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1 Esdras 5: What the Passage Says

198 claims across 73 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Esdras 5 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The heads of families are chosen to go up by tribes with their households and livestock, and Darius sends a thousand horsemen with them to Jerusalem. A long register follows: the leaders who came with Zorobabel, the families of the people, the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants and the descendants of Solomon's servants, along with those who could not prove their Israelite descent, the totals of people and animals, and the gifts pledged for the work. In the seventh month the people gather, set up the altar and begin the sacrifices and feasts, and in the second year they lay the foundation of the temple with trumpets, singing, shouting and weeping. The enemies of Judah and Benjamin ask to build with them, are refused, and hinder the work until the reign of Darius.

Claim by Claim

  1. 5:1
    • After this, the principal men of the fathers' houses were chosen according to their tribes to go up.
    • They went up with their wives, sons and daughters.
    • They went up with their menservants and maidservants.
    • They went up with their cattle.
  2. 5:2
    • Darius sent a thousand horsemen with them.
    • The horsemen were to bring them back to Jerusalem safely.
    • They went with musical instruments, hand drums and flutes.
  3. 5:3
    • All their brethren made music.
    • He made them go up together with them.
  4. 5:4
    • These are the names of the men who went up.
    • They are listed by their families among their tribes, according to their heads.
  5. 5:5
    • The priests were the sons of Phinees the son of Aaron.
    • Jesus was the son of Josedec.
    • Josedec was the son of Saraias.
    • Joacim was the son of Zorobabel.
    • Zorobabel was the son of Salathiel.
    • This line was of the house of David.
    • This line was of the kindred of Phares.
    • This line was of the tribe of Judah.
  6. 5:6
    • He spoke wise sayings before Darius the king of Persia.
    • This was in the second year of Darius's reign.
    • This was in the month Nisan.
    • Nisan is the first month.
  7. 5:7
    • These are the men of Judea who came up from the captivity.
    • In the captivity they lived as strangers.
    • Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon had carried them away to Babylon.
  8. 5:8
    • They returned to Jerusalem and to the other parts of Judea.
    • Each man returned to his own city.
    • They came with Zorobabel, Jesus, Nehemias, Zacharias, Reesaias, Enenius, Mardocheus, Beelsarus, Aspharasus, Reelius, Roimus and Baana.
    • These men were their leaders.
  9. 5:9
    • What follows is the number of the people of the nation and their governors.
    • The sons of Phoros numbered two thousand one hundred seventy-two.
    • The sons of Saphat numbered four hundred seventy-two.
  10. 5:10
    • The sons of Ares numbered seven hundred fifty-six.
  11. 5:11
    • The sons of Phaath Moab numbered two thousand eight hundred twelve.
  12. 5:12
    • The sons of Elam numbered one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
    • The sons of Zathul numbered nine hundred forty-five.
    • The sons of Corbe numbered seven hundred five.
    • The sons of Bani numbered six hundred forty-eight.
  13. 5:13
    • The sons of Bebai numbered six hundred twenty-three.
    • The sons of Sadas numbered three thousand two hundred twenty-two.
  14. 5:14
    • The sons of Adonikam numbered six hundred sixty-seven.
    • The sons of Bagoi numbered two thousand sixty-six.
    • The sons of Adin numbered four hundred fifty-four.
  15. 5:15
    • The sons of Aterezias numbered ninety-two.
    • The sons of Ceilan and Azetas numbered sixty-seven.
    • The sons of Azuran numbered four hundred thirty-two.
  16. 5:16
    • The sons of Ananias numbered one hundred one.
    • The sons of Arom numbered thirty-two.
    • The sons of Bassa numbered three hundred twenty-three.
    • The sons of Azephurith numbered one hundred two.
  17. 5:17
    • The sons of Meterus numbered three thousand five.
    • The sons of Bethlomon numbered one hundred twenty-three.
  18. 5:18
    • The men of Netophah numbered fifty-five.
    • The men of Anathoth numbered one hundred fifty-eight.
    • The men of Bethsamos numbered forty-two.
  19. 5:19
    • The men of Kiriathiarius numbered twenty-five.
    • The men of Caphira and Beroth numbered seven hundred forty-three.
    • The men of Pira numbered seven hundred.
  20. 5:20
    • The men of Chadias and Ammidoi numbered four hundred twenty-two.
    • The men of Cirama and Gabdes numbered six hundred twenty-one.
