Ezra 3:9

This verse presents considerable difficulty: (a) The English reader cannot fail to be struck with the awkwardness of the final clause, -the sons of Henadad … the Levites". (b) The names here mentioned have been understood by different commentators to represent four, two and three families.

(a) The manifest dislocation of the verse has caused some to conjecture that it is a gloss, which has found its way into the text, having been originally introduced to supplement the previous verse by the names of those who had been appointed to the work and by emphasizing the fact that they undertook the duty. This conjecture, which is not without probability, would assign a very early date to the gloss, since the verse appears in the LXX. and, though in a corrupt form, in 1Es 5:58, -Then stood up Jesus, and his sons and brethren, and Cadmiel his brother and the sons of Madiabun, with the sons of Joda the son of Eliadun, with their sons and brethren, all Levites, with one accord, betters forward of the business, labouring to advance the works in the house of God" (A.V.).

If we dismiss this conjecture on the ground of its lack of external evidence, we must be prepared to treat the verse as having come down to us in some way corrupted or mutilated.

The key to the verse lies in the last words, -the Levites". The verse describes who the Levites were that received the commission (described in Ezra 3:8), and how they discharged it. The student therefore will take care not to confound the Jeshua here mentioned with the Jeshua (the high-priest) mentioned in the previous verse. This Jeshua is the Levite whose name occurs in chap. Ezra 2:40.

The natural arrangement of the words (illustrated by 1Es 5:58 quoted above) would be, -Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, (and) the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brethren (i.e. all) the Levites together, to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God." The verse thus specifies the Levites who undertook the oversight of the workmen.

(b) The names of the Levitical families who returned appear in chap. Ezra 2:40, where there is some uncertainty whether the expression -of the children of Hodaviah" refers to Kadmiel alone or to -the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel" taken together.

The -Judah" of our verse is probably a misreading for Hodaviah, not, as some prefer, an alternative name of the same person.

(1) Some see in the verse a mention of fourLevitical families, i.e. those of Jeshua, Kadmiel, Judah, and Henadad.

(2) Others think that only twoare intended, i.e. those of Jeshua and Kadmiel, who are further defined as sons of Hodaviah (=Judah), and as sons of Henadad.

(3) It seems better to suppose that there are threefamilies referred to: (i) -Jeshua with his sons and his brethren," apparently a complete family, (ii) -Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Hodaviah", apparently a special branch of the family of Kadmiel, (iii) -And the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren", who, though not mentioned in Ezra 2:40, are represented in Nehemiah's time (Nehemiah 3:18; Nehemiah 3:24; Nehemiah 10:9).

The absence of Henadad's name from the list in chap. Ezra 2:40 is strange. But we must account for it by supposing either that the Henadad family never left Palestine, or that they came to Jerusalem between the arrival of Zerubbabel and the beginning of the second year, or that they belonged to the class more numerous than scholars have hitherto taken account of, i.e. those who returned to Jerusalem from exile in other countries. Perhaps the family of Henadad (-the grace or favour of Hadad", cf. Hadad, Benhadad, Hadadrimmon) had Syrian connexions or had found refuge in Syria during the disasters of Israel and Judah. Compare Ezra 6:21, -all such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land".