Ezra 1:11

All the vessels, &c., five thousand and four hundred It is natural to expect that the words -all the vessels" would give us the sum total of the different figures mentioned in Ezra 1:9-10. The sum total however mentioned here is 5400. The vessels enumerated under the six classes (in Ezra 1:9-10), when added together, make only 2499. Unless we concede that the text is incorrect, the only solution of the variation is to suppose that Ezra 1:9-10 omit a large number of less important vessels. This is unsatisfactory, since the words -and other vessels a thousand" are obviously intended to cover the remainder.

It is probable therefore that the discrepancy arises from some ancient corruption in the text, which has been caused by copyists" errors in transcribing numbers. This is a frequent source of mistake.

The LXX. has the same text as the Hebrew, so that the error is of very ancient origin. The 1st Book of Esdras has two variations in the list of items, reading (1) -1000" for -30" -chargers of gold", (2) -2410" for -410" -silver bowls" (reading -2000" instead of -a second sort"), and gives a total corresponding to its figures, i.e. 5469.

Some scholars, seeing in the variations of 1 Esdras a clue to the true solution, maintain that the corruption of the text is to be found in the figures both of the items and of the total (a) They reject the variation of -1000" for -30" chargers as a round number inserted by 1 Esdras; (b) they read -1000" for -30" -bowls of gold", on the ground that 30 is too small a figure, since Ezra himself brought 20 of this description (Ezra 8:28); (c) they read -2410" for -410 of a second sort," on the authority of 1 Esdras. These alterations bring the total to 5469, agreeing with 1 Esdras.

Ewald (a) combining the reading of Ezra and 1 Esdras reads -1030" for -30" -chargers", (b) keeping the -30" -bowls of gold", accepts the 1 Esdras reading of 2410, and thus obtains the total of 5499.

Keil suspecting that the corruption is to be found in the sum total rather than in the items, suggests that by an accidental transposition of figures the true number of 2500 has become altered to 5400.

In favour of this view, it must be admitted that (1) the figure of 5400 is surprisingly large, (2) copyists had a greater tendency to increase than to reduce numbers. But as the items are given in detail, so we should expect the sum total to be given exactly and not merely in a round number. As we have the two best texts agreeing in this total figure 5400, it is better to look for the error among the items. The reading of 1 Esdras -2410" may possibly be correct.

But in the absence of further evidence we are left to conjecture either that some items have accidentally fallen out or that some of the present figures have been wrongly transcribed.

withthem of the captivity that were brought up R.V. when they of the captivity were brought up. The original here is rather condensed. The versions failed to translate the passage. LXX. τὰ πάντα τὰ ἀναβαίνοντα [μετὰ Σασαβασσὰρ] ἀπὸ τῆς ἀποικίας ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος. Vulg. - universa tulit Sassabasar cum his, qui ascendebant de transmigratione Babylonis".

The meaning of the clause is practically the same. But the more precise sense conveyed by the R.V. is the only right translation, i.e. that Sheshbazzar brought up the vessels at the timewhen -the captivity" was brought up. The emphasis is on the timeof the removal not on the caravanwhich accompanied it.

were brought up the same word used of the -breaking up" of a camp in Jeremiah 37:11.

the captivity the reader will notice that the journey of Sheshbazzar and his companions from Babylon to Jerusalem is disposed of in a single verse. We hear nothing of the details or of the difficulties of the journey, which must have lasted three or four months, cf. Ezra 7:8-9.

It has been suggested that here should be introduced the passage Esther 5:1; Esther 5:1-6 -After this were the principal men of the families chosen according to their tribes, to go up with their wives and sons and daughters, with their menservants and maidservants and cattle. (2) And Darius sent with them a thousand horsemen, till they had brought them back to Jerusalem safely, and with musical [instruments] tablets and flutes. (3) And all their brethren played, and he made them go up together with them. (4) And these are the names of the men which went up, according to their families among their tribes, after their several heads. (5) The priests, the sons of Phinees, the son of Aaron: Jesus, the son of Josedec, the son of Saraias, and Joacim, the son of Zerobabel, the son of Salathiel, of the house of David, out of the kindred of Phares, of the tribe of Judah; (6) who spake wise sentences before Darius the king of Persia in the second year of his reign in the month Nisan which is the first month." The name Darius being taken as an error for Cyrus, and Ezra 1:5-6 being considered to be an interpolation, the passage would give us information as to (a) the orderly preparations, (b) the armed escort, for the expedition, (c) the festal character of the start, (d) the date of the departure, and would throw light upon -the seventh month" mentioned in Ezra 3:1, and -the second year" mentioned in Ezra 3:8.

The general style fairly corresponds with that of the books Ezra and Chronicles. But (a) it cannot be conceded that these verses join naturally on to chap. Ezra 2:1. (b) In the original context (1 Esdras 5) they have all the appearance of a gloss inserted to connect the legend of Darius and the Three young men (3, 4) with the resumption of the narrative (Ezra 5:7). (c) There is nothing impossible, supposing the passage to be a genuine extract from existing records, in such an expedition having been made in the second year of king Darius, and in supposing that the arrival of this priestly contingent would have encouraged the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in their task of arousing the people to complete the Temple (cf. the second year of Darius Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1).

The journey, which would have probably been N. and N.W. along the Euphrates by Haran as far as the fords of Carchemish, and then S.W. and S. through the territory of the old kingdoms of Hamath, Syria and Samaria, must have occupied a considerable interval of time. Ezra and his band took four months (ch. Ezra 7:8-9) in accomplishing the same distance. Perhaps no record was preserved of the incidents of the journey, and the compiler passes on to subjects for which he had written materials to draw from.