe_4:8.—Observe this, ye travellers: Divine protection sought by humble prayer is your safest escort.—God is the best guide (Psa_91:11); though we walk in the dark valley we need not fear, Psa_23:4. If after the offering of prayer our enterprise goes successsfully on, we ought not to think that it has been without dangers, but confidently believe that our prayer has been heard.
Ezr_8:31-36. The pilgrims to Zion. 1) Their journey (is towards Jerusalem under God’s especial protection); 2) their blessings and gifts (belong to the house and congregation of the Lord); 3) their aim (to offer to the Lord, and indeed, above all themselves, recognizing the authorities of the world). Brentius: Sunt autem (Christiani), sanctificari in baptismo per fidem in Christum. Unde portare debent sancta vasa, quæ sunt sancta opera. Credere in Christum, sanctum opus est.
[Henry: All our concerns about ourselves, our families, our estates, ’tis our Wisdom and Duty by Prayer to commit them to God and leave the care of them with Him. Our prayers must always be seconded with endeavors.—’Tis a great ease to one’s mind to be discharged from a trust; and a great honor to one’s name to be able to make it appear that it hath been faithfully discharged.—Wordsworth: It appears from the narrative that Ezra’s God was good, his treasurers faithful, and his companions devout; and that the royal governors furthered his work. Such were the salutary effects of prayer and fasting.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][Rawlinson: “In the right direction and at about the right distance are found a river and a town bearing the same name, called by the early Greeks Is. (Herod. I. 179), and by the later Act (Isid. Chas., p.5), by the Babylonians themselves Ibi, and here apparently Ahava. The modern name of the place is Hit. It is famous for its bitumen springs and is situated on the Euphrates at a distance of about eighty miles from Babylon towards the northwest.”—Tr..]
[2][Rawlinson in loco: “The writer seems to mean that he had before him a list of the two hundred and twenty, though he did not think it necessary that he should insert it.”—Tr.].
[3][Rawlinson in loco: “The word is derived from khshatra, “crown”, and pal, “to protect.” the active part. of which would be pana. It is evident that the Hebrew term represents the older form of the word, and represents it pretty closely. There is a prosthetic Aleph, as in Adarkon and Ahasuerus, and the tr of the Persian becomes in the Hebrew dr; but otherwise the letters are correctly rendered.” Rawlinson refers the satrap to the chief ruler of the Persian provinces, from which the governors (pachavoth), rulers of smaller districts, are distinguished.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain GENEALOGY OF EZRA’S COMPANIONS FROM BABYLON, Ezr_8:1-14.
GENEALOGY OF EZRA’S COMPANIONS FROM BABYLON, Ezr_8:1-14.
1. Chief of their fathers — This is not a list of the names of Ezra’s companions, nor even of all the elders or chief fathers among them, but rather a record of their genealogy, showing what ancient houses of Israel were represented, and designating them by the names of distinguished ancestors of the remote past.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Chap. Ezr_8:1-20. The List of those that went up…
Chap. Ezr_8:1-20. The List of those that went up with Ezra to Jerusalem
(a) 1–14. List of the Heads of Fathers’ Houses, accompanying Ezra
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1. These are now the chief of their fathers] R.V. Now these are the heads of their fathers’ houses. Literally, ‘now these are the heads of their fathers’, a shortened form of expression, as in Ezr_2:68.
and this is the genealogy of them] In the following list we have the names both of the houses and of their chiefs or representatives.
On the word ‘genealogy’ see Ezr_2:62. The LXX. οἱ ὁδηγοί.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1-14) A list of the chief names, given by…
VIII.
(1-14) A list of the chief names, given by families, of those who accompanied Ezra.
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(1) This is the genealogy.—The names of the heads of houses is followed generally by that of the wider families they belonged to. With this list is to be compared the register of those who went up with Zerubbabel (Ezr_2:2 seq.).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO WENT UP TO JERUSALEM…
THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO WENT UP TO JERUSALEM WITH EZRA, AND THE NAMES OF THE CHIEF MEN. (Ezr_8:1-14) This list is parallel with that of Ezr_2:3-19, and repeats for the most part the same family names, though not quite in the same order. The numbers are in each case very much smaller, never amounting to one-third, and sometimes falling below one-twelfth. At the utmost, three new families are mentioned as furnishing colonists those of Shechaniah (ver. 5), Shelomith (ver. 10), and Joab (ver. 9); but in two of these cases the reading is doubtful Altogether, we may say that Ezra was accompanied to Jerusalem by members of the same families as Zerubbabel, but by fewer families, and by fewer members of each. Thus Ezra"s list is much shorter than Zerubbabel"s. It contains, however, more names of chiefs, eighteen such names being given, whereas in Zerubbabel"s list there are, including Zerubbabel himself, only eleven. The entire number of adult male colonists who accompanied Ezra was, including Levites and Nethinim, 1773. Counting five to a family, this would give a total of nearly 9000 souls. Among the chief men, there is no name that is remarkable, excepting that of Hattush. "Hattush, of the sons of Shechaniah," is, beyond all reasonable doubt, the descendant of David mentioned in 1Ch_3:22, who was a son of Shemaiah, and Zerubbabers great-great-grandson.
On the expression chief of the fathers see comment on Ezr_2:68.
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Vers. 1-20.
The rendezvous, or the second muster.
We have been told twice before in this story that Ezra went up from Babylon to Jerusalem, (Ezr_7:6-8, Ezr_7:9) and that he did not go by himself. But we only now enter upon the actual details of this second and supplementary expedition. Who were those that went up with him? And what was the nature of the first step which he and they took in common? We may answer these questions in the opposite order. The first step was to meet Ezra at the river or town of Ahava, situated, it is supposed, on the road to Jerusalem via Carchemish, and far enough off from Babylon to ensure comparative quiet and proper discrimination. Those who came consisted of two principal detachments, one of which came to the spot not only before the other, but in a somewhat different way. We may describe the first detachment as one in which we find the first last; the second as being one in which we find the last first.
I THE FIRST LAST. Who might be expected to be foremost in a case of this kind? Where do we find them in actual fact? Let us consider this
1. As to family. Judging by all analogy, the family of David, the royal family of Judah, ought to have been foremost in such a matter. Who so likely to feel the evils of captivity as the heirs to a throne? Who so eager to return from banishment (one would suppose) as those who had been banished at once from dignity and from home? The previous return, also, under the edict of Cyrus, seems to bear out this idea. Though no figure there is so prominent as that of Ezra is here, yet the most prominent of all those there mentioned is that of Zerubbabel, the lineal descendant of David, and representative of his house. Under his Babylonian name of Sheshbazzar he is the only person mentioned by name as returning in ch. 1., and be comes first of all in the detailed catalogue of ch. 2. Most probably, also, judging from what we read long afterwards of the descendants of David in Luk_2:4, the 123 returning "men of Bethlehem" mentioned in Ezr_2:21 in a later part of the same catalogue were kinsmen of his. In thepresent instance, on the other hand, we find apparent mention in vers. 2, 3 of only one of this same royal family as returning, viz., Hattush, of the sons of Shechaniah (so, with many, we read these verses. Comp. 1Ch_3:22 and preceding verses) Also we find even this solitary specimen of that royal race only occupying the third place on the list of those named. Whatever the reasons, therefore, this is the fact, that the family first in rank and genealogy appears anything but first here either in importance or position. Is it the beginning of that descent which ends long after with finding David"s greatest descendant as a "carpenter"s son"?
(2) As to class. Here, also, judging from analogy, the class to take the lead in a journey to the centre and heart of Jewish worship and faith would be that class to which belonged exclusively, in its various ramifications, the administration of worship. Such, we find, too, in the previous expedition, was the ease on the whole. The Levites then, it is true, were not many either in number or in proportion, when all told; but the priests then, though all belonging, apparently, to only four out of the whole twenty-four courses, were very many in proportion. The exact numbers of both (Wordsworth) were 350 Levites and 4200 priests, out of a total of 42, 300 Israelites, the priests, therefore, constituting about one-tenth of the whole. (Ezr_2:36-42, Ezr_2:64) A very large proportion, if we bear in mind that the priests represented only one family (that of Aaron) out of two families (those of Aaron and Moses), both sprung from Amram, one of the eight grandsons of Levi; a state of things, it will be easily seen, which would probably make the priests about one-sixteenth of one tribe, instead of being, as in this ease, one-tenth of the whole assemblage. In contrast to this, in the present ease, though something more than twelve priests, judging from ver. 24, must have been present, only two, exclusive of Ezra himself, were thought worthy of being named (see ver. 2), those who accompanied them (if any really did) being not referred to or even mentioned, as was the ease before in Ezr_2:36-39, and as is the case also here as to all the other Israelitish families referred to in vers. 3-14. The ease as to the Levites is still more surprising. Not only were none numbered in this first detachment; none at all after three days" search were even to be found (end ver. 15). They were "conspicuous by their absence." Other families of Israelites that had sent up members before were doing the same now (comp. vers. 3-14 with; (Ezr_2:3 seq.) one such family, apparently, their very last man (ver. 13); but no Levitical family had done anything of the kind. Many lay Israelites, a few priests, no Levites at all. Altogether, this is the most notable feature in this detachment as here reviewed by Ezra (ver. 15), viz., that those who should have been in the van of all are either, as it were, in the rear, or else not present at all.
II THE LAST FIRST. This will be seen by considering the steps taken by Ezra to remedy the state of things just described. We find that he went
(1) to the right quarter, viz., to a place called Casiphia (possibly the "White House," from keseph, white), the geography of which is unknown, but which may have been (Wordsworth and others) a kind of college for Levites, or at any rate a place where many dwelt in company with their associates the Nethinims, and under the presidency of one Iddo, either himself perhaps a Levite, or even a Nethinim (comp. "his brethren," ver. 17), of high repute. Also he sent
(2) by the right sort of messengers, viz., by a considerable body of them, even eleven well-known men, likely therefore to be of weight. Also by men well qualified, being men accustomed to command ("chief"), and yet prepared to obey ("with commandment"); some of them, further, being accustomed to teach ("men of understanding" = teachers 1Ch_15:22 1Ch_25:8; Neh_8:7, Neh_8:9, etc., Kiel) yet not unwilling to be taught, and to have words put in their mouth (ver. 17, margin); thus showing, as noticed before, that Ezra understood men as well as books.
(3) With the right kind of result.
(a) As to number, bringing back 258 pilgrims in all;
(b) as to qualifications, all brought back being such "ministers" (ver. 17) as were sought;
(c) as to variety, being both Levites and their assistants;
(d) as to character, being all men of resolution and purpose, whose "names" (end ver. 20) would be given as those of men whose minds were made up.
Also, among these, two especially of much note, viz., Sherebiah and Hashabiah (comp. ver. 24, and, Neh_8:7 Neh_9:4 Neh_10:11, 12 12:24) the first named especially being a man of such acknowledged judgment and learning that his coming was regarded as a special mark of God"s providential goodness (so we understand, with many, begin, ver. 18). Thus conspicuously were the "last first;" thus happily were the vacant places in Ezra"s company, as it were, more than supplied Ezra himself being judge.
In CONCLUSION, we may see here
1. How important religious movements often begin, viz., with the comparatively undistinguished, the rank and file. So with John the Baptist, (Mat_21:26) and our Lord himself (Mar_12:37; Joh_7:48) Both cases seem referred to in Mat_21:31, Mat_21:32.
1. How they are often perfected afterwards, viz., by the coming in then of distinguished persons assuming the lead of the whole. So amongst those baptized by John came Jesus among the last. (Luk_3:21) See, also, in regard to the burial of Christ, how the two "counsellors," Joseph and Nicodemus, then interfered. And, finally, in the preaching of the gospel, how Paul was "born" last and became the first (1Co_15:8-10; 2Co_11:5, 2Co_11:23, etc.; Gal_2:5, Gal_2:8)
2. How all so assisting have their peculiar points, both good and evil. Some are to be praised for forwardness, (2Co_9:2) some for steadiness when begun; some to be blamed for backwardness, some for fickleness, as the Galatians. So John is first to reach the sepulchre, Peter first to go in.
3. How perfect the impartiality of the Scriptural record. All this, so little to the credit of the Levites, written by a Levitical hand. Comp. story of Genesis 34., also 49:5-7, as recorded by Moses, himself a Levite.
4. How devoutly humble its spirit. Every advantage is attributed to the good hand of our God (1Co_15:10; Psa_115:1; Php_2:13)
HOMILIES BY J.S. EXELL. Vers. 1-20.
The Church preparing itself for duty.
I THAT IT IS PREPARED BY COMING OUT FROM A HUMILIATING CAPTIVITY. "This is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon" (ver. 1). Ezra and his comrades must quit the scene of their captivity before they can carry the sacred vessels to Jerusalem; the Church must arise and leave its moral Babylon before it can serve God in successful enterprise.
II THAT IT IS PREPARED BY PRAYERFUL SOLITUDE. "To the river that runneth to Ahava" (ver. 15).
1. Sacred solitude. Not the solitude of the misanthrope.
2. Prayerful solitude. Seeking guidance before setting out for Jerusalem.
3. Thoughtful solitude. Counting the cost of the journey to Jerusalem.
4. Active solitude. Ezra inspected the people and the priests, and finding none of the sons of Levi, successfully sent for them.
5. Friendly solitude. The companionships of heaven were with Ezra and his company by the river. Such solitude cannot fail to prepare the Church for duty.
III THAT IT IS PREPARED BY THE PROVIDENTIAL GIFT OF TALENT (ver. 18).
