Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ezra 2:69

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ezra 2:69. Threescore and one thousand drams of gold — דרכמונים darkemonim, drakmons or darics; a Persian coin, always of gold, and worth about 1£. 5s., not less than £76,250 sterling in gold.

Five thousand pounds of silver — מנים manim, manehs or minas. As a weight, the maneh was 100 shekels; as a coin, 60 shekels in value, or about 9£.; 5000 of these manehs therefore will amount to £45,000, making in the whole a sum of about £120,000; and in this are not included the 100 garments for priests.

Thus we find that God, in the midst of judgment, remembered mercy, and gave them favour in the land of their captivity.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

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1:1-2:70 ZERUBBABEL’S RETURN

Cyrus had been ruler of Persia for some time before he conquered Babylon in 539 BC. His policy was, when he conquered a nation, to allow any people held captive by that nation to return to their homeland. Therefore, soon after he conquered Babylon (i.e. in his first year as the Jews’ new ruler) he gave permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem (1:1-4). Jeremiah’s prophecy made seventy years earlier had come true: the Jews were released from Babylon’s power to return to Palestine and rebuild their nation (Jeremiah 25:1,Jeremiah 25:12; Jeremiah 29:10).

Although all had permission to return, many chose to remain in Babylon. They were reasonably well settled and secure in Babylon, and did not want to face the risks and hardships of a new life in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, they assisted those who returned by giving them money and goods. Cyrus also gave some assistance, giving back the temple treasures and handing over a gift of money from the royal treasury to help finance the reconstruction of Jerusalem (5-11; see also 3:7; 6:4).

At first the leader of the returning exiles was Sheshbazzar (see 1:8, 5:14), but for some reason not recorded he was soon replaced by the joint leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua (see 3:2; 5:2; Haggai 1:1; Haggai 2:2). Alternatively, Sheshbazzar may have been another name for Zerubbabel.

The record of those who returned to Jerusalem begins by listing the chief men who were to assist Zerubbabel and Joshua (2:1-2). (The person named Nehemiah in this list is not the person we meet later in the book of Nehemiah.) The total number who returned was about 50,000. Some were classified according to their families (3-19), others according to the towns their families originally came from (20-35). The priests, Levites and temple servants were all listed separately (36-58). Others could not be fitted into any category (59-63). On arrival in Jerusalem, some made offerings of money towards the building of the temple. All the people were then settled in and around Jerusalem (64-70).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

CONTRIBUTIONS MADE TOWARD REBUILDING THE TEMPLE

"And some of the heads of fathers' houses, when they came to the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to set it up in its place: they gave after their ability into the treasury of the work threescore and one thousand darics of gold, and five thousand pounds of silver, and one hundred priests garments. So the priests and the Levites and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities."

"Threescore and one thousand darics of gold" During the years when this writer was in college, the radical critics were shouting to high heaven that, "The daric was a Greek coin that could not possibly have been current in Palestine until after the conquests of Alexander the Great. And upon the basis of their false allegations declared that Ezra, Nehemiah and the Chronicles could not possibly have been written prior to 250 B.C."Archeology and the Old Testament, p. 305.

"Archaeological evidence now shows that the Attic (Greek) drachma (the daric of this passage) was in use as a standard coin in Palestine from the middle of the fifth century B.C. and afterward. Archaeologists have actually unearthed spedmens of these coins near Jerusalem; and this daric became the official Jewish coinage, and specimens inscribed with the Aramaic name of Judah have been discovered."Ibid.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The numbers here and in Nehemiah (see the marginal reference) vary.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

So here they are returning to Jerusalem, as I said, some fifty thousand. And in chapter two it gives you the names of the people and the families that came and the numbers that came with them. Beginning in, or in verse thirty-six to thirty-nine, you have the priests that returned. Then beginning with verse forty, the Levites that returned. Then Solomon's servants that returned.

Now in verse sixty-one, there were some of the Levites that were returning who could not find their names in the register. Among those that were reckoned by genealogy, they just could not find their names there. That is, they could not accurately trace their family history. They could not trace themselves back to the tribe of Levi.

