Nehemiah 7:6
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These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar its king. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town,
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The success of one good design for God and our generation should encourage us to proceed and form some other; Nehemiah did so, having fortified Jerusalem with gates and walls, his next care is, I. To see the city well kept (Neh 7:1-4). II. To see it well peopled, in order to which he here reviews and calls over the register of the children of the captivity, the families that returned at first, and records it (v. 5-73). It is the same, in effect, with that which we had, Ezra 2. What use he made of it we shall find afterwards, when he brought one of ten to live in Jerusalem, Neh 11:1.
Open source ↗7:6 Jewish exiles . . . returned to Jerusalem and the other towns: These lists were not complete (the individual numbers do not add up to the total number in 7:66), but they were the best records available to verify who truly was a Jew.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones, and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands.
And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum:
Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the population.