Ezra 2:39

The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Ezra 2:39. The children of Harim — The head of one of the twenty-four courses which David appointed, (1 Chronicles 24:8,) of all which courses, some observe here, are not above four or five that returned. There is another Harim mentioned above, Ezra 2:32, but that was no priest as this was, Ezra 2:36.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:36-63 Those who undervalue their relation to the Lord in times of reproach, persecution, or distress, will have no benefit from it when it becomes honourable or profitable. Those who have no evidence that they are, by the new birth, spiritual priests unto God, through Jesus Christ, have no right to the comforts and privileges of Christians.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The province - Judaea was no longer a kingdom, but a mere "province" of Persia. "The children of the province" are the Israelites who returned to Palestine, as distinct from those who remained in Babylonia and Persia.

Every one unto his city - That is, to the city whereto his forefathers had belonged. Of course, in the few cases where this was not known Ezra 2:59-62, the plan could not be carried out.

Two other copies of the following list have come down to us - one in Nehemiah 7:7-69, and the other in 1 Esdras 5:8-43. All seem to have been taken from the same original document, and to have suffered more or less from corruption. Where two out of the three agree, the reading should prevail over that of the third.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

36-39. The priests—Each of their families was ranged under its prince or head, like those of the other tribes. It will be remembered that the whole body was divided into twenty-four courses, one of which, in rotation, discharged the sacerdotal duties every week, and each division was called after the name of its first prince or chief. It appears from this passage that only four of the courses of the priests returned from the Babylonish captivity; but these four courses were afterwards, as the families increased, divided into twenty-four, which were distinguished by the names of the original courses appointed by David [1Ch 23:6-13]. Hence we find the course of Abijah or Abia (1Ch 24:10) subsisting at the commencement of the Christian era (Lu 1:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The head of one of the twenty-four courses which David appointed, 1 Chronicles 24:8; of all which courses, some observe, here are not above four or five that returned. There is another Harim mentioned above, Ezra 2:32, but that was no priest as this was, Ezra 2:35.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The priests,.... 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 4289; these, according to the Jews, were heads of four courses, which were all that returned from Babylon (u).

(u) T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39. Harim] The name of Harim appears in 1 Chronicles 24:8 as that of the third priestly house.

Ezra 2:39

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The list of the priests is identical, both in names and numbers, with that of Nehemiah 7:39-42. These are:

The sons of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua 973 The sons of Immer 1052 The sons of Pashur 1247 The sons of Harim 1017 Total 4289

Jedaiah is the head of the second order of priests in 1 Chronicles 24:7. If, then, Jedaiah here represents this order, the words "of the house of Jeshua" must not be applied to Jeshua the high priest; the second order belonging in all probability to the line of Ithamar, and the high-priestly race, on the contrary, to that of Eleazar. We also meet the name Jeshua in other priestly families, e.g., as the name of the ninth order of priests in 1 Chronicles 24:11, so that it may be the old name of another priestly house. Since, however, it is unlikely that no priest of the order from which the high priest descended should return, the view that by Joshua the high priest is intended, and that the sons of Jedaiah were a portion of the house to which Joshua the high priest belonged, is the more probable one. In this case Jedaiah is not the name of the second order of priests, but of the head of a family of the high-priestly race. Immer is the name of the sixteenth order of priests, 1 Chronicles 24:14. Pashur does not occur among the orders of priests in 1 Chronicles 24; but we find the name, 1 Chronicles 9:12, and Nehemiah 11:12, among the ancestors of Adaiah, a priest of the order of Malchijah; the Pashur of Jeremiah 20 and Jeremiah 21:1-14 being, on the contrary, called the son of Immer, i.e., a member of the order of Immer. Hence Bertheau considers Pashur to have been the name of a priestly race, which first became extensive, and took the place of an older and perhaps extinct order, after the time of David. Gershom of the sons of Phinehas, and Daniel of the sons of Ithamar, are said, Daniel 8:2, to have gone up to Jerusalem with Ezra, while the order to which they belonged is not specified. Among the priests who had married strange wives (Ezra 10:18-22) are named, sons of Jeshua, Immer, Harim, Pashur; whence it has been inferred "that, till the time of Ezra, only the four divisions of priests here enumerated had the charge of divine worship in the new congregation" (Bertheau). On the relation of the names in Ezra 2:36-39 to those in Nehemiah 10:3-9 and Nehemiah 12:1-22, see remarks on these passages.