Ezra 2:1

Now theseare the children of the province -Now", as in chap. Ezra 1:1: the beginning of a new document. -The province" here and in Nehemiah 1:3; Nehemiah 11:3, is the same as -the province of Judah" (Ezra 5:8), i.e. the particular district of which Jerusalem was the centre and of which Zerubbabel was governor or -pekhah". -The children of the province" are the Jews inhabiting Jerusalem and its vicinity as distinct from the Jews that were left in Babylon. The phrase is perhaps an indication of the register having been transcribed at Babylon.

out of the captivity,of those which had been carried away The comma in the A.V. tends to confuse the meaning. The R.V. better, out of the captivity of those which had been carried away. The English fails to give the sense of the passage. The words -those which had been carried away" translate the one Hebrew word rendered in chap. Ezra 1:11 and elsewhere -the captivity" (hag-gôlah). This was the technical abstract noun used to designate the Jews that had been carried away into foreign lands. The words here used are more nearly reproduced in the Greek version ἀπὸ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας τῆς ἀποικίας. -From the captivity of the Gôlah" means therefore -out of the condition and scene of captivity which was the lot of -the deportation", i.e. of those who had been forcibly removed from their homes". Cf. Ezra 1:11; Ezra 6:20.

Nebuchadnezzar R.V. margin, -Heb. Nebuchadnezzor". This spelling represents the preferable reading of the original in this verse. It again indicates the different origin of this section from chap. Ezra 1:7, where the Hebrew has -Nebuchadnezzar" without any variant spelling. -Nebuchadnezzor" attempts more nearly to reproduce the final syllable of the Assyrian -Nabû-kudur-uṣur" i.e. -Nebo, defend the crown". He is called -Nebuchadrezzar" in several places. Once in Jeremiah 49:28 (C'thib) -Nebuchadrezzor".

The great king of Babylon reigned 43 years (605 562). The two chief -deportations" took place (1) in 598, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away king Jehoiachin and all the principal inhabitants of Jerusalem; (2) in 587 6, when the city was destroyed.

every one unto his city It is impossible to take these words as literally applicable to the year of the Return. The Jews on their return to their own land at first only occupied Jerusalem and the country immediately adjacent. The work of settling into their own cities was the work of years. But the process was complete at the time when this heading was attached to the register of names. The writer summarizes the movement, which in his own time was long past, cf. Ezra 2:70; Ezra 3:1.