Ezra 2:36

the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua In the 24 Priestly houses enumerated in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18, the house of Jedaiah stands second.

The words -of the house of Jeshua" have been differently explained. (a) It has been considered to refer to a very ancient house from which sprang two branches, the family of Jedaiah mentioned here and 1 Chronicles 24:7, and the family of Jeshua mentioned as the ninth priestly house in 1 Chronicles 24:11. (b) The Jeshua here spoken of is considered to be the High-priest; -the sons of Jedaiah were a portion of the house to which J. the high-priest belonged … Jedaiah is not the name of the second order of priests, but of the head of a family of the high-priestly race (Keil).

(c) But as the name of Jedaiah is followed by that of Immer, the sixteenth priestly house (1 Chronicles 24:14), it is more natural to suppose that -the children of Jedaiah" were members of the second priestly house. The explanation of the passage is supplied by the similar twofold genealogical reference given in Ezra 2:6; Ezra 2:16. The house is mentioned first and then follows its limitation to a special branch or family.

Here the houseis the priestly house of Jedaiah; the branchor familyis that of Jeshua. This Jeshua belonged probably to some former generation, but gave his name to a particular branch of the house of Jedaiah.

The difficulty occasioned by this verse has arisen from the desire to identify this Jeshua with the High-priest and from the mistake of supposing that the names of the heads of families were necessarily the companions of Zerubbabel instead of being rather the distinctive names of clans.