  21. 5:21
    • The men of Macalon numbered one hundred twenty-two.
    • The men of Betolius numbered fifty-two.
    • The sons of Nephis numbered one hundred fifty-six.
  22. 5:22
    • The sons of Calamolalus and Onus numbered seven hundred twenty-five.
    • The sons of Jerechus numbered two hundred forty-five.
  23. 5:23
    • The sons of Annas numbered three thousand three hundred thirty.
  24. 5:24
    • What follows is the count of the priests.
    • The sons of Jeddu, the son of Jesus, among the sons of Sanasib, numbered nine hundred seventy-two.
    • The sons of Meruth numbered one thousand fifty-two.
  25. 5:25
    • The sons of Phassaron numbered one thousand forty-seven.
    • The sons of Carme numbered one thousand seventeen.
  26. 5:26
    • The Levites were the sons of Jessue, Cadmiel, Banuas and Sudias.
    • They numbered seventy-four.
  27. 5:27
    • The holy singers were the sons of Asaph.
    • They numbered one hundred twenty-eight.
  28. 5:28
    • The gatekeepers were the sons of Salum, the sons of Jatal, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Dacobi, the sons of Teta and the sons of Sami.
    • They numbered one hundred thirty-nine in all.
  29. 5:29
    • The servants of the temple included the sons of Esau, the sons of Asipha, the sons of Tabaoth, the sons of Ceras, the sons of Sud, the sons of Phaleas, the sons of Labana and the sons of Graba.
  30. 5:30
    • The servants of the temple included the sons of Acua, the sons of Uta, the sons of Cetab, the sons of Agaba, the sons of Subai, the sons of Anan, the sons of Cathua and the sons of Geddur.
  31. 5:31
    • The servants of the temple included the sons of Airus, the sons of Daisan, the sons of Noeba, the sons of Chaseba, the sons of Gazera, the sons of Azia, the sons of Phinees, the sons of Azare, the sons of Bastai, the sons of Asana, the sons of Meani, the sons of Naphisi, the sons of Acub, the sons of Acipha, the sons of Assur, the sons of Pharacim and the sons of Basaloth.
  32. 5:32
    • The servants of the temple included the sons of Meeda, the sons of Coutha, the sons of Charea, the sons of Charcus, the sons of Aserer, the sons of Thomoi, the sons of Nasith and the sons of Atipha.
  33. 5:33
    • The sons of the servants of Solomon included the sons of Azaphion, the sons of Pharira, the sons of Jeeli, the sons of Lozon, the sons of Israel and the sons of Sapheth.
  34. 5:34
    • The sons of the servants of Solomon included the sons of Hagia, the sons of Pharacareth, the sons of Sabi, the sons of Sarothie, the sons of Masias, the sons of Gar, the sons of Addus, the sons of Suba, the sons of Apherra, the sons of Barodis, the sons of Sabat and the sons of Allom.
  35. 5:35
    • All the temple ministers together with the sons of the servants of Solomon numbered three hundred seventy-two.
  36. 5:36
    • These came up from Thermeleth and Thelersas.
    • Charaathalar led them.
    • Aalar also led them.
  37. 5:37
    • They could not show their families.
    • They could not show their ancestry.
    • They could not show that they were of Israel.
    • The sons of Ladan the son of Ban and the sons of Necodan numbered six hundred fifty-two.
  38. 5:38
    • Some of the priests had usurped the office of the priesthood.
    • Their records were not found.
    • These were the sons of Obdia, the sons of Accoz and the sons of Addus.
    • Addus married Augia, one of the daughters of Barzelus.
    • He was called by Barzelus's name.
  39. 5:39
    • The record of these men's descent was sought in the register.
    • It was not found.
    • They were removed from executing the office of the priesthood.
  40. 5:40
    • Nehemias and Atharias told them they should not partake of the holy things.
    • The prohibition was to last until a high priest arose clothed with the revelation and the truth, that is, the Urim and Thummim.
  41. 5:41
    • The Israelites twelve years old and upward numbered forty thousand in all.
    • Menservants and maidservants numbering two thousand three hundred sixty were counted apart from that total.
  42. 5:42
    • Their menservants and handmaids numbered seven thousand three hundred forty-seven.
    • The singing men and singing women numbered two hundred forty-five.
  43. 5:43
    • There were four hundred thirty-five camels.