1. Talent required. Ezra inspected his company. God requires ability in the work of his Church. Ministers should see that the Church has the requisite capability for its work.
2. Talent varied. "The people, the priests, the Levites." The Church needs combined capabilities; the lower as well as the higher; the Levites as well as the priests.
3. Talent absent. "And found there none of the sons of Levi.
4. Talent sought. Ministers should endeavour to bring talent into the Church.
5. Talent obtained providentially. "And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding." Thus God prepares the Church for duty.
IV THAT IT IS PREPARED BY THE ENERGY OF ONE DEVOUT MAN. "And I gathered them together" (ver. 15). Who was this man? He was a "ready scribe." He had "prepared his heart to seek the law of the. (Ezr_7:10) Such men are competent to prepare the Church for duty; they have first prepared themselves.
1. The power of sanctified individuality in the Church.
2. The use God makes of a sanctified individuality in the Church.
3. The wisdom of a sanctified individuality in the Church. It discovers the absent Levites.
4. The authority of a sanctified individuality in the Church. It sends for the Levites and they come. E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And I gathered them together to the river that…
Ezr_8:1-20
And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava.
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The assembly at Ahava
I. The long journey commenced.
II. An important inspection made. This halt illustrates--
1. The need of seasons of rest.
2. The use of seasons of rest.
III. A grave deficiency discovered. Ministers of religion are sometimes slow in making personal sacrifices and rendering personal assistance even in a good enterprise.
IV. The supply of the deficienct sought. He sought them--
1. By means of influential men.
2. By sending them to the right place.
3. By sending them to the right man.
4. By sending them with precise instructions.
V. The supply of the deficiency obtained.
1. The supply was sufficient.
2. The supply was various.
3. The supply was remarkable for the presence of at least one man of distinguished ability.
4. The supply was obtained by the blessing of God. (William Jones.)
A man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli.
Men of understanding
I. Are the gifts of God.
1. They derive their abilities from Him.
2. They rightly develop their abilities by His blessing.
3. They attain their moral excellences by His blessing.
II. Are of great worth amongst men.
1. Understanding is essential to the beneficent employment of other gifts and powers.
2. The employment of understanding itself confers great benefits upon society.
Conclusion: It behoves us--
1. To praise God for men of understanding.
2. To prize such men.
3. To endeavour to become men of understanding. (William Jones.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.] This chapter contains—(i.) A list…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.] This chapter contains—(i.) A list of the heads of houses, with the number of adult males accompanying each of them, who went with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezr_8:1-14). (ii.) An account of the encampment for three days at the river Ahava, and the doings there; viz., obtaining ministers for the Temple service (Ezr_8:15-20); proclaiming and observing a religious fast (Ezr_8:21-23); arranging for the safe keeping during the journey of the offerings and the precious vessels for the Temple (Ezr_8:24-30). (iii.) A brief record of their departure from Ahava and arrival at Jerusalem (Ezr_8:31-32); and (iv.) Of the careful delivery of the treasures in the Temple (Ezr_8:33-34), the offering of sacrifices to God (Ezr_8:35), and delivering their commissions unto the king’s lieutenants (Ezr_8:36).
Ezr_8:1. The chief of their fathers] or, “the heads of their families.” Keil: “The heads of the houses.”
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Ezr_8:2-14] This list is parallel with that of chap. Ezr_2:3-19. Many of the family names (or, as Keil calls them, “designations of races,” e.g. Pharosh, Pahath-moab, &c.) are common to both; while some are found in each which are absent from the other. The presence of the same family names “in both lists is to be explained by the circumstance that portions of” such families or races “returned with Zerubbabel, and that the rest did not follow till Ezra’s departure.” The number of families in Ezra’s list is smaller than in that of Zerubbabel, and the members of each family less numerous. The total number of adult males, including Levites and Nethinim (Ezr_8:18-20), who returned with Ezra was 1775, according to this list.
Ezr_8:2-3] The first member of Ezr_8:3 should probably be joined to Ezr_8:2 : Of the sons of David; Hattush, of the sons of Shecaniah] It is almost certain that this is the Hattush of 1Ch_3:22, the son of Shemaiah and grandson of Shecaniah.
Ezr_8:5] The Hebrew text seems to be imperfect here by reason of the falling out of a name. Keil suggests that the reading, as in the LXX., should be, “Of the sons of Zattu, Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel.” (Comp. chap. Ezr_2:8.)
Ezr_8:10] A similar defect seems to exist in the text of this verse. The deficiency is thus supplied in the LXX., “And of the sons of Bani, Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah.” (Comp. chap. Ezr_2:10.) This emendation is also accepted by Keil.
Ezr_8:13. And of the last sons of Adonikam] &c. “Here, instead of the name of the head of the house, we read the words, ‘last, and these their names;’ whereupon three names are given, and not till then, ‘and with them sixty males.’ Here, then, it is not the head of the house who is named, but in his place three heads of families, amounting together to sixty males. Now, as these three families did not form a house, these sixty sons of Adonikam who returned with Ezra are, with regard to the six hundred and sixty-six sons of Adonikam who returned with Zerubbabel (chap. Ezr_2:13), designated the last, or last arrived, and thus comprised with them as one house.”—Keil.
Ezr_8:15. The river that runneth to Ahava] In Ezr_8:21; Ezr_8:31 : “the river of Ahava.” The name both of a place and of a river. “The latest researches,” according to Mr. Grove (Bibl. Dict.), “are in favour of its being the modern Hit, on the Euphrates, due east of Damascus,” and north-west of Babylon, from which it was about eighty miles distant. The place is famous for its bitumen springs. “The river of Ahava” is a small stream which here flows into the Euphrates. And there abode we in tents three days] From this statement, and that of Ezr_8:31, “We departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month,” we learn that they arrived at Ahava on the ninth day of the first month; the journey from Babylon having been commenced on the first day of that month (chap. Ezr_7:9).
Ezr_8:17. Casiphia] “a place of uncertain site on the road between Babylon and Jerusalem.”—Bibl. Dict. “The place Casiphia is entirely unknown, but cannot have been far from the river Ahava.”—Keil. It seems that both Levites and Nethinim, the upper and lower orders of Temple ministers, had settled in Casiphia; and that Iddo was the chief man of the place, and possessed considerable influence amongst these orders.
Ezr_8:18. By the good hand of our God upon u] (Comp. chap. Ezr_7:6; Ezr_7:9; Ezr_7:28.) A man of understanding] Heb.: Ish sechel. Keil regards this as a proper name. But it seems to us better to take it as in the A. V.; or as Fuerst renders it, “A man of knowledge.” The man of understanding was named Sherebiah The ו copulative (and) was probably “inserted by a careless copyist,” or, if it be retained, it should be translated even. “A man of understanding, … even Sherebiah.” He is again mentioned in Ezr_8:24; Neh_8:7; Neh_9:4-5; Neh_10:12; Neh_12:24.
Ezr_8:19. Hashabiah] is again mentioned in Ezr_8:24; Neh_10:11; Neh_12:24.
Ezr_8:20. The Nethinims] (See on chap. Ezr_2:43.) All of them were expressed by name] i.e. Iddo sent a list of them to Ezra.
Ezr_8:21. A right way] Fuerst: An “even” or “plain way;” i.e. a prosperous journey (Comp. Jer_31:9 : “A straight way, wherein they shall not stumble.”)
Ezr_8:24. Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah] &c. It seems from the rendering of the A. V. that Sherebiah and Hashabiah were priests; but they have been already described as Levites (Ezr_8:18-19). The Heb. is לְשֵׁרֵבְיָה; but in the A.V., as in the Vulgate, ל is not translated. Keil suggests that for לְ, we should read וְ, and translate, “and Sherebiah;” for this reason that if we retain לְ, and translate “for Sherebiah,” we “place the priests in a servile relation to the Levites, contrary to their true position.” We prefer to retain the לְ, and to translate, “Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests to Sherebiah,” &c. This would not involve the subordination of the priests to the Levites; but would mean that Ezra appointed twelve chiefs of the priests to act with twelve chief Levites, of whom Sherebiah and Hashabiah were two, in keeping the offerings fur the Temple during the journey.
Ezr_8:26. Six hundred and fifty talents of silver] According to Dr. Arbuthnot’s tables this would be equivalent to £222,421, 17s. 6d. of our money; and according to Mr. R. S. Poole’s estimate (Bibl. Dict.), to about £260,000. Of gold an hundred talents] or £547,500 of our money, according to Dr. Arbuthnot, and a little over £1,000,000, according to Mr. Poole.
Ezr_8:27. Two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold] Margin: “Heb., ‘yellow, or shining brass, desirable as gold.’ ” “They may have been,” says Canon Farrar, “of orichalcum, like the Persian or Indian vases found among the treasures of Darius (Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult.).”—Bibl. Dict. Keil speaks of them thus: “Two brazen vessels of fine golden brilliancy, precious as gold.”
Ezr_8:29. The chambers of the house of the Lord] (Comp. 1Ki_6:5; Neh_13:5.)
Ezr_8:31. The river of Ahava] (See notes on Ezr_8:15.) He delivered us from] &c. (Comp. Ezr_8:22.)
Ezr_8:32. Abode there three days] for rest after the fatigues and trials of their long journey. (Comp. Neh_2:11.)
Ezr_8:33. Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest] He is mentioned again in Neh_3:4; Neh_3:21; Neh_10:5; Neh_12:3. Eleazar the son of Phinehas] is probably the person who is named in Neh_12:42. Meremoth and Eleazar were priests. Jozabad the son of Jeshua] is mentioned in chap. Ezr_10:23; Neh_8:7. Noadiah the son of Binnui] is not named in the subsequent history. Jozabad and Noadiah were distinguished Levites.
Ezr_8:34. By number and by weight] &c. The vessels were both weighed and counted; the gold and silver were probably only weighed. And all the weight was written at that time] “i.e. an authentic list was made at the delivery which then took place.”—Keil.
Ezr_8:35. The children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity] i.e. those who had returned with Ezra. Offered burnt offerings] &c. (Comp. chap. Ezr_6:17; and see notes on that verse.)
Ezr_8:36. The king’s lieutenants] Keil: “The satraps of the king.” He says they “were the military chiefs of the province.” Rawlinson says they “were the highest class of the Persian provincial governors.” The governors] were, according to Keil, “the heads of the civil government.” Rawlinson: “It denotes a lower grade of official.” They furthered the people] &c., or, “they supported the people,” &c.
THE ASSEMBLY AT AHAVA
(Ezr_8:1-20)
I. The long journey commenced. “These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon,” &c. “Upon the first day of the first month” (chap. Ezr_7:9) they set out from Babylon, and continued their journey for several days without any lengthened encampment. They entered upon their journey, we conceive, with mingled feelings of hope and fear. They were encouraged by hopes of reaching their famous fatherland, and of there enjoying the precious privileges of their religion; but the pleasure of these anticipations was moderated by the thought of the difficulties and dangers of the long journey that lay before them. Moreover, it is almost certain that, in leaving Babylon, most of them were sacrificing temporal advantages, and breaking up treasured associations, and severing themselves from dear friends, and these things could not have been done without much mental suffering; but at the summons of duty and the invitations of sacred privileges, they deliberately encountered these trials, and went up from Babylon. Their departure may be looked at as an illustration of the exodus of the soul from the captivity of a life of sin and its setting out on its upward pilgrimage.
II. An important inspection made. “And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days; and I viewed the people and the priests.” On the ninth day of the first month they encamped at Ahava, they remained there “in tents three days” (Ezr_8:15), and then, “on the twelfth day of the first month,” they departed from the river of Ahava to go unto Jerusalem (Ezr_8:31). This halt illustrates—
1. The need of seasons of rest. The company with Ezra needed rest after the excitement and trials of their departure, and the toils of the first stage of their long journey. The Almighty recognised and provided for man’s need of rest when He ordained the night to succeed the day, and in the institution of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ recognised it, and said unto His disciples, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” In our life-pilgrimage there are times when we need to rest from our labours for awhile, and, if possible, to lay aside our cares. (a).
2. The use of seasons of rest. Ezra employed the three days which were spent at Ahava in such a manner that great advantages to his company resulted from them. He reviewed the assembled people, &c. Rest time should not be waste time. As individuals we should use our seasons of rest in reviewing the way in which the Lord hath led us, in considering our present condition and circumstances, and in preparing ourselves for future work. And if a church has comparative rest for a brief season, such rest should be employed in equipping its members for more vigorous service.
III. A grave deficiency discovered. “I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.” There were no Levites in the company, except such as were priests, and they had their own proper duties. All the priests were “of the sons of Levi,” but all “the sons of Levi” were not priests, but those only who were of the family of Aaron. Of the Levites proper, members of the other families of the tribe of Levi, who ministered in subordination to the priests, Ezra could not find any in his company. None of them was present. This was to their discredit. They should have been most eager to embrace the opportunity of going to Jerusalem, and there entering upon the duties of their sacred calling. They who are in possession of sacred privileges and engaged in the performance of sacred duties, are not always characterised by personal zeal and devotedness in the cause of God. Ministers of religion are sometimes slow in making personal sacrifices and rendering personal assistance even in a good enterprise. (b). They should be leaders, &c.
IV. The supply of the deficiency sought. “Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan,” &c. (Ezr_8:16-17). Ezra was unwilling to proceed until he had secured a band of Levites to go with them. The means which he employed to obtain them are worthy of notice. He sought them—
1. By means of influential men. He called for eleven leading men of his company; nine of them are characterised as “chief men,” and the other two as “men of understanding” or wisdom (Ezr_8:16), and sent them to seek for “ministers for the house of God.” Such men were likely to succeed where men of an inferior type would have failed. Important affairs should be entrusted only to competent men.
