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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Restoration Of Israel
Ezra 2:1, 2
J.A. Macdonald
This is an important subject. Great portion of Scripture occupied with it. Events of the utmost moment connected with it.

I. AS THE SCATTERING OF ISRAEL WAS GRADUAL, SO MAY HIS GATHERING BE.

1. His tribes became distributed into two kingdoms.

(1) United until the evil days of Rehoboam (see 1 Kings 12:20).

(2) Thence distinguished as Judah and Israel. Under the name of Judah is comprehended also the small tribe of Benjamin, with priests and others of the tribe of Levi.

2. The ten tribes were first carried captive by the Assyrians. This was in two detachments.

(1) By Tiglath-pileser, B.C. 739 (see 2 Kings 15:29).

(2) By Shalmaneser eighteen years later, when the deportation was complete (see 2 Kings 17:6, 18).

3. The Jews were afterwards carried away to Babylon. This was 130 years later, and was also accomplished in two detachments, viz. -

(1) That, B.C. 599, when Nebuchadnezzar removed the principal people (see 2 Kings 24:14).

(2) That eleven years later, when the remnant was removed (see 2 Kings 25:11).

(3) Then, six centuries later, came the dispersion by the Romans. Prophecy views the scattering as a whole, without breaking it up into its details, and so it views the restoration; and as the scattering was accomplished at long intervals by instalments, so may the gathering be.

II. THIS RESTORATION BY EZRA WAS NOT THE FULL ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES.

1. The ten tribes were not included in it.

(1) They were the "children of the province." Not of Babylon, as some think, for Babylon is contrasted with it here. But of Judaea, now a province of the Persian empire (see Ezra 5:8). Behold the goodness and severity of God!

(2) Further specified as "those whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away." No mention made of those before carried into Assyria.

(3) Further, as "the number of the men of the people of Israel." Given in detail in this chapter. Here we find children of Judah, of Benjamin, of Levi and the priests, and even of the Gibeonites, but no mention of Ephraim and his associates.

(4) But the restoration of the ten tribes is promised (see Ezekiel 11:15-17). (What a rebuke to those who repeat this conduct of Judah in exclusively claiming for themselves as Christians the promises made to Israel!) Therefore there is yet a grand restoration for Israel.

2. This restoration did not reunite the divided nation.

(1) This fact already shown.

(2) But prophecy requires this (see Ezekiel 37:21, 22). "Therefore," etc.

3. This restoration was not permanent.

(1) Even the Jews were subsequently scattered by the Romans. Have since been kept scattered by Romanists and Mahomedans.

(2) But prophecy requires this (see Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 34:27, 28; Amos 9:14, 15). "Therefore," etc.

III. THIS RESTORATION WAS A PLEDGE OF THE GREATER EVENT.

1. It answered great purposes of prophecy.

(1) Those connected with the incarnation. To take place while the tribe-rod was yet with Judah (see Genesis 49:10). (See Julius Bate on 'The Blessing of Judah by Jacob.') While the family of David yet had their genealogies; while yet they dwelt near Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2).

(2) Those connected with the atonement. Jerusalem the place of sacrifices. Zion the place from whence the gospel law should issue (see Isaiah 2:3; Joel 2:32).

2. There is a prophecy in accomplished predictions.

(1) The preservation of the Jews amongst the nations. Without a parallel in history. What for (see Jeremiah 30:11)? "Full end" of Assyria, Babylon, Rome. Anti-christian nations doomed.

(2) History of the land as remarkable as that of the people. No permanent settlers. Romans, Greeks, Saracens, Papists, Turks!

3. The Jews expect their restoration.

(1) Good reason, for the word is sure.

(2) Their faith is patient. Centuries of disappointment. Is our faith so patient under trials? - J.A.M.

Biblical Illustrator
Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity.
Ezra 2:1, 2
Going up out of captivity
William Jones.
I. THE DELIVERANCE FROM CAPTIVITY.

1. This captivity had been —

(1)A degradation;

(2)a subjection;

(3)a transformation;

(4)a retribution.The most deplorable degradation and the most real and terrible subjection are those of sin.

2. This deliverance —

(1)Originated in the favour of God;

(2)was effected by an unlikely agent;

(3)was permissive and not compulsory.Salvation from the bondage of sin is freely offered in the gospel, but no one is compelled to accept the offer.

II. The journey home. This journey was —

1. A restoration.

2. A restoration to their own home.

3. A restoration to religious privileges. The salvation of Jesus Christ restores man to his true condition and to his forfeited inheritance.

