The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy and four.
The register containing the seventy-four Levites belongs to those who had already returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus under his proclamation and decree. The whole returning company numbered 42,360 persons in all, distinct both from the Jews who still remained in Babylon and from the later company that went up to Jerusalem with Ezra. The list in Ezra 2:1-65 shows that nearly fifty thousand Jews returned, ending the captivity in the sense that all were free to go, though many remained behind.
Ezra 1 to Ezra 6 belongs to the same time as the book of Haggai and has direct reference to the building of the temple then. Its setting is Jerusalem about B.C. 520, fifteen years after the foundations of the temple were laid, when the city was in dilapidated condition and the temple work was yet languishing. At that time the people had departed from the Lord and had become discouraged, under Darius Hystaspes with Zerubbabel as governor of Judea and with Haggai and Zechariah prophesying.
The register containing the seventy-four Levites belongs to those who had already returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus under his proclamation and decree. The whole returning company numbered 42,360 persons in all, distinct both from the Jews who still remained in Babylon and from the later company that went up to Jerusalem with Ezra. The list in Ezra 2:1-65 shows that nearly fifty thousand Jews returned, ending the captivity in the sense that all were free to go, though many remained behind.
Ezra 1 to Ezra 6 belongs to the same time as the book of Haggai and has direct reference to the building of the temple then. Its setting is Jerusalem about B.C. 520, fifteen years after the foundations of the temple were laid, when the city was in dilapidated condition and the temple work was yet languishing. At that time the people had departed from the Lord and had become discouraged, under Darius Hystaspes with Zerubbabel as governor of Judea and with Haggai and Zechariah prophesying.