2. By sending them to the right place. He “sent them unto the place Casiphia.” It has been conjectured that there was at Casiphia a college “for the education of priests, Levites, and Nethinim, over which Iddo presided; where they had the free exercise of their religion, and had so comfortable a support that they were not inclined to remove. ‘It is very probable they had their synagogues or other places where they met for religious worship; for we find the people resorting to Ezekiel in their captivity, and him preaching to them the Word of God, in many places of his book (Eze_33:31), &c. And Ezra in all likelihood was an instructor among them.’ ”—Bishop Patrick. But, apart from conjectures, it is clear that a considerable number of Levites and Nethinim dwelt at Casiphia, and that Ezra was cognisant of the fact; therefore to that place he despatched his messengers.
3. By sending them to the right man. Ezra “sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief,” &c. Iddo was probably a Levite; for the Nethinim being a lower order of Temple servants, it is not at all probable that one of their number would be “chief” over Levites. Iddo was “the chief at the place Casiphia,” was evidently disposed to further the movement under Ezra, and, from his sending a list of the names of those who went from Casiphia (Ezr_8:20), seems to have been a man of methodical and business-like habits.
4. By sending them with precise instructions. Ezra “told them what they should say unto Iddo,” &c. Margin: “Heb., ‘I put words in their mouth.’ ” Thus this mission was admirably selected and sent forth, and it deserved success. (c).
V. The supply of the deficiency obtained. “And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding,” &c. (Ezr_8:18-20). Notice—
1. The supply was sufficient. About forty Levites and two hundred and twenty Nethinim went from Casiphia and joined the returning exiles under Ezra.
2. The supply was various. There were Levites, and Nethinim “for the service of the Levites.” Different grades of ministry are necessary for the various spheres of service in the Church of God.
3. The supply was remarkable for the presence of at least one man of distinguished ability. “They brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, even Sherebiah.” This man afterwards rendered important service in the history of the people, as we see from Ezr_8:24; Neh_8:7; Neh_9:4-5; Neh_10:12; Neh_12:24.
4. The supply was obtained by the blessing of God. “By the good hand of our God upon us they brought us,” &c. Thus Ezra traces the success of this mission to the gracious assistance of God.
“Except the Lord conduct the plan,
The best concerted schemes are vain,
And never can succeed;
We spend our wretched strength for nought!
But if our works in Thee be wrought
They shall be blest indeed.”
—C. Wesley.
“If,” says M. Henry, “where ministers have been wanting, the vacancies are well supplied, let God have the glory, and His good hand be acknowledged as qualifying them for the service, inclining them to it, and then opening a door of opportunity for them.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) It will be confessed by all men, even by the veriest slaves to their ever-driving ambition, that physical rest is sometimes needed. The aching limb asks for it; the hand that is so weary that it cannot any longer hold pen, or tool, or weapon of war, says, in its trembling weakness, “Let me rest awhile;” and the fevered brain, over-driven, excited almost to madness, says, in its sleeplessness and throbbing and heat, “Let me rest awhile.” Well, then, here is so much gained. We shall be able to make our way from this low point to a much higher phase of rest, and find our way upward, from the cry of the feeble and exhausted flesh, to the greater, more solemn, and urgent wants of our over-excited spiritual nature; we shall understand, in some degree, that our highest, divinest faculties must occasionally pause, rest, and recover themselves, if they would fully, with completeness and perfectness, discharge all the duties and obligations which Almighty God has imposed upon them. Rest is as necessary as labour. He is not a philosopher, but a madman, who lights the candle of his life at both ends.—Joseph Parker, D.D.
(b) There is an old proverb, “The temple mouse fears not the temple idol.” It is a painful experience, present to the hearts of most of us, how different is the awe of the first service in which we ministered, and of the fiftieth or hundredth. At first, the putting on of the surplice was a dedication—the entering of the vestry was a solemnity—the opening Sentences, the Exhortation, the Confession, read by our lips, seemed as though they consecrated those lips themselves to a new use and a new religion. So was it with each function of the holy office. The first reading of the Commandments—the first Sermon—the first Communion in which we followed with the Cup—the first baptism, the first wedding—the first visit to a sick-room, the first commendatory prayer beside the dying, the first saying of the words, “Dust to dust,” by the open grave—each was an event, each was an epoch, of the life within—it had an effect, a spiritual effect, upon the conscious immortal man. It may be that we relied upon this—thought it needless to impress the feeling, to turn emotion into principle, by prayer and watching—felt confident that the repetition of the occasion would revive the effect—trusted to this, and left it there. A year afterwards we could stand unmoved by the grave, talk and laugh in the vestry, fall half asleep as we read the Prayers. Even with the best efforts made and persisted in, we could never reawaken the solemnity of the beginning. Duty becomes habit, habit becomes familiarity, and familiarity, if it breeds not contempt, at least forbids that kind of awe which is more nature than grace.
And some of us make the fatal mistake of expecting our Profession to make or to keep us spiritual. Living always in holy things, what can we be but holy? We learn a new lesson as years advance—and although we can give thanks still for the blessing of having the inward and the outward life of one piece and of one colour, occupied in the same thoughts and the same studies, mutually helpful and sympathetic with each other—yet we feel more and more that there is no security, in this harmony, for holy living; that there is no royal road, but that which is open for all wayfarers, to the saint’s life and the saint’s rest; nay, that there is even an added risk, for the priest of God’s temple, lest he find that “common” to him which is “holy” for all besides, just because he must daily touch and daily handle, daily prepare and daily dispense, that bread of life which souls only can digest, and which his soul may, by the very having, have not. There is nothing for it but to say to ourselves, and act upon it, “Like people, like priest.” Just what they want, I want—just what I bid them do, I will do. I will prepare for my work, I will do my work, not as though it could sanctify, not as though it were (of itself) either hither or thither as to my soul’s state, but as needing, like any commonest trade or handicraft, a soul at peace with God beforehand, a soul in full communion with God beforehand, a soul preoccupied by the Holy Spirit sought and cherished, a soul setting God always before it, by Him first quickened, then to Him afterwards ministering.—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.
(c) Ministers will not be found ready made, and ministers cannot be made to order. There is no royal road to the supply of the ministry. There is no climate in which ministers are indigenous. There is no patent by which ministers can be manufactured. Ministry is a gift, ministry is a growth, ministry is an inspiration. It is not every educated man—still less is it every uneducated man—who is even capable of it. The minister is the ultimate product of a long operation of Providence and of grace, working individually, working secretly, and giving no account of itself. When our Lord looked upon the vast shepherdless multitudes, He had but one suggestion to make for the ministerial supply: “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest”—and He was there Himself—“that He will send forth”—and the word is a very strong one—“labourers into His harvest.” This is the one hope now. In comparison with this, any other suggestion must be timid and tentative. Yet something perhaps might be done by a keen and practised eye directed towards our schools and homes. Young intelligence, young diligence, young devotion, sought out by the loving watchfulness of master or minister, might be fashioned, here and there, even from a humble stock, by a wise influence and sometimes a generous bounty, into an eventual aptitude for the ministry. To foster this promise, but in one or two cases, into performance, is a noble ambition for any one who cares for his Church’s future.—Ibid.
THE COMPANIONS OF EZRA ON HIS JOURNEY to JERUSALEM
(Ezr_8:1-20)
The following observations are suggested by these verses:—
1. Whilst love of the world and fear of the cross induce most men to neglect the salvation of the Gospel, they who obey the gracious call stand recorded in the Book of Life, and will be honoured by God Himself (Ezr_8:1-14).
2. When some of a family embrace the Gospel, they who linger behind may probably follow; till sometimes, in answer to fervent prayers, the very last are brought in (Ezr_8:13).
3. Alas! that professed ministers, who ought to take the lead in every good work, are generally so backward to labour, or venture, or suffer in the cause of God, and need to be stirred up by the example and exhortations even of their lay brethren! (Ezr_8:15, last part).
4. But such as address them on these occasions should be “chief men,” or “men of understanding;” lest they should be irritated, instead of being persuaded (Ezr_8:16-17). They must not, however, be left to their negligence: and their superior brethren, having given them a good example, may send or speak to them, with more authority and effect than others can; and often those who were before inattentive will profit by meek and faithful admonitions.
5. When ministers for the work of the house of our God are raised up, who are men of piety and understanding, we should acknowledge “the good hand of our God upon us,” and give Him the praise; as we ought at all times to lift up our prayers to Him for this blessing to His Church (Ezr_8:18-20).—Arranged from Scott’s Comm.
MEN OF UNDERSTANDING
(Ezr_8:18)
“By the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding … Sherebiah.”
Sherebiah was not merely a man of knowledge and intelligence, but of wisdom and prudence. Sechel, here rendered “understanding,” signifies moral excellences as well as mental abilities, as may be seen from its use elsewhere. The word rendered “them of understanding” in Dan_11:35, and “they that be wise” in Dan_12:3, comes from the same verb as sechel, viz., sachal. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding (sechel) have all they that do,” &c. (Psa_111:10). “There is no solid wisdom but in real piety.” (a).
The text teaches that—
I. Men of understanding are the gifts of God. Ezra traces the presence of Sherebiah amongst them to “the good hand of their God upon them.” Wise men are God’s gifts, inasmuch as—
1. They derive their abilities from Him. He bestowed upon them the faculties and capacities of their mental and moral nature.
2. They rightly develop their abilities by His blessing. He inspires them to every worthy purpose, and aids them in its prosecution.
3. They attain their moral excellences by His blessing. They “are His workmanship,” &c. (Eph_2:10). “By the grace of God they are what they are” (1Co_15:10).
II. Men of understanding are of great worth amongst men. Ezra perceived the value of Sherebiah to his company, acknowledged the goodness of God in his arrival amongst them, recorded his quality and his coming, and found him very useful subsequently. Men of understanding are of great worth in society because—
1. Understanding is essential to the beneficent employment of other gifts and powers. For example—
(1.) Zeal without understanding is a very perilous thing. “Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark.”
(2.) Strength without understanding often acts injuriously. “Wisdom is better than strength.… Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroyeth much good.”
“It is excellent
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.”—Shakespeare.
(3.) Great gifts of any kind without moral excellences are productive of great evils. Without grace, great powers are great engines of mischief and ruin, a curse and not a blessing to society. “Good understanding” is needful to ensure the usefulness of great abilities.
2. The employment of understanding itself confers great benefits upon society.
(1.) In restraining from unwise and sinful projects. We have an example in Act_5:34-40.
(2.) In originating and inciting to wise and good projects.
(3.) In devising appropriate methods for the attainment of such projects.
(4.) And for direction in life and work generally. “Wisdom is profitable to direct.” See how useful Sherebiah was to the Jews (Ezr_8:24; Neh_8:7; Neh_9:4-5; Neh_10:12; Neh_12:24). (b).
CONCLUSION: It behoves us—
1. To praise God for men of understanding.
2. To prize such men. Too often they have been neglected, and frequently cruelly persecuted while living, and honoured after death. Let us value them highly while they are yet with us. (c).
3. To endeavour to become men of understanding. “Wisdom is the principal thing: get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding.” “In understanding be men.” (d).
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptation within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menaces and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God is most unfaltering.—Seneca.
Remember that he is indeed the wisest and the happiest man who, by constant attention of thought, discovers the greatest opportunity of doing good, and, with ardent and animated resolution, breaks through every opposition that he may improve these opportunities.—P. Doddridge, D.D.
(b) We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him, He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near; the light which enlightens, which has enlightened, the darkness of the world; and this, not as a kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary, shining by the gift of Heaven; a flowing light-fountain, as I say, of native original insight, of manhood and heroic nobleness, in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with them.—Thomas Carlyle.
(c) Let us not forget that if honour be for the dead, gratitude can only be for the living. He who has once stood beside the grave, to look back upon the companionship which has been for ever closed, feeling how impotent, there, are the wild love and the keen sorrow, to give one instant’s pleasure to the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt to the heart, which can only be discharged to the dust. But the lesson which men receive as individuals, they do not learn as nations. Again and again they have seen their noblest descend into the grave, and have thought it enough to garland the tombstone when they had not crowned the brow, and to pay the honour to the ashes which they had denied to the spirit. Let it not displease them that they are bidden, amidst the tumult and the dazzle of their busy life, to listen for the few voices, and watch for the few lamps, which God has toned and lighted to charm and to guide them, that they may not learn their sweetness by their silence, nor their light by their decay.—John Ruskin, M.A.
(d) If you look at what keeps the world astir, you will at once conclude that most men around you are under the actuating influence of a very different maxim from that presented in Pro_4:7 : “Wisdom is the principal thing: get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.” You might, without being at all chargeable with a libel, read, “Money is the principal thing; therefore get money; and with all thy getting, get a fortune.” This, alas! is the world’s “one thing needful.” All else is postponed to this. The world’s advice to the young is, “Get money first. Secure a competency,” a word of which the limit is never defined; “and when that has been done, you will have leisure to think about what good folks call ‘better things.’ Mind you the main chance. This world is the one with which we have first to do, as we are placed first in it. This world, then, first, and then the next.” Ah! what a delusion!—Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.
Labour to be men of knowledge and sound understanding. A sound judgment is a most precious mercy, and conduces much to soundness of heart and life. A weak judgment is easily corrupted; and if it be once corrupt, the will and conversation will quickly follow. Your understandings are the inlet or entrance to the whole soul; and, if you be weak there, your souls are like a garrison that hath open or illguarded gates; and if the enemy be once let in there, the whole city will be quickly his own. Ignorance is virtually every error; therefore, let the Bible be much in your hands and hearts.—R. Baxter.
