Ezra 2:65

their servants and their maids R.V. their menservants and their maidservants, which is more accurate.

andthere were among them R.V. and they had. The R.V. is certainly right. The meaning is not that singing men and women were included among the servants, but that -the whole congregation" (Ezra 2:64) had in attendance, besides their servants, their troop of singers.

singingmen and singingwomen] The mention of these has caused some difficulty. (1) Singers have already been mentioned (Ezra 2:41). (2) It has been thought that mention of cattle would be expected by the side of the other beasts. The suggestion has been made that we ought to read -oxen" (sh'vârim) for -singing men" (shôr'rim), that the latter word having been introduced by a copyist's error, the words -and singing women" were added to give completeness to the verse. The conjecture is ingenious but is based on a misapprehension. (1) The singers mentioned in Ezra 2:41 are a Levitical guild, set apart for the Temple services. The singers mentioned here are professionals employed at banquets, feasts &c., or funerals (2 Chronicles 35:25). Such -singing men and singing women" often belonged to the most degraded class. There is nothing strange then in their being mentioned after the menservants and maidservants. A passage in Ecclesiastes 2:7-8 exemplifies their position -I bought menservants and maidens …; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks …: I gathered me also silver and gold …: I gat me men singers and women singersand the delights of the sons of men, concubines very many." The possession of professional singers was clearly a sign of luxury (cf. 2 Samuel 19:35). The mention of them shows that there were several very wealthy men among the -congregation". But it is only natural that their place in the list should follow after the mention of the ordinary servants. (2) There is no need here to introduce -cattle". The animals mentioned in the context are beasts of burden (see chap. Ezra 1:4; Ezra 1:6). -Oxen" would be out of place in the list. We are told nothing of the flocks and herds, which the people brought with them. And if it be objected that oxen were used as beasts of burden, it may fairly be answered (a) that they would scarcely be mentioned first in the list, (b) that where they are found in a list (1 Chronicles 12:40) they are mentioned last and by a different name. The number of singers here mentioned is 200. In Nehemiah 7:67 and 1Es 5:42 it is 245, in all probability a copyist's error whose eye had caught the number -245" in the verse following.