VIII.

(1-14) A list of the chief names, given by families, of those who accompanied Ezra.

(1) This is the genealogy.--The names of the heads of houses is followed generally by that of the wider families they belonged to. With this list is to be compared the register of those who went up with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2 seq.).

Verse 1. - On the expression chief of the fathers see comment on ch. 2:68.

8:1-20 Ezra assembles the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah. God raised up the spirits of a small remnant to accompany him. What a pity that good men should omit a good work, for want of being spoken to!These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them,.... Which follows from hence to the end of Ezra 8:14,

that went up with me from Babylon; with Ezra the priest and scribe, the writer of this book:

in the reign of Artaxerxes the king; that is, Darius Hystaspis, in the seventh year of his reign, see Ezra 7:1, though many think Artaxerxes Longimanus is meant.