EZRA’S CONFIDENCE IN GOD
(Ezr_8:21-23)
I. Confidence in God avowed. “We had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God,” &c. (Ezr_8:22). Here is a declaration of faith—
1. In His providence. Ezra believed that God was interested in human affairs; that “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings;” and that His hand was working amongst men, directing and controlling, rewarding and punishing them. (a).
2. In His providence as efficiently promoting the interests of His people. “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him.” He regards His people with approval, guides their footsteps, guards them and their interests, and makes “all things work together for good to them.”
3. In His providence as opposed to those who forsake Him. “His power and His wrath are against all them that forsake Him.” The power which works for righteousness must be hostile to the workers of iniquity. The government of a holy God must set itself against impiety and wickedness.
II. Confidence in God tested. A long journey, which would involve many difficulties and dangers, was before Ezra and his great company; and he was the responsible leader in that journey. Can he trust in God and in His providence now? His confidence was tested—
1. By their need of guidance. The journey they were entering upon was a long one; they required some one to lead them in “a right way.” They had no visible symbol of the presence of God with them and guiding them, as their fathers had in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Can Ezra and his companions trust the invisible “hand of their God” in this matter?
2. By their need of protection. The journey that lay before them was a perilous one.
(1.) There was danger from “the enemy in the way.” The country through which they had to travel was infested with Arabian freebooters. And it seems probable, from Ezr_8:22; Ezr_8:31, that a plan had been arranged by some of them for attacking and plundering this company.
(2.) This danger was increased by the treasures which they carried with them. There was their own “substance,” and the gold and silver and precious vessels for the Temple service; the gold and silver alone, according to one computation, being worth upwards of three quarters of a million of our money, and according to another, upwards of a million and a quarter. What a temptation this would be to “the enemy in the way.”
(3.) Their danger was also increased by the character and composition of their company. Amongst them were many women and “little ones,” who in case of an attack would not be able to assist in repelling it, but would themselves require defence. Thus, if they were assaulted, they would be able to offer only a feeble resistance. Can Ezra trust their defence to the hand of their God upon them for good? Can he go forward towards “the enemy in the way,” relying upon that power which is against the wicked? Or, will he seek for help elsewhere?
III. Confidence in God maintained. Ezra considered their position and prospects, their difficulties and dangers, and their consequent needs, and he decided to trust in God for all, and to give practical proof of their confidence:
1. In not seeking guidance and defence from the king. “I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way.” The terms of the king’s commission to Ezra leave no room for doubt that if he had requested of him a military escort, the request would have been readily granted; but he determined not to do so. He and his companions might have adopted the words of David, “The Lord will hear from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God” (Psa_20:6-7).
2. In seeking guidance and defence from God. “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava,” &c. (Ezr_8:21). See how they sought unto God for what they needed—
(1.) Humbly. They fasted and afflicted themselves before their God, in deep self-abasement and penitence on account of sin, and with a view to its forgiveness.
(2.) Believingly. They not only fasted before God, but they prayed unto Him for a prosperous journey. Their confidence in Him did not lead them to neglect prayer to Him. True faith in God and in His gracious providence is not a substitute for prayer to Him, but an incentive thereto. (b).
(3.) Earnestly; as is indicated by their fasting and prayer, to which for a time they seem to have entirely given themselves. “So we fasted and besought our God for this.”
Thus Ezra’s confidence in God, being tested, did not fail, but was nobly maintained and manifested. (c).
IV. Confidence in God vindicated. “And He was intreated of us.” Their faith was vindicated—
1. In their inward assurance. They had a firm conviction that their prayers were heard and accepted, and that God would secure to them a prosperous journey.
2. In the outward result. They were led by a right way; they were delivered from the enemy that lay in wait for them; they had a prosperous journey, and arrived safely in Jerusalem. The confidence in God which they had avowed and maintained was splendidly vindicated by His hand upon them for good in their journey. They who honour Him with their hearty trust, He will honour with His great salvation. (d).
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) But what is to be the justification of this implicit confidence? It can only be justified upon the supposition that God is a being having particular powers, and of a particular character. Confidence in God, for instance, would be entirely irrational if He were conceived of as a destiny, as a force, as a soul of the universe,—if He were not believed to be a person distinct from the universe, its ruler, and its sustainer, as well as its creator, acting upon it in the perfection of His freedom, and without any sort of limit to His power, except such limits as His own moral nature may impose. Again, confidence in God would be misplaced if it were believed that He is the personal, the free, the omnipotent creator; and yet if He were imagined to act, as we should say in human words, capriciously, that is, without reference to those eternal laws of righteousness and truth, the traces, the echoes of which we find within ourselves, and which are in their essence, and demonstrably, not fruits of His arbitrary enactment, but constitutive parts of His eternal nature. Our Lord, therefore, reveals God as a Father, a revelation which assures us at once of His power and His love. It is the combination of these two facts, God’s almightiness and God’s love, which taken together constitute or warrant what we term His providence, His power, that is, under the guidance of his love making provision for the good of His creatures generally, but supremely and in particular of man, and, among men, in a yet more eminent degree of His servants.—Canon Liddon.
(b) “God’s promises, by reason of His unchangeableness, may be relied on; what occasion, then, of prayer, seeing the thing promised will come round of its own steady accord, whether you open your lips or no?” The answer is short and simple. These promises are made only to those who expect, and desire, and ask for them. They are not promised indifferently, and come out of their own accord at all, but to such only who have meditated them, and who value them, and desire them, and earnestly seek them; being, in truth, too valuable to be thrown about to a scrambling mob; being the high and holy attractions by which God intended to work upon the nature of man, and lead it out of its present low and sunken estate into glorious liberty and unwearied ambition of every noble excellence. They are prizes in the hand of God to stimulate the soul’s activities,—more glorious prizes than laurel wreaths, or the trumpetings of fame, or principalities and thrones,—and they are yielded only to an application of faculties, at the least, as intense and ardent as is put forth in pursuit of human ambition. God does not cheapen His promises down to a glance at them with the eye, or a mouthing of them with the tongue, but He requireth of those that would have them an admiration equal to that of lovers, an estimaequal to that of royal diadems, and a pursuit equal to that of Olympic prizes.—Ed. Irving.
(c) Suppose I were to set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and before I started were to go to Brown Brothers & Co., and obtain letters of credit for the cities of London, Jericho, &c. Then, with these papers, which a child might destroy, which would be but ashes in the teeth of flame, which a thousand chances might take from me, I should go on with confidence and cheer, saying to myself, “As soon as I come to London I shall be in funds. I have a letter in my pocket from Brown Brothers & Co. which will give me five hundred dollars there; and in the other cities to which I am bound I shall find similar supplies, all at my command, through the agency of these magic papers and pen strokes of these enterprising men.” But suppose that, instead of this confidence, I were to sit down on shipboard, and go to tormenting myself in this fashion—“Now, what am I to do when I get to London? I have no money, and how do I know that these bits of paper which I have with me mean anything, or will amount to anything? What shall I do? I am afraid I shall starve in the strange city to which I am going.” I should be a fool, you say; but should I be half the fool that man is who, bearing the letters of credit of the Eternal God, yet goes fearing all his way, cast down and doubting whether he shall ever get save through his journey? No fire, no violence, nor any chance can destroy the cheques of the Lord. When He says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” and “My grace shall be sufficient for thee,” believe it; and no longer dishonour your God by withholding from Him the confidence which you freely accord to Brown Brothers & Co.—H. W. Beecher.
(d) A heathen could say, when a bird scared by a hawk flew into his bosom, “I will not betray thee into the enemy, seeing thou fliest to me for refuge;” how much less will God yield up a soul to its enemy when it takes sanctuary in his Name, saying, “Lord, I am hunted with such a temptation, dodged with such a lust; either Thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of Thy love, for Christ’s sake; castle me in the arms of Thy everlasting strength; it is in Thy power to save me from or give me up into the hands of my enemy; I have no confidence in myself or any other; into Thy hands I commit my cause, myself, and rely on Thee.” This dependence of a soul will undoubtedly awaken the almighty power of God for his defence.—W. Gurnall.
FAITH AND PRUDENCE
(Ezr_8:21-23)
In the text we find Ezra about to return to Jerusalem, and ashamed to ask the king for any military protection. He had made certain statements to Artaxerxes, and he was reluctant to act in a manner which might bring those statements into question. He felt, what Christian people often feel, the conflict between prudence and faith. Prudence dictates one line of conduct, Christian consistency seems to dictate another, and the perplexity is sometimes painful.
We observe—
I. That, as a grand rule in the Christian life, faith and prudence must go together. The Scriptures often relate the marvellous helps which good men have found in the days of peril, but they give no countenance to presumptuous reliance on supernatural intervention. As the rule of life, the Scriptures bind us to take all human precautions against the various forms of mischief we have reason to apprehend. In this unbelieving generation there is not much reason to speak against excessive faith, but there is some reason thus to speak. The workman gave as his reason for not going to church, “That religious people were hypocrites, because they called the temple God’s house, and yet put upon it a lightning rod.” This worldly workman could not see that God’s Church ought to recognise God’s law, and act agreeably thereto; but he thought he saw a glaring contradiction in this union of prudence and piety. And some noble men in the Church sympathise with this workman, and reject the securities which prudence would counsel. They will leave their property uninsured; in times of disturbance they will not claim the protection of the magistrate; and in time of sickness they will not call the physician. This is, to a large extent, a serious mistake. As a rule, we are to accept the hand of soldiers which Ezra, in peculiar circumstances, rejected. We must not rashly cast ourselves into peril on the idea that “angels have charge concerning us.” We must “not tempt the Lord our God.” We must not, without imperative reason, leave the ship and step upon the sea, otherwise, with Peter, we must suffer disaster. If devout men do not attend to the dictates of prudence, they must suffer for it; and not only so, but they injure Christianity likewise. The truth of religion is based on false issues, and thus brought into suspicion or contempt. “The good man guideth his affairs with discretion.” Yet there are times—
II. When faith in God must supersede the provisions of ordinary prudence. When faith and prudence gave different counsel, Ezra chose to “walk by faith, and not by sight,” and we must all feel that he did right. The question is: When are we to go beyond merely prudential considerations, and venture all on the unseen power of God? An attentive consideration of Ezra’s situation and conduct may throw some light on this delicate question. We are “shut up to faith” when—
1. Prudential action would most probably be construed as a denial of the Divine government. Ezra had told the king that “the hand of God was upon all them for good who seek Him.” And now Ezra considered that to reveal any anxiety for a guard of soldiers would appear to the heathen king like a practical denial of the overshadowing providence of Jehovah. A band of soldiers would have hidden the Shepherd of Israel; Artaxerxes alone would have been seen; and so Ezra, with a fine spiritual instinct, saw the hour for simple trust had come, and by declining the soldiers left open the full view of God, and His gracious and glorious government. A line of action is here marked out for ourselves. To remove the scruples of the few we are not to take the lightning conductors from our temples, and essay similar reformations; but we must seek so to act that we satisfy the world generally that we do believe in the Divine superintendence and care. A worldly man believes only in the band of soldiers; and, to let him know that we believe in something beyond, we must sometimes be willing to act without the band of soldiers altogether. Are we not too anxious about material helps and visible securities? We have boasted of the power of the Lord’s good hand, and are we then to resort to sorry shifts for our safety and success? Has not the Church, by clinging so feverishly to visible resources, and helps, and defenders, given some sanction to the world’s unbelief? When—
2. Prudential action would cause us to lean on worldly associations and resources. Artaxerxes was an idolater, and Ezra was anxious not to ask too much at his hands. It seemed inconsistent to Ezra that he should be soliciting a band of pagan soldiers to protect God’s people and the treasures of God’s Temple. Here, again, we have a line of action marked out for us. We are the confessed servants of the Holy One of Israel, and prudence must not lead us to worldly alliances and dependence upon sinful circles. In our personal life we must observe this. We must beware of compromises with the world for the sake of our personal safety and aggrandisement. And in regard to God’s Church, we must observe this. Policy would often direct us to expect great things from the greatness, wealth, or wisdom of unregenerate men for the Church’s sake. So far from seeking their assistance, we ought to be shy of their gold and patronage. Thus did Ezra. And thus acted Paul and Silas (Act_16:16-19). When prudence would lead us to seek for much, either for ourselves or for the Church, at the hands of unbelieving men, we must pause and follow the path faith indicates. Let us dare anything, suffer anything, rather than compromise our own character and the character of God, in the eyes of the world, by linking our fortunes and the fortune of the Church with those who are joined to idols. When—
3. Prudential action might embarrass the progress of God’s kingdom. If Artaxerxes had detected any inconsistency in Ezra, he might have ceased to be favourable to his cause, and have prevented or delayed the return to Jerusalem. Rather than endanger the popularity and progress of the cause of God, Ezra was prepared to run great risks. Here another line of action is marked out for us. If prudence would circumscribe, fetter, or destroy the work of God, the time has come to appeal to loftier considerations. Calculating, cautious piety would condemn the act of Ezra as imprudent, and no doubt, speaking after the manner of men, it was imprudent; but many imprudent things have been done, or there would not have been so much Christianity in the world as there is; and many more imprudent things will have to be done before Christianity fills the world. The practical, calculating spirit of our age invades the Church, and in the administration of its affairs we frequently ask too anxiously about “ways and means,” and are afraid to venture to victories beyond unless we can “see our way.” Let us remember that God’s kingdom is a supernatural one, and in its promotion we must often act with a boldness which could not be justified in the court of prudence. There is a holy venturesomeness in evangelisation which carries with it a far higher guarantee of success than do the pondered schemes of a rationalising statesmanship. Thus, then, there are times—times which a true, delicate, noble spirit will not fail to recognise—when we must renounce the counsellings of worldly wisdom, and, stepping boldly into the darkness, cry, with Ezra, “Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on Thee!”
