Ezra 10:25-43

Israel, or the laity

as distinguished from priests and Levites. Cf. Ezra 2:2 -the men of the people of Israel". Ezra 9:1 -the people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites".

Moreover of Israel R.V. And of Israel. There is no variety to break the simplicity of the list. The names of the houses here mentioned have all been mentioned in chap. 2. Thus

Parosh (Ezra 10:25)

in Ezra 2:3:

number of offenders

7

Elam (Ezra 10:26)

in Ezra 2:7

number of offenders

6

Zattu (Ezra 10:27)

in Ezra 2:8

number of offenders

6

Bebai (Ezra 10:28)

in Ezra 2:11

number of offenders

4

Bani (Ezra 10:29)

in Ezra 2:10

number of offenders

6

Pahath-Moab (Ezra 10:30)

in Ezra 2:6

number of offenders

8

Harim (Ezra 10:31)

in Ezra 2:32

number of offenders

8

Hashum (Ezra 10:33)

in Ezra 2:19

number of offenders

7

Bani (Ezra 10:34)

in Ezra 2:10

number of offenders

27

Nebo (Ezra 10:43)

in Ezra 2:29

number of offenders

7

In this list, as compared with that in Ezra 2, the following points may be observed:

(a) The house of Bani is twice mentioned (Ezra 10:29 and Ezra 10:33). This is almost certainly due to an early error in the text. The conjecture that the name of Bigvai (Ezra 2:14) or of Bezai (Ezra 2:17) should be, in one instance or the other, substituted for that of Bani is not improbable, especially as otherwise there are seven houses (Ezra 2:12-19) in succession not mentioned here.

(b) The disproportionately large number of offenders belonging to the second Bani (Ezra 10:34) makes it probable that we have lost the names of three other houses. It will be noticed that the -sons of Nebo" are the only representatives of about twenty towns mentioned in Ezra 2:21-35.

(c) The order of the list of houses is here quite different from that of Ezra 2, an illustration probably of the faithfulness with which the various extant lists were reproduced.