Therefore they were as polluted, and they were put out of the priesthood ( Ezra 2:62 ).

They were not allowed to minister or to function as a priest or to receive the offerings, the tithes, or the dues that were given to the priests in those days, because they could not prove their pedigree. They could not trace their names in the records. And they were kept out of the priesthood until such a time as they could find a priest with the Urim and the Thummim in order that they might inquire of the Lord and determine if these men really belonged to the priesthood or not.

Now the Urim and the Thummim are the thing that the high priest wore upon his chest, and the words mean light and perfections. Just what they were, we really don't know. But they would use the Urim and the Thummim to inquire of the will of God. Now the common theory is that it was a little pouch with a black stone and a white stone. And they would ask a question and the priest would say, "Lord, give us a perfect lot." You know, and he would reach in to the little bag and pull out a stone. If it was the black stone, then the answer was no. If it was the white stone, the answer was yes. And they used this method to ascertain the will of God in certain things. Keep asking questions, keep pulling out the stones, and if you pulled out the white stone, that answer yes. If you pulled out the black stone, the answer no. And so this is what some have theorized the Urim and the Thummim to be. Just what it was, we don't know. It was a method by which the high priest received God's answer for the people and God's directions for the people. It was some type of device by which divine guidance was given to the people.

Now, though we don't know exactly what it was, I do know exactly what it wasn't. It wasn't a pair of glasses that Joseph Smith found with the twelve golden tablets that when he put them on, he could magically decipher the hieroglyphics by putting on these glasses, which he said were the Urim and the Thummim. That is not so. During the time of Moses they didn't even know how to make glass. And it wasn't a magic pair of spectacles to read the hieroglyphics on the golden tablets. But as I say, what it was, I don't know. But I do know what it wasn't.

So there were about fifty thousand who returned at this first repatriation under Cyrus. And going back to build the temple, plus they had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, and two hundred and forty-five mules, and four hundred and thirty-five camels and all.

And some of the chief fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, they offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place: and they gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams [or sixty-one thousand drams] of gold, five thousand pounds of silver, and one hundred priests' garments. So the priests, the Levites, and some of the people, and all the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities ( Ezra 2:68-70 ).

So they returned and they took up an offering. Some of the wealthier families and all gave as was their ability for the rebuilding of the temple there in Jerusalem. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Arrival in Jerusalem 2:68-70

The Israelites contributed to the rebuilding of the temple as they had toward the construction of the Mosaic tabernacle (Exodus 25:3-7; Exodus 35:2-9). Probably the Greek gold drachma is in view and the Babylonian silver mina (Ezra 2:69). [Note: Fensham, The Books . . ., p. 57. However compare Yamauchi, "Ezra-Nehemiah," p. 620.] If this is so, one Greek drachma was equivalent to one Roman denarius. [Note: The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Money," by A. F. Walls.] In the ancient world, this was one day’s wage for a working man (cf. Matthew 20:1-16). Obviously the exiles made a substantial contribution to the rebuilding of the temple that supplemented what Cyrus and the friends of the immigrants had previously donated (Ezra 1:4; Ezra 1:6-11; cf. Exodus 25:4-7; Exodus 35:2-9; 2 Corinthians 8:3; 2 Corinthians 9:7).

When this group of Jews returned to the Promised Land in 537 B.C., they went first to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:68). Later they settled in the towns where their ancestors had lived and where some of them had property rights (Ezra 2:70; cf. Ezra 2:21-35).

The record of those who returned that God preserved in this chapter shows His faithfulness in bringing a remnant of His people back to Palestine as He had promised.