III. The separation of faith from prudence must be effected only in the spirit of sincere and earnest dependence upon Heaven (Ezr_8:23). No precipitancy, no levity, no presumption. By fasting and prayer they obtained the sweet assurance that God would honour their faith and preserve them. “He was entreated of us.” Not lightly must we discard ordinary defences and helps. When we can do no other, we must humbly, solemnly rest ourselves in the hand of God. The times come to us all when faith and policy give contradictory counsel. When such times come, let us not be found wanting to our profession and our God. In many circumstances simple trust in God will prove the truest policy.… And, on the contrary, policy, leading God’s people to rest on worldly men, and means, and measures, finally demoralises and betrays them. Hear how God reproaches Israel for their lack of faith in the Unseen Powers: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord.… Now the Egyptians are men, and not God,” &c. (Isa_31:1; Isa_31:3).—W. L. Watkinson.
EZRA AND HIS TIMES
(Ezr_8:21-23)
Let us see how much is included in these words of Ezra, and endeavour to ascertain their bearing on our position and circumstances.
I. Ezra’s language was in striking contrast with the general state of opinion around him. He says, not egotistically,—great men have no egotism,—but he says, because he cannot help living when there was a time to speak, “I was ashamed; others can take their own course, but I could not ask our heathen but noble king for a band of horsemen and soldiers to help us in the way.” Others might, and probably did, feel that it would only be courteous to accept the king’s offer; others, that it would look more respectable; others, that it would be safer; others, that they would get through their journey quicker; and others, that Ezra was carrying things rather too far, he might have a little thought for timid women and children. Such thoughts as these were very current, depend upon it, amid that motley crowd. He knows he is right, and can afford to be singular; and, as he can bide his time, he knows the people will one day thank him for what they may now condemn. And here we see a guiding principle for us. At particular crises of public opinion, it devolves upon some men to go into the land of the enemy, that they may bring truth out of captivity. It is a perilous and generally a thankless task; but it must be done, that it may be brought out into a glorious enlargement, before men shall see its form or feel its power. Such men have no ultimate fear for truth; they know its vitality depends upon no accidental prosperity, and can be destroyed by no accidental adversity; such men never change sides; they have sometimes sailed with truth under sunny skies into a secure haven; they have also sailed with her through many a “stormy wind and tempest,” and they have always come right at last. The world wonders at their eccentricity, and recommends them to beg or borrow a band of soldiers and horsemen, to assist them in their progress; but they are “ashamed” to think of such a thing; it hurts their consciences, and wounds there are long in healing, and when healed they leave ugly scars. If they could make truth successful to-morrow, they must do it with truth’s weapons, and her weapons only; but they cannot advance the liberation of truth by any unworthy means, or by any unnatural alliance. “Christ for ever, and His word,” cried Luther, as he left Wittemberg with a penny in his pocket, and a threadbare gown upon his back. “Christ for ever, and His word,” let every modern Ezra and Luther say, until that word shall enlighten every mind and emancipate every heart; and this it will do, if we will let truth do its work, without “soldiers and horsemen.”
II. Ezra’s situation afforded him an opportunity for asserting this great principle under very trying circumstances. In reading the Old Testament, it is needful to call to mind the peculiar political constitution of the Jews. It was a pure theocracy. The only one the world has ever seen, or is likely to see. God was their King, and their King was their God. God would defend them; He would be a wall of fire round about them; He would lead them forth to battle; He would be their national safeguard. This the Jews continually forgot. Their crying sin was departure from the true theocratic idea. They trusted in everything but truth; in every one but God. Egypt and Assyria were, by turns, their strongholds of confidence. Hence the prophet’s cry, “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help,” &c. (Isa_31:1, &c.).
But Ezra fell back upon the old principle of the theocracy. What was true in Judea, he took to be true in Babylon. That which was true to Isaiah was true to him now. He could not see any clear path of safety, except in the path of duty; and he would rather be there than in the way of mere expediency. Others might suggest that, under present circumstances, they need not be so very precise; they had permission to return to Jerusalem, was not that enough? If the king, of his own goodness, chose to help them with horsemen, they could accept his offer up to the gates of Jerusalem; they were not now in the land of the theocracy, and allowance must be made for their peculiar circumstances; and to be so strict about an abstract principle was being righteous overmuch. All that was perfectly incomprehensible to Ezra; he knew of no guiding star but principle, and that alone he resolved to follow.
And Christ’s whole life illustrates this principle of confidence in God and in truth, once exhibited by Ezra under circumstances of great temptation; a principle we seek to uphold, as constituting a very essential part of a free, a spiritual Church state. “How often was Christ urged by the impatient longings, and the worldly spirit of the Jews, to gratify their intense and long-cherished hopes, and to establish His kingdom in a worldly form, before the last demand was made upon Him, as He entered, in the midst of an enthusiastic host, the capital city of God’s earthly dominion, before His last refusal, expressed in His submission to those sufferings which resulted in the triumph of God’s pure spiritual kingdom!”
Thus, oftentimes, the good man will have to strive against the spirit of his age; but obeying Christ, and confiding in Christ, whilst doing so, his conflict will lead to certain victory: he will not conquer by “a band of horsemen and soldiers,” but by the exhibition and enforcement of truth, by the use of weapons that are not carnal, but spiritual; weapons mighty, nevertheless, to the pulling down of strongholds, in the use of which the Christian warrior says, “Now thanks be unto God, who causeth us to triumph in every place, by Jesus Christ.”—W. G. Barrett.
EZRA AN EXAMPLE IN BUSINESS
(Ezr_8:21-23)
The circumstances in which Ezra was placed were as difficult as can be conceived. He had to contend with the scorn and opposition of pagans, and with the corruptions of Jews. He bears up under his difficulties: he labours through them; he endures as seeing Him who is invisible.
I. His humiliation.
II. His faith.
III. His prayer.
IV. His holy jealousy.
V. His success.
—R. Cecil.
CONTRASTS
(Ezr_8:22)
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good,” &c.
I. A contrast of human character.
1. Those that seek God. To seek God implies—
(1.) Faith in Him. Seekers after God believe in the existence of truth, righteousness, love; in the existence of a Supreme and Perfect Being; they believe that God is.
(2.) Desire after Him. Seekers after God believe in Him as the Supremely Good and Beautiful—not only the Almighty, but the All-attractive. They do not simply seek His blessing or His favour, but Himself. The former may be mean; the latter must be noble. To seek Him is to desire the highest truth and righteousness, goodness and beauty, &c.
(3.) Prayer to Him. They who come to God believe not only that He is, but that “He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Out of the faith and longing of their heart they petition Him for His favour and His presence. Their attitude and inclination is towards God.
2. Those that forsake God. Sin is frequently represented as forsaking God, departure from Him, distance from Him (Isa_59:2; Jer_1:16; Jer_2:13; Luk_15:13; Eph_2:13; Col_1:21-22). Forsaking God begins in the heart. Some sinful thought or purpose has been cherished, and so God has been shut out of the heart. Guilt has been contracted, and the sinner has become afraid of God, and tried to escape from Him. (Comp. Gen_3:8-10.) This forsaking God proceeds from the heart to the conduct. God’s commands may be outwardly obeyed for a time by one who has forsaken God Himself; but ere long the commands also will be set at naught. When the affections are estranged from God, the actions will soon follow, &c.
Here then is the contrast of character: The one seeks God, draws ever nearer to Him, &c.; the other forsakes God, departs ever farther from Him, &c. Ask yourself—Which is my character? Am I a seeker or a forsaker of God?
II. A contrast of Divine treatment.
1. “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him.” His power is exercised on their behalf; His providence watches over and secures their true interests. But is this really the case? Do we not sometimes find those that seek God in poverty, privation, and pain? Do they not sometimes cry, “Thy hand is heavy upon me”? not, Thy hand is upon me “for good”? Earthly parents see many things to be for the good of their children, which appear unmixed evils to the children themselves. Does the sick infant see that the nauseous medicine which heals him is for his good? Does the young schoolboy see that it is for his good to master the declensions and conjugations of grammar? And
“What am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.”
—Tennyson.
Not by any hasty conclusions on the results of human character and conduct; not by an induction formed from a brief and narrow observation of human experiences, must our judgment of the Divine procedure be determined; but by His own revelations of His character and government, and by the testimonies of the wise and good amongst men. These unite in assuring us that “the hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him.”
(1.) For their good temporally. Being perfectly acquainted with the circumstances, temperament, and tendencies of every man, He gives to each one who seeks Him what will really be for his good. “No good will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
(2.) For their good spiritually. Many and precious are the spiritual benefits which He bestows upon His people, e.g., pardon and peace, purity and power, grateful recollections and inspiring anticipations, &c.
(3.) For their good eternally. He is preparing them for a glorious destiny, and endless. Our Lord has gone to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house. And as He was both guide and guardian to Ezra and his company from Babylon to Jerusalem, so is He the guide and guardian of all His people to their blessed and abiding home. They enter heaven through Him.
2. “His power and His wrath are against all them that forsake Him.” A sentimental theory which ignores the stern aspects of the character of God is very popular with some people. There is a growing tendency to magnify the love of God, and then deny His wrath, &c. We rejoice in knowing that “He will have all men to be saved;” that He has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live;” but we cannot question His wrath. God is tender, without weakness; angry, without sin. He is just, as well as merciful. Sin has been punished by Him, is punished by Him, and will be punished by Him. (Comp. Pro_11:21; 2Pe_2:4-9; Rev_6:16-17). (a). “His power;” who can estimate it? It is “against all them that forsake Him.” (b). Who can conceive “His wrath”? It is infinite as His love. It is His love flaming forth against the incorrigibly wicked. (c). “He is mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?”
CONCLUSION:
1. How solemnly man’s destiny is in his own hands, or, more correctly, in his own choice! “Deeds are destiny; character is fate.” For our character we are each responsible. Heaven or hell is the result of man’s own choice and character.
2. In this world character may be changed. Those who have forsaken God may return to Him, assured of a joyous welcome. By the grace of God sinners may here and now be converted into saints. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found,” &c. (Isa_55:6-7). “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,” &c. (Hos_14:1-2; Hos_14:4).
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) It is very common to separate the question of punishment from its strict relationship to justice, and to argue it on infinite goodness. What is this proper view of God! “Good is the Lord.” But is He good to restrain any administration of government, or to impede any exercise of law? Does His goodness look more indifferently on moral evil than His justice? Is it not its peculiar province to check the consequences of sin? We know not of the goodness which exists only to pity and to spare,—which is a misprison of right and holy principle, which is a connivance at every moral perturbation of the universe. It is easy to reduce this “awful goodness” to our depraved wish and idea.… “Our God is a consuming fire.” “He is terrible out of His holy place.” “God shall destroy for ever.” “The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs.” Those passages which speak of His ire and wrath are many, reiterated, and vehement. Do they tell of goodness, partial and fond, as it is now presumed? A mere indulgence? A figure, most beautiful and frequent, does Holy Scripture present. God is our Parent. “Have we not one Father?” It is a figure,—“like as a father.” It is argued that all punishment, except for the improvement of the child, would be inconsistent with that relation. But may not the case of the son’s disobedience be so heinous, that all, under the influence of the most natural feeling, would justify a treatment the most extreme? disownment? disinheritance? final separation? The paternal relationship, though not as to its fact, yet, as to its exercise, may be altered by the conduct of the offspring: moral government cannot be altered. The one might be renounced: the other is necessary and insubvertible. May we not fear that, in consequence of sin, the paternal favour is withdrawn, and the filial privilege forfeited? Let that father be the magistrate. The child is now under his jurisdiction as well as discipline. That child may be the transgressor of social law. It is conceivable that his father may be called to pass sentence upon him. Will not all, if it be his inevitable duty, see in its discharge a title to their admiration? Without any impeachment of his tenderness, is not such bearing truly great? Does not history hallow it? Has it not saved commonwealths? Why should not the same suffrage be accorded to God? He is the “righteous Father.” He sitteth King for ever. He reigns not for a part, but for the whole. His goodness must agree with universal justice, or with that which is the same thing, the protection of universal claim and interest.… And if this notion of goodness is to be entertained, how frequently would it have been disappointed! Had earlier creatures than ourselves been forewarned that our earth was soon to be formed, and our race to be created, it would have seemed improbable to them that aught but good could be admitted. The entire scheme would have demanded this expectation. What evils do exist, moral and physical! Then their idea of that which goodness can allow would have been disappointed. It would have been false. When men have been threatened with Divine judgments, they have imagined a presumption against them in the Divine goodness. To the antediluvian the impending fate appeared most unreasonable; the men of Sodom derided the fear of overthrow. If they thought of God at all, arguments like those which we have considered were ready. Goodness forbids it. A parent cannot do it, &c. Then their idea of that which goodness can allow was disappointed. It was false. So we may speculate concerning the future state. Its punishment may affect our views as exaggerated beyond all showing of truth, of reason, of analogy. We may interpose the Divine goodness. We may pronounce that this state of things cannot be. But we are not placed more favourably to give judgment than they who have palpably erred. Our idea may be disappointed. It may be false.—R. W. Hamilton, LL.D., D.D.
