And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
All Commentaries on Ezra 7:7 Go To Ezra 7
Bede
AD 735
And some of the children of Israel and children of the priests and children of Lévites and some of the singers and the gatekeepers and the Nathinnites went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. And they arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king. For he began his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month. Since he began to go up from Babylon on the first day of the first month and came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, it describes their arrival in Jerusalem in anticipation. For in what follows he describes in greater detail from the beginning both how they came up and where they gathered their company. Now it is worth noting that at the beginning of this book it was written that, in accordance with Cyrus's promise, some of the descendants of Judah and Benjamin together with their priests and Lévites came up from Babylon with their leaders Zerubbabel and Jeshua, all of whom God had aroused in spirit, and concerning whom also it was added that they were from the captives that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon. Here, however, under Ezra's leadership, no mention is made of Judah and Benjamin, no mention is made of Nebuchadnezzar's deportation, but only of the children of Israel and the priests and the Lévites who went up with him. So it seems probable that those who were sent back to Jerusalem on the previous occasion were the ones from Judah and Benjamin who had been taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, whereas those who we read were led back by Ezra on this occasion were from the ten tribes which were specifically called 'Israel' after the division, those whom the kings of the Assyrians had captured long before Nebuchadnezzar's time and caused to dwell beyond the mountains of the Medes. Accordingly, at that time it was for the most part the two tribes who returned home and rebuilt the temple with arduous labour; the ten tribes, however, which were less devoted to the temple and religion, neglected to return to their homeland even though the king commanded it, because once the empire of the Chaldeans had been destroyed, they lived freely under the kings of the Persians who used to esteem their people; but when they learnt that the temple had been rebuilt and the hatred of the Samaritans had been suppressed, at last some from among these same tribes agreed to go home, though many remained there, and their descendants are said to remain in these same parts and to serve the Persian people until this very day.