    • There were seven thousand thirty-six horses.
    • There were two hundred forty-five mules.
    • There were five thousand five hundred twenty-five draught animals.
  44. 5:44
    • Some of the chief men of their families came to the temple of God in Jerusalem.
    • They vowed to set up the house again in its own place.
    • They vowed to do it according to their ability.
  45. 5:45
    • They vowed to give a thousand minas of gold into the holy treasury of the works.
    • They vowed to give five thousand minas of silver.
    • They vowed to give a hundred priestly vestments.
  46. 5:46
    • The priests, the Levites and the people dwelt in Jerusalem and in the country.
    • The singers and the gatekeepers also dwelt there.
    • All Israel dwelt in their villages.
  47. 5:47
    • The seventh month drew near.
    • The children of Israel were each in his own place.
    • They all came together with one consent.
    • They gathered into the open place before the first gate, which faces east.
  48. 5:48
    • Jesus the son of Josedec stood up.
    • His brethren the priests stood up.
    • Zorobabel the son of Salathiel and his brethren stood up.
    • They made ready the altar of the God of Israel.
  49. 5:49
    • The altar was made ready to offer burnt sacrifices upon it.
    • This was done according to what is expressly commanded in the book of Moses.
    • Moses is called the man of God.
  50. 5:50
    • People from the other nations of the land gathered to them.
    • They erected the altar in its own place.
    • All the nations of the land were hostile to them.
    • The nations oppressed them.
    • They offered sacrifices at the appointed times.
    • They offered burnt offerings to the Lord morning and evening.
  51. 5:51
    • They kept the feast of tabernacles, as the law commands.
    • They offered sacrifices daily, as was fitting.
  52. 5:52
    • After that they offered the continual oblations.
    • They offered the sacrifices of the sabbaths, of the new moons and of all the consecrated feasts.
  53. 5:53
    • All who had made any vow to God began to offer sacrifices to God from the first day of the seventh month.
    • The temple of the Lord was not yet built at that time.
  54. 5:54
    • They gave money, food and drink to the masons and carpenters.
    • They gave it with gladness.
  55. 5:55
    • They gave carts to the people of Zidon and Tyre.
    • The carts were so that they would bring cedar trees from Libanus.
    • The timber was to be brought on rafts to the harbour of Joppa.
    • Cyrus king of the Persians had commanded this for them.
  56. 5:56
    • In the second year after his coming to the temple of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was begun.
    • Zorobabel the son of Salathiel began it.
    • Jesus the son of Josedec began it.
    • Their brethren, the priests and the Levites began it.
    • All those who had come to Jerusalem out of the captivity began it.
  57. 5:57
    • They laid the foundation of the house of God on the first day of the second month.
    • This was in the second year after they had come to Judea and Jerusalem.
  58. 5:58
    • They appointed the Levites from twenty years old and upward over the works of the Lord.
    • Jesus stood up with his sons and brethren.
    • Cadmiel his brother stood up.
    • The sons of Madiabun stood up.
    • The sons of Joda the son of Eliadun stood up, with their sons and brethren.
    • All of these were Levites.
    • With one accord they set the business forward.
    • They laboured to advance the works in the house of God.
    • The workmen built the temple of the Lord.
  59. 5:59
    • The priests stood arrayed in their vestments with musical instruments and trumpets.
    • The Levites, the sons of Asaph, had cymbals.
  60. 5:60
    • They sang songs of thanksgiving and praised the Lord.
    • They did so as David the king of Israel had ordained.
  61. 5:61
    • They sang with loud voices songs in praise of the Lord.
    • The reason given is that his mercy and glory are for ever in all Israel.
  62. 5:62
    • All the people sounded trumpets.
    • They shouted with a loud voice.
    • They sang songs of thanksgiving to the Lord.
    • This was for the raising up of the house of the Lord.
  63. 5:63
    • Some of the priests and Levites and of the chief men of their families were elders who had seen the former house.
    • They came to the building of this house with weeping and great crying.
  64. 5:64
    • Many others shouted with a loud voice, with trumpets and joy.
  65. 5:65
    • The trumpets could not be heard because of the weeping of the people.
    • The multitude sounded marvellously.
    • The sound was heard far off.
  66. 5:66
    • The enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it.
    • They came to find out what the noise of trumpets meant.
  67. 5:67
    • They learned that those who had returned from the captivity were building the temple to the Lord God of Israel.