(b) How miserable will all wicked rebels be under this power of God! Men may break His laws, but not impair His arm; they may slight His sword, but cannot resist His power. If He swear that He will sweep a place with the besom of destruction, “as He hath thought, so shall it come to pass; and as He hath purposed, so shall it stand” (Isa_14:23-24). Rebels against an earthly prince may exceed him in strength, and be more powerful than their sovereign; none can equal God, much less exceed Him. As none can exercise an act of hostility against Him without His permissive will, so none can struggle from under His hand without His positive will. He hath an arm not to be moved, a hand not to be wrung aside. God is represented on His throne “like a jasper stone” (Rev_4:3), as One of invincible power when He comes to judge; the jasper is a stone which withstands the greatest force. Though men resist the order of His laws, they cannot resist the sentence of their punishment, nor the execution of it. None can any more exempt themselves from the arm of His strength than they can from the authority of His dominion. As they must bow to His sovereignty, so they must sink under His force. A prisoner in this world may make his escape, but a prisoner in the world to come cannot (Job_10:7): “There is none that can deliver out of Thine hand.” There is none to deliver when He tears in pieces (Psa_50:22).—S. Charnocke, B.D.
(c) Wicked men hereafter will feel the full weight of God’s wrath. In this world they have the wrath of God abiding on them, but then it will be executed upon them; now they are the objects of it, but then they will be the subjects of it. Now it hangs over them, but then it shall fall upon them in its full weight, without any alleviation, or any moderation or restraint.—President Edwards.
SEEKING THE LORD, AND ITS ADVANTAGES
(Ezr_8:22)
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him,” &c. Our text contains a great scriptural truth, applicable to all ages, countries, and persons. It is a truth which is corroborated by many parallel passages, and therefore expresses a subject of more than ordinary importance. There are two things clearly expressed in the text,—man’s responsibility, and the different results of piety and sin. God’s hand shall be upon all those who seek Him, and that for good, and His wrath is against those who forsake Him. Observe, we are directed—
I. To seeking God, and its advantages. Seeking God denotes—
1. A consciousness of our need of Him. Men in general do not regard God, He is not in all their thoughts. Many feel as Pharaoh did when he exclaimed, “Who is the Lord?” &c. But the enlightened, convicted sinner, and the true Christian, feel that God is the fountain of their existence, and the only source of their peace and happiness. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee,” &c. God is all and in all to the pious mind; and their need of Him is every moment’s experience.
2. Earnest and fervent prayer to God (Ezr_8:23.) Seeking and praying are synonymous. Thus Christ taught His disciples. “Ask, … seek, … knock,” &c. Thus, too, Job says (Job_23:3), “Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” &c. We cannot find God but by earnest prayer and supplication, and He is ever near to all who call upon Him. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,” &c.
3. To seek the Lord is to come to Him in the way of His appointment. We may seek anxiously and fervently, but what will it avail if we seek in the wrong way? Thus heathen philosophers laboured to know the true God. Thus, too, many anxious pagans. Many are like the devotional eunuch, they read, &c., but understand not. The Word of God is, however, explicit and full on this subject. Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” “One God, and one Mediator,” &c. “No man cometh to the Father but by” Christ.
4. To labour in all things to have Hit approbation. To commit all to Him; to refer all to Him; to acknowledge Him in all; and seek His blessing upon all our steps. To set the Lord always before us, and to labour to walk well pleasing in His sight.
Notice the advantages arising to those who thus seek Him, “The hand of our God is upon all,” &c.
(1.) The hand of His pardoning mercy. To those who thus seek Him, He says, “I, even I, am He who blotteth out your iniquities.” “Seek ye the Lord,” &c. Then it follows, “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” &c.
(2.) The hand of His delivering power. He delivers the souls of His people, raises them from the horrible pit, &c. Translates them from the kingdom of darkness, brings their spirits out of the prison of sin, and from the dominion of Satan. Rescues from “the gall of bitterness, and the bond,” &c.
(3.) The hand of His providing goodness. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. He is their Shepherd, and they shall not want. He leads them into green pastures, &c. “My God shall supply all your need,” &c.
(4.) The hand of His heavenly guidance. The Lord leads and guides His people. “He led them by the right way,” &c. “The Lord shall lead thee continually,” &c. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
(5.) The hand of His sustaining grace. The Christian is weak and feeble; of himself, insufficient: exposed to many enemies and perils. The saints of the Lord are therefore only absolutely secure in His hand. He keeps them by His mighty power; He preserves them for His kingdom and glory. There is often—
(6.) The hand of His manifest providence. How clearly do we see this in the history of His Church and people! It is said of one, “So long as he sought the Lord, the Lord made him to prosper.” How many thousands have experienced that “godliness is profitable to all things,” &c.
II. Forsaking God, and its attendant evils. To forsake God is the opposite course to that we have described in seeking the Lord. It is refusing Him homage and veneration. It is to disobey Him; to live without His fear; to turn from the way of righteousness; to withdraw our hand from the Gospel plough; to draw back; to make shipwreck, &c. Now, against these. His power and wrath are declared. Power to punish, wrath to inflict a fearful and eternal doom. Power and wrath of God to cast both body and soul into hell fire. (See Heb_10:22, &c.) “A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
APPLICATION. We learn:
1. The value of true religion. The good hand of the Lord upon us.
2. The awfulness of apostasy from the Lord.
3. The necessity of both vigilance and perseverance. (See Heb_3:12; Heb_4:10-13.)
4. Urge the unconverted to seek the Lord, and live.—Jabez Burns, D.D.
THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE SACRED TREASURES
(Ezr_8:24-30)
Having sought the Divine guidance and protection in their journey, Ezra proceeds to make wise arrangements for the safe conveyance of the offerings for the service of the Lord at Jerusalem. True prayer will always be followed by earnest effort in the same direction.
Notice:
I. The treasures to be guarded. “The silver, and the gold, and the vessels, the offering of the house of our God,” &c. (Ezr_8:25-27). These treasures were—
1. Valuable in themselves. “Six hundred and fifty talents of silver,” &c. (Ezr_8:26-27). (We have already stated the estimated value of these things: see Explanatory Notes on Ezr_8:26, and homily on “Ezra’s confidence in God,” Ezr_8:21-23.)
2. Valuable as being consecrated to God. Mark how Ezra speaks of them: “The offering of the house of our God: … the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers.” To every pious mind the fact that they were designed for sacred uses would greatly enhance their worth.
3. Valuable as being the spontaneous gifts of friends and well-wishers. “The king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered … a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers.” As expressions of the good will and kind feeling of the donors to the returning exiles and to their religion, these treasures were very precious. They were well worthy of the most watchful care.
II. The guardians of the treasures. “Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests,” &c. (Ezr_8:24). These guardians were—
1. Adequate in number. There were twenty-four of them in all; twelve priests and twelve Levites. It was well to have a goodly number for the weighty responsibility.
2. Appropriate in official character. They were priests and Levites. Ezra “said unto them, Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy also.” The consecrated things were intrusted to consecrated persons. This was in harmony with Divinely-appointed usage amongst them (see Num_3:5-10). It was also in accordance with the charge of God by Isaiah the prophet: “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isa_52:11). The principle is of universal application, that holy things should be committed to the charge of holy persons.
3. Distinguished amongst their brethren. Ezra selected “twelve of the chief priests;” and Sherebiah and Hashabiah were eminent amongst the Levites (see on Ezr_8:18-19). By selecting eminent men for this trust Ezra acted prudently; for they would be the more likely to keep it with fidelity than untried men. He also acted religiously; for he thus honoured in the eyes of the people the Lord God, to whom these treasures had been offered.
III. The charge to the guardians of the treasures—
1. Points out the value of the things committed to them. In three ways Ezra does this—
(1.) By weighing them so carefully before delivering them into their hands. He “weighed unto them the silver,” &c. (Ezr_8:25-27).
(2.) By reminding them of their source. They were the voluntary offerings of “the king, and his counsellors, and his lords, and all Israel there present.”
(3.) By reminding them of their destination. They were designed for the service of the Lord God of their fathers.
2. Enjoins watchful care of these things. “Watch ye, and keep them.” They were to see to it that they were neither lost, nor stolen, nor intermingled with the other possessions of this great company during their long journey.
3. Indicates their responsibility for them. “Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites,” &c. (Ezr_8:29). Thus Ezra gave them to understand that they would be required to deliver them up at the end of the journey safely and accurately. They would have to account for them—
(1.) Exactly: “until ye weigh them.” The same weight which had been given to them they must deliver up at the end of the journey.
(2.) Unto the chief men of the nation: “the chief of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel.”
(3.) In the chief place of the nation: “at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord.” Thus Ezra impressed upon them the importance and sacredness of the trust committed to them, and the greatness of their responsibility.
IV. The acceptance of the guardianship of the treasures. The selected priests and Levites did not seek to excuse themselves from this trust and its onerous obligations; they do not seem to have offered any demur in relation to it, but accepted it at once. “So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver,” &c. (Ezr_8:30).
CONCLUSION:
1. Our subject speaks to ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How precious and sacred is the trust committed to them! How solemn their responsibility! (1Co_4:1-2; Tit_1:7; Tit_1:9.) By the Holy Ghost let them seek to be faithful to their glorious, awful trust (1Ti_6:20; 2Ti_1:14). (a.)
2. To all who have charge of public funds or the property of others. Let them copy the scrupulous care and fidelity of Ezra, that they may be able, when called upon, to give a punctual and exact account of the things committed unto them.
3. To all men. God has committed some gift to every man to be used in accordance with His holy will; and He will call every man to account for such gift. Blessed are they who will be able to render such an account as shall call forth from Him the “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Comp. Mat_25:14-30.) (b.)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Brethren, have we at all understood what was done to us when we were ordained—that it was an act of exchange and of interchange—we giving ourselves to Jesus Christ; He giving to us a trust of ministry, on the definite basis of a Divine communication of truth?
How little have they realised the good deposit, who have regarded it as nothing more than the reading of services or the preaching of sermons, out of the resources of natural or acquired knowledge, and as only a part of the life, of which all other parts might be just as earthly, just as self-indulgent, just as frivolous, as if no transaction at all had passed between us and Jesus Christ! How many must confess, sorrowfully and with tears, that they were not conscious then, if they have ever awakened to the consciousness afterwards, of anything whatsoever having been put into their hands when they became ordained men! Oh, we do not blame them—still less would we let them despair. But surely it is something to be grieved for, that we thus undertook a sacred office in utter ignorance of its sacredness; that we thus took it upon us to tell men the way of salvation, when we scarcely so much as knew what they needed to be saved from, or what it was to be saved.
The good deposit. Let us first of all feel it to be something. Let us try to touch and to handle just one substantial ingredient of it. Let us resolve, let us struggle, let us pray, that this revelation, this self-manifestation of God, which is enshrined in this volume called holy, shall shine out of it upon us. It shall not be a name, it shall not be a formula, it shall not be a mere buzzing sound—it shall be a voice. If we could make one verse speak, if we could make one little sentence of the Testament call us by our name, and tell us to do something because of it, it might be “the beginning of months” to us. It might be the dawning of the day—it might be the very sunrising of an altered life; for then, certainly, we never could rest till it had spoken again to us, and again, and again. Then we should begin to turn to it as our adviser, as our counsellor, as our friend. Then we should never attempt to write or to preach till the revelation had put a word in our mouth; we should listen for it in the night watches; we should kneel to it as we rose from our sleep, God-sustained and God-commissioned.
How serious should we then be—how evidently taken knowledge of as men that had a trust, and were set and bent upon faithfulness to it! Men would come then to listen to us, as to men who were in communication with the world out of sight—as men who were charged, each separate time of ministering, with something special to say, and with the true way of saying it.—C.J. Vaughan, D.D.
(b) Obligation and capacity are commensurate. God does not desire to “reap where He has not sown, nor to gather where He has not strawed,” but where He has “given much, of them He will expect the more.” He expects not from a brute the service of a man, nor from a man the obedience of an angel; He expects not from him that has one talent the results of five, nor from him that has five the results of ten; but He does expect everywhere, and from all beings, that each shall serve according to his actual and “several ability.”
With respect to the power to do something for Christ, this differs in different men, and in the same man at different times. There are differences of talent, wealth, influence, station, opportunity; and there are very frequently growth and accession in all these things as Christians advance and succeed in life. It will often be found, however, that the most able and endowed classes do the least; and of certain individuals it is sometimes true, that as their means increase their doings diminish; for it is diminution, if, while Providence enlarges power, the service rendered is only what it was.—T. Binney, LL.D.
FROM AHAVA TO JERUSALEM; AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN
(Ezr_8:31-32)
Notice—
I. The setting out from Ahava. “Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem.” They went forth—
1. From captivity to liberty. In Babylon they were not in cruel bondage, as their fathers had been in Egypt; and in departing from Babylon they did not go forth to civil or political freedom, as their fathers did when they left Egypt. But in Babylon they were captives. They could not leave the places in which they were settled without permission. Their departure is repeatedly spoken of as a going “up out of the captivity.” And while they who departed were still subject to the Persian civil government, they were allowed full religious freedom. The Christian pilgrim is emancipated from the captivity of sin. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” But the believer in Christ Jesus is “made free from sin;” he is delivered from “the bond of iniquity,” from the thraldom of evil habits, &c. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.… If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (a.)
2. From exile to their ancestral home. They were going forth to the land of their fathers, which was sacred and dear to them by many precious and glorious memories and associations. They were going home. Christians are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly,” &c. “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” “Our conversation” (rather, country or citizenship) “is in heaven.” We, too, are going home.
