The Israelites contributed to the rebuilding of the temple as they had to the construction of the Mosaic tabernacle (Exod. 25:4-7; 35:2-9). Probably the Greek gold drachma is in view and the Babylonian silver mina (v. 69).55If this is so, one Greek drachma was equivalent to one Roman denarius.56In the ancient world this was one day's wage for a workingman (cf. Matt. 20:1-16). Obviously the exiles made a substantial contribution to the rebuilding of the temple that supplemented what Cyrus and the friends of the immigrants had previously donated (1:4, 6-11; cf. Exod. 25:4-7; 35:2-9; 2 Cor. 8:3; 9:7).
When this group of Jews returned to the Promised Land in 537 B.C., they went first to Jerusalem (v. 68). Later they settled in the towns where their ancestors had lived and where some of them had property rights (v. 70; cf. vv. 21-35).
The record of those who returned that God preserved in this chapter shows His faithfulness in bringing a remnant of His people back to Palestine as He had promised.
"One of the chief objectives of Ezra-Nehemiah was to show the Jews that they constituted the continuation of the preexilic Jewish community, the Israelite community that God had chosen."57
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