Ezra 2:1 - Meaning and Application

We can notice here, first, that a written record was kept of the families who came up from captivity, along with the number in each family. This was done to honor them, as part of their reward for faith and courage, their trust in God, and their love for their own land. It was also meant to encourage others to follow their good example. God will honor those who honor him. The names of all true Israelites, those who accept Christ’s offer of rescue, will be found in a far more sacred record than this, the Lamb’s book of life.

This record of the returning families also helped later generations. It showed them where they came from and who their relatives were. They are called the children of the province because Judah, once a great kingdom that had ruled over other lands, had now become a province itself. It had to receive laws and orders from the king of Persia and answer to him. Sin lowers and weakens a nation, while righteousness would lift it up.

Still, being made servants in this way, as the patriarchs were when they lived as foreigners in a land promised to them, reminded them of a better country, that is, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16). That kingdom cannot be shaken, and it can never be turned into a province. The people are also said to come, each one, to his own city, that is, the city assigned to him. No doubt this assignment looked back to the settlement first arranged by Joshua, and they returned as closely as they could to it. It does not seem that others, at least not any who could resist them, had taken over their towns during their absence.

The leaders are named first, in verse 2. Zerubbabel, their chief ruler, and Jeshua, their chief priest, were like their Moses and Aaron. Nehemiah and Mordecai are also mentioned here. Some think these were not the same men we later meet in the books of Nehemiah and Esther, but they were likely the same men, who later returned to court to serve their nation. Some of the families are named after the men from whom they descended, and others after the places where they had once lived, just as many surnames among us come from either people or places.

There is some small difference between the numbers of a few families here and in Nehemiah 7, where this list is repeated. That may be because some who first said they would come later turned back, saying, “I will go, sir,” but never going. That would reduce the number of their family. Others who first stayed behind later changed their minds and went, which would raise the number.

Two families are called the children of Elam, one in verse 7 and another in verse 31, and strangely, the number of both is 1,254. The children of Adonikam, a name meaning “high lord,” were 666, the same number as the beast in (Revelation 13:18), which is there called the number of a man. Mr. Hugh Broughton thought this may refer to this man. The children of Bethlehem, in verse 21, were only 123, even though it was David’s city. Bethlehem was small among the clans of Judah, yet that is where the Messiah was to come from (Micah 5:2).

Anathoth had once been a well-known place in the tribe of Benjamin, yet here it had only 128 people, in verse 23. This likely came from the curse the men of Anathoth brought on themselves when they persecuted Jeremiah, who came from their city. God said, “There will be no remnant of them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth” (Jeremiah 11:21, Jeremiah 11:23). See also (Isaiah 10:30), “Poor Anathoth!” Nothing brings a people to ruin more quickly than persecution.