3. From the land of idolatry to the scene of true worship. The priesthood, the altar, and the temple of the true and living God were at Jerusalem. The chief reason of their return to their own land was that there they could more fully and perfectly worship Jehovah, the God of Israel. We are travelling to the scene of pure and perfect and perpetual worship. Our journey will end in heaven, and there every thought and affection, every word and action will be sacred. (Comp. Rev_7:15; Rev_21:2-3.) (b).
“There God in Christ revealed
In fulness of His grace
Shall we behold for ever,
And worship face to face.”
II. The progress on the journey. “And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way.” They progressed—
1. Notwithstanding enemies. The path of the Christian pilgrim is beset with foes. His progress is opposed by—
(1.) Invisible, spiritual enemies. He has to contend against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not “against flesh and blood, but against principalities,” &c. (Eph_6:10-17). “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,” &c. (1Pe_5:8-9).
(2.) Enemies in human society. The allurements of the world; “the deceitfulness of riches;” the temptation to substitute policy for principle, and to sacrifice the spiritual and eternal for the material and temporal, &c.
(3.) Enemies in our own nature. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit,” &c. (Gal_5:17). Carnal appetites contend against spiritual aspirations, &c.
2. By reason of the Divine blessing. “The hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered,” &c. He was both guide and guardian to Ezra and his company. And He leads and protects His people in their heavenward journey. “We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.” “He hath said, I will, never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper,” &c. (Heb_13:5-6).
III. The arrival at Jerusalem. “And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.” Their arrival was characterised by—
1. Grateful rest. For three days they rested after their long and toilsome journey. The rest would be very welcome, &c. “There remaineth a rest to the people of God.” In heaven the Christian pilgrims “rest from their labours.” (c.)
“Rest more sweet and still
Than ever nightfall gave,
Our weary hearts shall fill
In the land beyond the grave.”
2. Joyful welcome. Many of the pilgrims in Ezra’s company had relatives in Jerusalem, persons who had gone up there with Zerubbabel, or the children of such persons, and heartily would they welcome their newly-arrived kinsfolk. Have we not kinsfolk in the “better country” who wait to greet us on our arrival there? We are not journeying to a strange land, but to our “Father’s house.” Many of our loving and beloved ones are already there, and wait to welcome us into their shining ranks, and sacred services, and delightful society. And when once we are united there, we shall part no more. (d.)
“O happy world! O glorious place!
Where all who are forgiven
Shall find their loved and lost below,
And hearts, like meeting streams, shall flow,
For ever one, in heaven.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The work of grace shall conquer the work of depravity; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus shall set free the soul from the law of sin and death. Nothing else could do it, nothing external to the soul; no outward law of excellence could do it, nothing that did not work within the soul as a living principle of life and action. By this new principle introduced, this new determination of the will in accordance with Divine grace, the man is set free from the evil dispositions of the unregenerate heart, from its inbred, habitual, long-cherished, long-growing, and powerful corruptions; he is set at liberty to serve God out of love, no longer bound in slavery to the law of sin and death in an evil nature. This is the great deliverance; this is freedom indeed; instead of the death of sin, a death to sin, a redemption from its indwelling power by the working of an opposite power of holiness and life, which, as Christ’s own life, imparted to the soul, becomes the habit of the soul. But it is too low an expression when we say imparted to the soul, for in order to work this freedom, this regeneration, this new creatureship in Christ, Christ Himself takes up His abode within the soul, and works in it. So the man says, this freeman of Christ, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” This new life in the soul is not only a life in Christ, but the life of Christ. “Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,”—liberty from the bondage of corruption, from the law of sin and death, liberty of life, liberty of holiness, liberty to serve God, not as a slave but as a child, not with the spirit of bondage to fear, but with “the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”—G. B. Cheever, D.D.
(b) All earthly shrines shall pass away. The beautiful temples shall fade into oblivion; the fanes which utter their silver melody as each Sabbath dawns, awakening the sweetest associations of the soul and calling man from cares and sorrow to God and peace,—all, all shall depart. The music, so subtle and deep and elevating, shall sink into silence; the prayers, so eloquent and importunate and fervid, shall cease; the call to dying sinners, and neglecters and despisers of Jesus, shall no longer be heard. Altars and priests shall be no more. And instead shall come the holiest worship and the purest homage, and the cleansed heart and the immortal body, and man shall walk in that region which sin cannot enter, and death cannot shadow, and pain cannot touch, amid scenes of beauty and undecaying sweetness, and in that realm whose King is the Lord of hosts, and whose subjects are the obedient servants of their lawful Monarch, and the willing children of their Royal Parent. And instead of temples for the hymn of homage, and the prayer of faith, and the voice of persuasion, there shall be the spiritual worship of redeemed souls, and angelic beings uttering a deeper language than ever was heard on earth, and breathing a more liquid hymn of tenderness than ever rose from an earthly pile, and the soft and exquisite expression shall be fully realised: “1 saw no temple therein.”—J. W. Lester, D.D.
Sublime beyond the reach of words to express is the choral service of the heavenly Temple. Inspiring and thrilling are the strains that rise from that mysterious mount on which stands the collective Church of the First-born, and whose praise swells and flows triumphantly away, till the universe is filled with the harmony which comes “rolling back full on the throne of God.”—R. Ferguson, LL.D.
(c) Peace is the very highest mode of joy. It is the joy of rest; and this rest partakes the repose of the Divine nature. It is on God that the soul is fixed, and hence she cannot but enjoy the calm and the quiet of Infinite Perfection.
“As the wave a ray of light receives,
And rests unbroken;”
so it is the fact of each nature being in immediate union with God and of His fulness flowing into it, which insures its everlasting res. In such a case, unrest is impossible. Here we may see a ripple on the bosom of the most placid lake, but there every breast is soothed into unruffled peace. The gentle words of the Saviour—FEAR NOT—addressed to the spirit as she was passing through the waters of death, have there deepened into the tranquillity of a sinless nature, and on the bosom of her God she will recline for ever.
This deep repose of soul in the world of glory is not incompatible with the loftiest and the most unwearied activity. Best is often confounded with sloth, and repose with indolence. But neither indolence nor sloth can exist in heaven, where the purity of each individual nature involves a corresponding vitality, and the vitality a corresponding activity. It is true that the motion of the soul there is ever towards rest; but it is no less true that the rest is ever towards motion. In seeking the one only centre of her life, it is that the soul may come back replenished and filled unto the fulness of God, and thus be prepared to enter on new and still higher spheres of service. In her moments of most profound quiet, her every power is on the utmost stretch and reach of effort.—Ibid.
(d) Thy dead men shall live; that decaying dust shall rise again. Weep not as though thou hadst cast thy treasure into the sea, where thou couldst never find it; thou hast only laid it by in a casket, whence thou shalt receive it again brighter than before. Thou shalt look again with thine own eyes into those eyes which have spoken love to thee so often, but which are now closed in sepulchral darkness. Thy child shall see thee yet again; thou shalt know thy child; the selfsame form shall rise. Thy departed friend shall come back to thee, and having loved his Lord as thou dost, thou shalt rejoice with him in the land where they die no more. It is but a short parting; it will be an eternal meeting. For ever with the Lord, we shall also be for ever with each other. Let us comfort one another, then, with these words.—C. H. Spurgeon.
AT JERUSALEM: THE FAITHFUL SURRENDER OF IMPORTANT TRUSTS
(Ezr_8:33-36)
We have here—
I. A sacred trust faithfully discharged. “Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God,” &c. (Ezr_8:33-34). This trust was discharged—
1. With minute accuracy and reverent care. Notice—
1. The particular accuracy with which everything was accounted for. Everything was—
(1) weighed. “The silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed,” &c. “By weight of every one.”
(2.) Numbered. “By number and by weight of every one.”
(3.) Inventoried. “And all the weight was written at that time.”
2. The reverent care with which these treasures were delivered up. This is indicated—
(1.) In the sacred place in which they were delivered. “In the house of our God.”
(2.) By the consecrated persons to whom they were delivered. “By the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest,” &c. It appears from Ezr_8:29 that “the chief of the priests and Levites and the chief of the fathers of Israel” were also present at the time. (a.)
2. With a grateful sense of relief. It seems to us that the twelve priests and the twelve Levites, who had charge of these treasures during the long and perilous journey, must have felt relieved and thankful when the journey was concluded in safety, and the treasures were surrendered entire and inviolate. Blessed is he who, in relation to the trusts of life, will be able to render as satisfactory an account as this! Blessed who at the end of life’s journey will be able to say, “Lord, Thou deliveredst unto me five talents,” &c. (Mat_25:20-21). Or, with St. Paul, “I have fought a good fight,” &c. (2Ti_4:7-8). (b.)
II. Divine worship devoutly offered. “The children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel,” &c. In these sacrifices there was—
1. An acknowledgment of sin and of the need of atonement with God. They “offered twelve he-goats for a sin offering.”
2. An expression of thankfulness and self-consecration. They “offered twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs; all this was a burnt offering unto the Lord.”
3. An indication of the unity of the twelve tribes of Israel. A sin offering and a burnt offering was offered for each of the twelve tribes. “Offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six (8 × 12) rams, twelve he-goats for a sin offering.” (For further notes on the significance of these sacrifices, see homilies on chaps. Ezr_3:1-3, Ezr_6:16-18; and for illustrations, see those accompanying the above-mentioned homilies.)
III. The royal letters duly delivered. “And they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants,” &c.
1. The delivery of these letters was an evidence of loyalty to the Persian government. It was an acknowledgment of the authority of Artaxerxes the king, and of his officers west of the Euphrates. The same Word which commands us to “fear God” commands us also to “honour the king” (1Pe_2:13-17). “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates.” “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,” &c. (Rom_13:1-7).
2. The time of their delivery was an evidence of their supreme regard for Jehovah their God. First, they gave up the sacred vessels and treasures for the worship of Jehovah; then they presented to Him their humble and grateful sacrifices, and then they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s officers. Our loyalty to the earthly sovereign must be subordinate to our reverence for God. To Him must be given our highest, holiest affections, and our constant and complete obedience.
IV. Valuable help promptly rendered. “The king’s lieutenants and governors on this side the river furthered the people, and the house of God.” They carried out the behests of the king expressed in the letters which Ezra delivered to them. Thus the journey of Ezra came to a very satisfactory and successful issue.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Many fill their life with regrets for being confined to such a narrow sphere of usefulness. If they only were in the ministerial office, or had millions of money, they would do so and so; but what can an ordinary labourer, a poor Sunday-school teacher, accomplish? Friend, be content to serve God where He has placed you; for there precisely you can accomplish the most. It is better to make the best of what you have than to fret and pout for what you have not. The man with one talent is never accountable for five; but for his one he must give as strict an account as the other for his five. It may require more humility to husband one talent than five; and, so far as the improvement or misimprovement of either is concerned, they are both equally important in the sight of God. The king’s million and the widow’s mite are worth the same with the Eternal.—Dict. of Illust.
(b) “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Oh blissful sentence! Words of unutterable, inconceivable import! Language of condescending grace, not now to be comprehended! To be acknowledged before the assembled universe, not only as His servants, but His good and faithful servants. To be told that we have served Him faithfully, and told it from the throne of His glory! To hear Him say “Well done!” and have the plaudit reverberated in ten thousand times ten thousand echoes from the lips of admiring and adoring angels, till heaven rings with the sound, “Well done, well done, thou faithful servant of the Lamb!” Nor is this all. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” “Come into the same place, yea, into the same joy. Come and dwell with Me, and have one felicity common to both.”
This reward will be bestowed on all His faithful servants without exception. It belongs not to apostles merely, nor to martyrs, reformers, missionaries, and ministers; but to the most obscure, and illiterate, and humble Christians on earth. It is not the service of official station merely that is alluded to, but the service of personal religion. Christ is as truly served by the most retired believer, though not as publicly, nor as extensively, as by the most popular and successful preacher. It is the service of faith, patience, self-denial, suffering, mortification, that is to be rewarded; the service of a devoted heart and a holy life that is to be thus honoured and blessed, whether the man who performs it follows Christ in the retirement of a private or the activities of a public station. It is true the reward will be in proportion to the service, and the degrees of glory according to the degrees of grace; but all faithful servants will be rewarded by admission to the presence and service and enjoyment of Christ in heaven.—J. A. James.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Ezr 8:22-23, Ezr 8:31-32
Ezr 8:22-23, Ezr 8:31-32
The symbolic phrase "the hand of our God," as expressive of the Divine protection, occurs with remarkable frequency in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and though not peculiar to them, is yet exceedingly characteristic of them. It has a certain beauty and force of its own. The hand is of course the seat of active power. It is on or over a man like some great shield held aloft above him, below which there is safe hiding. So that great hand bends itself over us, and we are secure beneath its hollow. As a child sometimes carries a tender-winged butterfly in the globe of its two hands, that the bloom on its wings may not be ruffled by its fluttering, so He carries our feeble, unarmoured souls enclosed in the covert of His almighty hand. God is upon us to impart power as well as protection; and our "bow abides in strength" when "the arms of our hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." That was Ezra’s faith, and that should be ours.
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I. Note Ezra’s sensitive shrinking from anything like inconsistency between his creed and his practice. With a keen and high sense of what was required by his avowed principles, he will have no guards for the road. There would have been no harm in his asking an escort, seeing that his whole enterprise was made possible by the king’s support. But a true man often feels that he cannot do the things which he might without sin do. Let us learn again the lesson from this old story that if our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it demands, and will produce, the abandonment sometimes, the subordination always, of external helps and material good.
