Ezra 4:4

4:4 Then the local people ¹  began to discourage ²  the people of Judah and to dishearten them from building.

Ezra 2:2

2:2 They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

The number of Israelites ³  was as follows: ⁴ 

Ezra 1:11

1:11 All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. ⁵  Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 7:16

7:16 along with all the silver and gold that you may collect ⁶  throughout all the province of Babylon and the contributions of the people and the priests for the temple of their God which is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 1:4

1:4 Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors ⁷  with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

Ezra 6:8

6:8 “I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work. ⁸ 

[4:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the people of the land.” Elsewhere this expression sometimes has a negative connotation, referring to a lay population that was less zealous for Judaism than it should have been. Here, however, it seems to refer to the resident population of the area without any negative connotation.

[4:4]  ² tn Heb “were making slack the hands of.”

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “men of the people of Israel.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn The words “was as follows” are not in the Hebrew text but are used in the translation for clarity.

[1:11]  ⁵ sn The total number as given in the MT does not match the numbers given for the various items in v. 9. It is not clear whether the difference is due to error in textual transmission or whether the constituent items mentioned are only a selection from a longer list, in which case the total from that longer list may have been retained. The numbers provided in 1 Esdras come much closer to agreeing with the number in Ezra 1:9-11, but this does not necessarily mean that 1 Esdras has been better preserved here than Ezra. 1 Esdras 2:13-15 (RSV) says, “The number of these was: a thousand gold cups, a thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censures, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred and ten silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, and they were carried back by Shesbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.”

[7:16]  ⁷ tn Aram “find.”

[1:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “the men of his place.”

[6:8]  ¹¹ tn The words “of the work” are not in the Aramaic, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.