for sacrifices: 29 knives; which, because the handles
of them were of gold or silver, were valuable, and
might be very large knives, and what the priests used
in slaying and cutting up the sacrifices.
Vet. 10. Thirty basins of gold, &c.] Cups or dishes'
with covers, as the word seems to signify; but, ac-
cording to Jarcbi and Aben Ezra, they were vessels
in which the blood of sacrifices was received, and out
of which it was sprinkled on the altar: silver basins of
a second sort 410; perhaps lesser than the other, how-
ever not so valuable, being of silver; in the apocryphal
Ezra, oh. ii. 13. the number is 2,410; and in the letter
of Cyrus, before referred to, it is 0.,400: and other ves-
sels 1,000; which are not particularly mentioned;
Junius and Tremellius render the words, other vessels

by thousands, there being near 3,000 that are not
described.
Ver. 11. A//the vessels of gold, and of silver, were
5,400, &c.] Those that are mentioned make no more
than 2,499, which Aben Ezra thinks were the larger
vessels; but this general sum takes in great and small,
as in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 18. in the letter of Cyrus, before
mentioned, these vessels are more particularly de-
scribed, and their several numbers given, which to-
gether amount to the exact number in the text, 5,400;
the apochryphal Ezra makes them 5,469: all these did
Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity, that ,
were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem: of whom
there is a large and particular account in the following
chapter.

THIS chapter contains a list of those that went up
from Babylon to Jerusalem, of their leaders, their
chief men, princes and priests, yet. 1, 2. of the people,
described by their families, towns, and cities, and
number of persons, vet. 3--35. of the priests, Le-
rites, and Nethinim, yet. 36--58. and of those that
could not make out their genealogy, people and priests,
ver. 59--63. and then the sum-total of the whole con-
gregation is given, vet. 64. besides men and maid-
servants, singing men and women, and cattle of divers
sorts, yet. 65---67. and the chapter is closed with an
account of the free-will offerings of the principal men
towards the buildihg of the temple, and of the settle-
ment of the people in their respective cities, ver. 68,
69, 70.
Ver. 1. Now these are the children of the province,
&c.] Either of the province of Babylon, as Aben
Ezra, where they were either born, or had dwelt for
many years; or else rather, according to Jarchi, of
the province of Judea, as it is called, ch. v. 8. once a
flourishing kingdom, but reduced to a province of
the Babylonian monarchy, now in the hands of the
Medes and Persians, of which province they and their
fathers originally were: that went out of the captivity,
of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchad-
nezzar king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon;
who either in person, or in their parents, were carried
captive by him, and who were the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin; and they are only mentioned, because they
were the principal that returned, though there-were
some of the other tribes that also came up with them:
and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one
unto his city; that he dwelt in before, or was now
assigned to him by lot, see Neh. xi. 1, &c.
Vet. 2. Which came with Zerubbabel, &c.] The
head of them, the prince of Judah; and the chief that
came with him are the 10 following; Jeshua, Nehe-
rajah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, ]Viispar,
Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah; the first of these, Jeshua,
was Joshua the high-priest, the son of Josedeck,
Hagg. i. 1. Dr. Lightfoot{*} thinks that Nehemiah is
the same, whose name the following book bears; and
that Mordecai is he who was uncle to Esther, so Aben
Ezra; but, if so, they must both return again; for
that Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the 20th year of
Artaxerxes, Neh. i. 1. and that Mordecai brought up
his niece in the city of Shushan, in the times of Aha-
suerus, is certain; and this, with respect to both, is
denied by others{t}, who take them to be different men of
the same name; and the same writer is of opinion that
Seraiah, and who is called Azariah, Neh. vii. 7. is the
same with Ezra, who therefore must and did return,
since he went up to Jerusalem in the 7th year of Ar-
taxerxes, oh. vii. 1, 7, 8. as for the others, we know
nothing more of them than their names: the number
of the men of the people of Israel; either of the princi-
pal of them before named, or of the common people,
which next follows.
Vet. 3. The children of Parosh, 2,1762.] From
hence, to the end of vet. 35, a list is given of the cap-
tives that returned, described by the families they
were of, their ancestors from whence they sprung, or
the towns and cities to which they originally belonged,
and by their numbers; otherwise nothing more of them
is known.
Ver. 36. The priests, &c.] An account of them is
given in this and the three following verses, and only
four families are mentioned, those of Jedaiah, Immer,
Pashur, and Harim, and the number of them amounted
to 4,289; these, according to the Jews, were heads
of four courses, which were all that returned from
Babylon {u}.
Vet. 40. The Levites, &c.] Singers and porters,
who are reckoned in this, and the two following
verses, whose numbers were nomore than 341; whereas,
in the times of David, they were 38,000, 1 Chron.
xxiii. 3.
Vet. 43. The Nethinims, &c.] Supposed by Abea
Ezra and Jarchi to be the Gibeonites, who were given
by Joshua, as the word Nethinim signifies, to the
congregation, to be hewers of wood and drawers of
water; but rather were those that were given by David


{s} Works, vol. 1. p. l27. So Broughton, Works, p. 258.
{t} Vid. Rainold. de Libr. Apocryph. Praelect. 111, 117, 148.
{u} T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 1.