Ezra 8:1

The Leaders Who Returned with Ezra

8:1 These are the leaders ¹  and those enrolled with them by genealogy who were coming up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

Ezra 10:16

10:16 So the exiles proceeded accordingly. Ezra the priest separated out ²  by name men who were leaders in their family groups. ³  They sat down to consider this matter on the first day of the tenth month,

Ezra 2:59

2:59 These are the ones that came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify ⁴  their family connection ⁵  or their ancestry, ⁶  as to whether they really were from Israel):

Ezra 2:68

2:68 When they came to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders ⁷  offered voluntary offerings for the temple of God in order to rebuild ⁸  it on its site.

Ezra 7:27

7:27 ⁹ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

Ezra 8:28-29

8:28 Then I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, just as these vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. 8:29 Be careful with them and protect them, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites and the family leaders of Israel in Jerusalem, ¹⁰  in the storerooms of the temple of the Lord.”

Ezra 10:11

10:11 Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ¹¹  and from these foreign wives.”

Ezra 1:5

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ¹²  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ¹³  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ 

Ezra 3:12

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ¹⁵  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ¹⁶  – were weeping loudly, ¹⁷  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

Ezra 4:2-3

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ¹⁸  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ¹⁹  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ²⁰  from the time ²¹  of King Esarhaddon ²²  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ²³  4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ²⁴  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 9:7

9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ²⁵  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ²⁶  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

¹ tn Heb “the heads of their families.”

² tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּבְדֵּל לוֹ (vayyavdel lo, “separated for himself”) rather than the Niphal plural וַיִּבָּדְלוּ (vayyibbadÿlu, “were separated”) of the MT.

³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”

³ tn Heb “relate.”

⁴ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

⁵ tn Heb “their seed.”

⁴ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁵ tn Heb “cause it to stand.”

⁵ sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Heb “the peoples of the land.”

⁸ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁹ tn Heb “arose.”

¹⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

¹⁰ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

¹¹ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

¹¹ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

¹² tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

¹³ tn Heb “days.”

¹⁴ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

¹⁵ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

¹¹ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

¹² tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.

¹³ tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”