"One of the chief objectives of Ezra-Nehemiah was to show the Jews that they constituted the continuation of the preexilic Jewish community, the Israelite community that God had chosen." [Note: Breneman, p. 50.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the world threescore and one thousand drachms of gold,.... These "darcemons or darics" were a Persian coin; one of which, according to Brerewood k, was of the value of fifteen shillings of our money, and so this quantity of them amounted to 45,750 pounds; but according to Bishop Cumberland l they were of the value of twenty shillings and four pence of our money, and so came to upwards of 61,000 pounds; these everyone, according to his ability, put into the common stock or treasury for the work of building the temple; the Vulgate Latin m reads 40,000:

and five thousand pounds of silver; and an Hebrew "mina", or pound, being of our money seven pounds, ten shillings, according to Brerewood n, amounted to 31,250 pounds: but others o, reckoning a drachm of gold at ten shillings, and a mina or pound of silver at nine pounds, make the whole to amount only to 75,500 pounds of our money:

and one hundred priests' garments; which, as they were laid up among treasures, so were necessary for the service of the temple.

k De Pret. & Ponder. Vet. Num. ch. iii. v. l Scripture Weights & Measures, ch. 4. p. 115. m Sixtus V. Lovain & MSS. in James ut supra. (Contrariety of Popish Bibles, p. 295) n Ut supra, (De Pret. & Ponder. Vet. Num.) ch. iv. v. o Universal History, vol. 10. p. 183, marg.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      64 The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,   65 Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.   66 Their horses were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred forty and five;   67 Their camels, four hundred thirty and five; their asses, six thousand seven hundred and twenty.   68 And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place:   69 They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests' garments.   70 So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

      Here is, I. The sum total of the company that returned out of Babylon. The particular sums before mentioned amount not quite to 30,000 (29,818), so that there were above 12,000 that come out into any of those accounts, who, it is probable, were of the rest of the tribes of Israel, besides Judah and Benjamin, that could not tell of what particular family or city they were, but that they were Israelites, and of what tribe. Now, 1. This was more than double the number that were carried captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, so that, as in Egypt, the time of their affliction was the time of their increase. 2. These were but few to begin a nation with, and yet, by virtue of the old promise made to their fathers, they multiplied so as before their last destruction by the Romans, about 500 years after, to be a very numerous people. When God says, "Increase and multiply," a little one shall become a thousand.

      II. Their retinue. They were themselves little better than servants, and therefore no wonder that their servants were comparatively but few (Ezra 2:65; Ezra 2:65) and their beasts of burden about as many, Ezra 2:66; Ezra 2:67. It was not with them now as in days past. But notice is taken of 200 singing-men and women whom they had among them, who, we will suppose, were intended (as those 2 Chronicles 35:25) to excite their mourning, for it was foretold that they should, upon this occasion, go weeping (Jeremiah 50:4), with ditties of lamentation.

      III. Their oblations. It is said (Ezra 2:68; Ezra 2:69), 1. That they came to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem; and yet that house, that holy and beautiful house, was now in ruins, a heap of rubbish. But, like their father Abraham, when the altar was gone they came with devotion to the place of the altar (Genesis 13:4); and it is the character of the genuine sons of Zion that they favour even the dust thereof,Psalms 102:14. 2. That they offered freely towards the setting of it up in its place. That, it seems, was the first house they talked of setting up; and though they came off a journey, and were beginning the world (two chargeable things), yet they offered, and offered freely, towards the building of the temple. Let none complain of the necessary expenses of their religion, but believe that when they come to balance the account they will find that it clears the cost. Their offering was nothing in comparison with the offerings of the princes in David's time; then they offered by talents (1 Chronicles 29:7), now by drams, yet these drams, being after their ability, were as acceptable to God as those talents, like the widow's two mites. The 61,000 drams of gold amount, by Cumberland's calculation, to so many pounds of our money and so many groats. Every maneh, or pound of silver, he reckons to be sixty shekels (that is, thirty ounces), which we may reckon 7l. 10s. of our money, so that this 5000 pounds of silver will be above 37,000l. of our money. It seems, God had blessed them with an increase of their wealth, as well as of their numbers, in Babylon; and, as God had prospered them, they gave cheerfully to the service of his house. 3. That they dwelt in their cities,Ezra 2:70; Ezra 2:70. Though their cities were out of repair, yet, because they were their cities, such as God had assigned them, they were content to dwell in them, and were thankful for liberty and property, though they had little of pomp, plenty, or power. Their poverty was a bad cause, but their unity and unanimity were a good effect of it. Here was room enough for them all and all their substance, so that there was no strife among them, but perfect harmony, a blessed presage of their settlement, as their discords in the latter times of that state were of their ruin.