II. Notice, too, Ezra’s preparation for receiving the Divine help. There was no foolhardiness in his courage; he was well aware of all: the possible dangers on the road; and whilst he was confident of the Divine protection, he knew that, in his own quiet, matter-of-fact words, it was given to "all them that seek Him." So his faith not only impels him to the renunciation of the Babylonian guard, but to earnest supplication for the defence in which he is so confident. He is sure it will be given, so sure that he will have no other shield; and yet he fasts and prays that he and his company may receive it. He prays because he is sure that he will receive it, and does receive it because he prays and is sure.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 37.
Ezr 8:29
I may venture, without being unduly fanciful, to take these words as a type of the injunctions which are given to us Christian people, and to see in them a striking and picturesque representation of the duties that devolve upon us in the course of our journey across the desert to the temple home above.
I. Notice, first, what the precious treasure is which is thus entrusted to our keeping and care. The metaphor is capable of two applications. The first is to the rich treasure and solemn trust of our own nature, of our own, souls, the faculties and capacities precious beyond all count, rich beyond all else that a man has ever received. The treasure is, first, our own selves, with all that we are and may be under the stimulating and quickening influence of God’s grace and Spirit. The treasure is, next, His great word of salvation, once delivered unto the saints, and to be handed on, without diminution or alteration in its fair perspective and manifold harmonies, to the generations that are to come.
II. A word next as to the command, the guardianship that is here set forth. "Watch ye, and keep them." The treasure which is given into our hands requires for its safe preservation unceasing vigilance. Guardianship is (1) vigilance; (2) trust, like the trust which is glorified in the context, depending only on "the good hand of our God upon us;" (3) purity, because, as Ezra said, "ye are holy unto the Lord. The vessels are holy also," and therefore ye are the fit persons to guard them. (4) And besides that, there is in our keeping, our trust, a method which does not apply to the incident before us, namely, use, in order to their preservation.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 45.
Reference: Ezr 9:9.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, 1st series, p. 240. Ezr 9:13, Ezr 9:14.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 168.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Particulars of Ezra's Company
Particulars of Ezra's Company
1. Them that went up] The sum of the numbers given is 1,496. Only males are mentioned, and if no women accompanied them, the absence of such doubtless increased the tendency that the people manifested to intermarry with heathen families.
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2. Hattush] This should be connected closely with the following clause, Hattush being grandson of Shecaniah: 1Ch_3:22.
3. Of the sons of Pharosh] Most of the families in this list also appear (with some variations) in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 as having contributed members to the body of immigrants that accompanied Zerubbabel in the reign of Cyrus.
13. Of the last sons of Adonikam] perhaps those who belonged to the youngest branch of Adonikam's house.
15. Ahava] This was the name both of a town and of a river (Ezr_8:21) in Babylonia, on the road to Palestine. None of the sons of Levi] Only a small number of Levites had previously accompanied Zerubbabel (Ezr_2:36).
17. Casiphia] unidentified, but presumably near Babylon. And to his brethren the Nethinims] The text is defective, and should probably be corrected to 'and to his brethren (i.e. the Levites) and to the Nethinim.'
18. Of the sons of Mahli] Either the name of the 'man of understanding' has dropped out of the text, or else this expression itself represents a proper name, Ish-sechel: so RM.
22. The enemy in the way] probably such marauders as were accustomed to attack defenceless travellers: cp. Ezr_8:31.
24. Sherebiah, Hashabiah] These were Levites, not priests (Neh_12:24), so that the individuals selected were twenty-four in all, twelve priests and twelve Levites: cp. Ezr_8:30.
26. Six hundred and fifty talents, etc.] The value of the offerings mentioned in this and the following v. is so great (approaching a million sterling), that exaggeration or textual corruption may be suspected.
30. Took.. silver] i.e. took the silver weighed out to them (Ezr_8:26).
33. By the hand of] RV 'into the hand of': the persons named being those with whom the silver brought from Babylon was deposited.
34. By number.. of every one] RV 'the whole by number and by weight.'
36. The king's commissions] i.e. the directions intended for the royal treasurers (Ezr_7:21). Lieutenants] lit. 'satraps.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. Those who returned with Ezra (Ezr 8:1-14)
CHAPTER 8
1. Those who returned with Ezra (Ezr 8:1-14)
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2. The gathering at Ahava (Ezr 8:15-20)
3. The fast proclaimed (Ezr 8:21-23)
4. The appointment of guardians (Ezr 8:24-30)
5. The departure and arrival in Jerusalem (Ezr 8:31-36)
Ezr 8:1-14. The names of those who gathered around Ezra and went up with him are here recorded. In view of the magnificent decree and liberality of Artaxerxes, the company was very small. The majority preferred Babylon, and remained there. The faithful ones are known to God, and their names are here forever written in His Word. Though the Gentile monarch had given the decree, and the people were abundantly supplied with all necessary means, the undertaking was one of faith. They came out of Babylon trusting the LORD; they marched on in faith. It must be especially noticed that only males are mentioned. The mixed marriages of which we read in the next chapter most likely were the result of the fact that no women had joined Ezra’s expedition.
Ezr 8:15-20. Ezra gathered them together at the river that runneth to Ahava, which probably was a branch of the Euphrates, near Babylon. There they dwelt in their tents for three days. They were pilgrims and strangers, and had gone forth like Abraham, the father of the nation. Ezra viewed the people and discovered the absence of the Levites. While a small number of Levites had gone up with Zerubbabel, none had joined Ezra. Only two priests were present, Gershon, son of Phinehas, and Daniel, son of Ithamar. What indifference this reveals! They had settled down in the enemy’s land and were satisfied to remain there. They were minding earthly things, and the things of God were forgotten by them. Still they were Levites in their holy calling. It is so today with many who are no doubt saved, but they are worldly-minded, and have but little desire to live in the separation demanded by Him from His people. Ezra was not willing to leave the Levites behind, knowing how absolutely necessary they were for the house of God. How Ezra must have looked to God! Then he acted, and through the good hand of God, which he once more acknowledged, a number of Levites and Nethinim joined the party.
Ezr 8:21-23. He proclaimed a fast. The man of God felt the need of seeking God’s face and His gracious protection. The fasting was the outward sign of deep humiliation and an expression of their dependence, “to seek of Him a straight way, for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance.” The need of guidance as well as protection was fully recognized by the gathered company, and they trusted the LORD for both. This is still the blessed way of faith for God’s servant, and for the children of God. How great would be the success and the blessing if at all times and in all service God’s people would first seek His face, humble themselves in His presence and trust Him fully. Ezra had told the king that he trusted the LORD, that His hand is upon all them for good that seek Him, and so he was ashamed to ask a military escort to protect them against robbers, who might waylay them and rob them of their possessions. He knew His God was the best shield, and His angels, the ministers used in guarding His people and keeping evil away from them, would be the unseen companions of the caravan. “So we fasted and besought our God for this, and He was entreated of us.” Their prayers were answered. And He still answers faith.
Ezr 8:24-30. Faith in God did not make Ezra careless. He felt his great responsibility and made the most careful preparations. He set apart twelve of the chief priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them. Levites were also selected by him (8:30). To their custody he committed the holy vessels, as well as the silver and the gold which had been so freely given. Then he gave them the charge, “Ye are holy unto the LORD; the vessels are holy also and the silver and gold are a freewill offering unto the LORD God of your fathers. Watch ye and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.” He had weighed into their hand 650 talents of silver (about $1,250,000) and of gold 100 talents (about $3,000,000) besides the costly vessels of silver and gold. This careful weighing of everything when they received the costly treasures, and the weighing when they delivered the same in Jerusalem, does not mean that Ezra entertained any doubt as to the honesty of the priests and Levites. It was done to avoid all suspicion. The same principle is laid down in the New Testament for the Church: “Provide for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (2Co 8:21).
Ezr 8:31-36. Then the departure was made on the twelfth day of the first month. In faith and complete dependence on God they set out towards the land of their fathers. And the LORD honored their faith. “And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.” They must have had many narrow escapes, but as they constantly trusted in the LORD, in His good hand of mercy and power, He delivered them from all dangers. The LORD who answered their faith and kept them is the same today, and never disappoints faith. His hand is the same as then, and we too can experience His gracious deliverance. The journey occupied not quite four months. The three days at the end of the journey correspond to the three days before the journey began at the river Ahava. (8:15). What praise they must have rendered to God during these three days in Jerusalem, when their eyes beheld once more the beloved city and the house of the LORD!
On the fourth day the treasures were turned over and were weighed in the house of God. This was done by Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest. He is mentioned by Nehemiah as one of the builders of the wall (Neh 3:4; Neh 3:21). With him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas. Associated with them were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua (mentioned also in 10:23 and Neh 7:7) and Noadiah, the son of Binnui. Thus in the house of God account was rendered, as all His people will have to give an account before the judgment seat of Christ.
Burnt offerings were then offered, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs and twelve he-goats for a sin offering. It is especially to be noticed that the small remnant which had returned embraced in their faith all Israel. “All Israel” will some day be saved and be brought back to the land, through Him who is the true burnt and sin offering. And as their faith included all their brethren, the whole house of Israel, though they were not with them, so our faith must include all the saints of God.
After having discharged their solemn obligation, giving God the first place, they “delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side of the river; and they furthered the people and the house of God.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Assembling of the Company
The Assembling of the Company
v. 1. These are now the chief of their fathers, the oldest living heads or fathers of the descendants in one family, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. The register of families according to father-houses, under the leadership of Ezra, is now given.
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v. 2. of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel, these being of priestly descent; of the sons of David, direct descendants of the great king: Hattush.
v. 3. Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh: Zechariah; and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty.
v. 4. of the sons of Pahath-moab: Elihoenai, the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.
v. 5. of the sons of Shechaniah: the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.
v. 6. of the sons also of Adin: Ebed, the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.
v. 7. And of the sons of Elam; Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.
v. 8. And of the sons of Shephatiab: Zebadiah, the son of Michael, and with him fourscore males.
v. 9. of the sons of Joab, treated separately here, probably because only a small number of them had returned with Zerubbabel, Ezr 2:6: Obadiah, the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
v. 10. And of the sons of Shelomith: the son of Josiphiah, and with him an hundred and threescore males.
v. 11. And of the Sons of Bebai: Zechariah, the son of Bebai, and with him twenty and eight males.
v. 12. And of the sons of Azgad: Johanan, the son of Hakkatan, and with him an hundred and ten males.
v. 13. And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males.
v. 14. of the sons also of Bigvai: Uthai and Zabbud (or Zaccur), and with them seventy males. The number of males enumerated in this list amounts to 1,764, so that the caravan, including women and children, may easily have been six thousand strong.
v. 15. And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava, a place or region on one of the canals of Mesopotamia communicating with the Euphrates; and there abode we in tents three days, after the Oriental custom, which gave the leader of the caravan a chance to arrange it in proper order and to appoint his assistants. And I viewed the people and the priests and found there none of the sons of Levi, the ordinary Levites.
v. 16. Then sent I for Eliezer, for Arid, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men, heads of little communities; also for Joiarib and for Elnathan, men of understanding, teachers among the people.
v. 17. And I sent them, undoubtedly by virtue of the authority vested in him, with commandment unto Iddo, the chief at the place Casiphia, this being either the name of a place between Ahava and Babylon or the designation of an office, that of treasurer to the king, and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, putting the very words of their commission into their mouths, and to his brethren, the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. It seems evident from this statement that the Jews had kept their religious organization in Babylon at that time for more than a century, almost a hundred and fifty years, and had also enjoyed the privilege of free worship, even the Nethinim, who were beneath the Levites in the tasks of the Temple, having maintained their identity.
v. 18. And by the good hand of our God upon us, by a special manifestation of His merciful kindness, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen;
v. 19. and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty;
v. 20. also of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, to assist the Levites in the lower and more menial tasks of the Temple, two hundred and twenty Nethinim; all of them were expressed by name. It is a strange fact that even the freedom from taxes did not induce’ more men of the tribe of Levi to join the company of Ezra at once. The prosperity of this world often results in a reduced amount of zeal for the welfare of God’s kingdom.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
There is an apparent shift in authorship beginning here. Chapters 1-7 were written as if the author was writing about Ezra. Chapter 8 was written as if the author was Ezra.
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General Information:
Verses 2-14 are a list of leaders and their ancestors. All of them are men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Of the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom
This is the first item in the list. It can be written with the verb "was." AT: "The leader of the descendants of Phinehas was Gershom" or "Gershom was the leader of the descendants of Phinehas"
Of the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel
This is the second item in the list. It can be written with the verb "was." AT: "The leader of the descendants of Ithamar was Daniel" or "Daniel was the leader of the descendants of Ithamar"
Parosh
See how you translated this man's name in Esra 2:03.
Of the descendants of David, Hattush, who was ... Parosh; and Zechariah
This is the third item in the list. It can be written with the verb "were." AT: "The leaders of the descendants of David were Hattush who was ... Parosh; and Zechariah" or "The leaders of the descendants of David were Hattush and Zechariah. Hattush was from ... Parosh"
Hattush, who was of the descendants of Shecaniah, who was from the descendants of Parosh
This can be written as a separate sentence after "Zechariah." AT: "Hatush was a descendant of Shecaniah, who was a descendant of Parosh"
with him there were 150 males listed in the record of his genealogy
"with Zechariah there were 150 males listed in the record of his genealogy"
150 males
"one hundred and fifty males" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
Babylon
reign
king
Artaxerxes
descend
Phinehas
David
Zechariah (OT)
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:1-14 This list of the family leaders designates those…
8:1-14 This list of the family leaders designates those who stepped out in faith and traveled with Ezra back to Jerusalem to join the Jewish community there. It lists fifteen families represented by 1,515 men. Including women and children, the total could have been around 5,000 people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.