III. THE SUBORDINATION TO LEADERS. Society could not exist without leaders and rulers. They are necessary —

1. For the maintenance of order.

2. For insuring progress.

3. Because of the differences in the characters and abilities of men.

(William Jones.)

Emancipation
The Rev. J. Jackson Fuller, of the Cameroons, a coloured missionary, said at the Young People's Meeting of the Baptist Centenary: "Although our fathers in my country were born under the British flag, yet we were nothing more and nothing else than the chattels of the Englishman. We were British slaves, and it was partly by the missionaries going to our country — the island of Jamaica — and telling us of the love of Jesus Christ that their vivid description of our oppressed condition aroused the English nation, and in the year 1834, after paying twenty millions of money, you set us all free. The very day you passed the Emancipation Act in England, I was made free. You young people would have been glad, or your fathers before you would have been glad, had they the opportunity of seeing that morning in the year 1884 when thousands of children and their fathers and mothers gathered together during the evening, waiting for that morning of the 31st of July to dawn. At eleven o'clock at night they gathered in mass and waited for the hour to pass when the clock should strike twelve. And then you would have been glad to see that mighty mass of human beings rise on their feet and sing the Doxology — 'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.' I was among that number that gathered that night. I heard the Doxology sung. I am one of the boys that were rescued when you paid twenty millions of money and set our fathers free."

People
Akkub, Ami, Asaph, Asnah, Ater, Baanah, Bakbuk, Barkos, Barzillai, Bazluth, Besai, Bigvai, Bilshan, Darkon, Delaiah, Gahar, Gazzam, Giddel, Habaiah, Hagab, Hagabah, Hakkoz, Hakupha, Hanan, Harhur, Harsha, Hasupha, Hatipha, Hatita, Hattil, Hezekiah, Hodaviah, Immer, Israelites, Jaalah, Jedaiah, Jeshua, Joab, Jorah, Kadmiel, Keros, Koz, Lebanah, Mehida, Mehunim, Meunim, Mizpar, Mordecai, Nebuchadnezzar, Nehemiah, Nekoda, Nephusim, Neziah, Padon, Pahathmoab, Parosh, Paseah, Pashur, Peruda, Phaseah, Pochereth, Reaiah, Reelaiah, Rehum, Rezin, Seraiah, Shallum, Shalmai, Shephatiah, Shobai, Siaha, Sisera, Solomon, Sophereth, Sotai, Tabbaoth, Talmon, Thamah, Tobiah, Tobijah, Uzza, Zaccai, Zattu, Zerubbabel, Ziha
Places
Ai, Anathoth, Azmaveth, Babylon, Babylonia, Beeroth, Bethel, Bethlehem, Cherub, Geba, Hadid, Immer, Jericho, Jerusalem, Kiriath-arim, Lod, Michmas, Nebo, Netophah, Ono, Ramah, Tel-harsha, Tel-melah
Topics
642, Forty, Forty-two, Hundred, Six, Sons
Outline
1. The number that return of the people
36. of the priests
40. of the Levites
43. of the Nethinims
55. of Solomon's servants
61. of the priests who could not show their pedigree
64. The whole number of them, with their substance
68. Their offerings

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezra 2:1-65

     5249   census

Ezra 2:1-67

     7230   genealogies

Library
Altar and Temple
'And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Apocalypse.
On the Lit. and life of John, see §§ 40 and 41 (this vol.); on the authorship of the Apoc. and the time of composition, § 37 (this vol.); § 41 (this vol.); and § 84 (this vol.) 1. Modern Critical, works of German and French scholars on the Apocalypse: Lücke (Voltständige Einleitung, etc., 2d ed., 1852; 1,074 pages of introductory matter, critical and historical; compare with it the review of Bleek in the "Studien and Kritiken" for 1854 and 1855); DeWette Com., 1848, …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

Barzillai
BY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D. "There is nothing," says Socrates to Cephalus in the Republic, "I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is rugged or difficult, or smooth and easy" (p. 328 E.). It is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of Barzillai the Gileadite. And though he is one of the lesser-known characters …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

The Historical Books.
1. In the Pentateuch we have the establishment of the Theocracy, with the preparatory and accompanying history pertaining to it. The province of the historical books is to unfold its practiced working, and to show how, under the divine superintendence and guidance, it accomplished the end for which it was given. They contain, therefore, primarily, a history of God's dealings with the covenant people under the economy which he had imposed upon them. They look at the course of human events on the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible

And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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