  68. 5:68
    • They went to Zorobabel and Jesus and to the chief men of the families.
    • They said, We will build together with you.
  69. 5:69
    • They said that they obey your Lord just as you do.
    • They said that they sacrifice to him from the days of Azbazareth the king of the Assyrians.
    • They said that Azbazareth brought them to that place.
  70. 5:70
    • Zorobabel, Jesus and the chief men of the families of Israel answered them.
    • They said it is not for us and you to build a house to the Lord our God together.
  71. 5:71
    • They said, We ourselves alone will build to the Lord of Israel.
    • They said Cyrus the king of the Persians had commanded them to do so.
  72. 5:72
    • The heathen of the land pressed hard upon the inhabitants of Judea.
    • They held them in straits.
    • They hindered their building.
  73. 5:73
    • By secret plots, popular persuasions and disturbances they hindered the finishing of the building.
    • This continued all the time that king Cyrus lived.
    • They were hindered from building for two years, until the reign of Darius.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1
The King James "cattle" in 1611 meant livestock of every kind, oxen, sheep, goats and donkeys together, not cows in particular. The list describes whole households moving, not a party of travelers.
5:2
A "tabret" was a small hand drum held in one hand and struck with the other. The thousand horsemen are an armed escort for a long journey across open country, not a guard over prisoners.
5:3
In 1611 "played" used by itself meant made music, and by extension danced and celebrated. "Brethren" here means kinsmen and fellow countrymen, not brothers by birth.
5:5
1 Esdras survives in Greek, so Hebrew names reach the reader in Greek dress. Jesus is the Greek form of Jeshua or Joshua, Josedec of Jozadak, Zorobabel of Zerubbabel, Salathiel of Shealtiel, Phares of Perez, Phinees of Phinehas. The same people appear under the Hebrew spellings in Ezra and Nehemiah.
5:6
Nisan falls in March and April and opened the religious year. The "wise sentences" spoken before Darius refer back to the contest of the three young bodyguards in chapters 3 and 4, where the speaker who won the king's favor was Zorobabel. The Greek here is loosely joined and leaves it unclear whether the clause describes Zorobabel or his son Joacim.
5:7
Nabuchodonosor is Nebuchadnezzar, who deported the population of Jerusalem in stages ending with the destruction of the city in 587 or 586 BC. To "dwell as strangers" means to live as resident foreigners, tolerated but without the standing of citizens. The King James "Jewry" simply means Judea, the territory around Jerusalem.
5:8
The King James calls these men "their guides." It means the leaders who organized the journey, not scouts who knew the roads.
5:9
What follows is a register of the returning population, the same document that stands in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7, though the spellings and several of the figures differ between the three. "The sons of" names a clan traced back to a common ancestor, so "the sons of Phoros, two thousand an hundred seventy and two" means that many people belonging to that family group, not that many literal sons.
5:18
From here the register switches from descent to geography, listing families by the Judean village their ancestors had held before the deportation. Netophah and Anathoth were small towns a few miles from Jerusalem; Anathoth was the home village of the prophet Jeremiah. A family's claim to land rested on that link.
5:24
Priests traced descent from Aaron and served at the altar. Four priestly clans are counted here, and their combined total is a large share of the whole group, since the return was organized around restoring worship.
5:26
Levites were men of the tribe of Levi who were not of the priestly line of Aaron. They handled the supporting work of the sanctuary: transport, maintenance, music, and assisting at sacrifices. The figure of seventy four is strikingly small beside the thousands of priests just listed.
5:27
The temple singers were a hereditary guild, not volunteers. Asaph was David's chief musician, and his descendants held the office of leading sung worship.
5:28
The King James "porters" means gatekeepers or doorkeepers, from the Latin for door. It has nothing to do with carrying luggage. They controlled access to the temple courts and guarded the stores.
5:29
"The servants of the temple" translates a Hebrew term, the Nethinim, meaning the given ones: a hereditary class of temple laborers who drew water, cut wood and did the heavy work of the sanctuary. Many of the names in this list are foreign in form, which fits an origin in war captives assigned to temple service.
5:33
These were descendants of the labor force Solomon conscripted for his building works. Like the temple servants they formed a hereditary class attached to the sanctuary, and the two groups are counted together in verse 35.
5:37
Documented descent was not a matter of pride but of standing. It decided who could claim ancestral land, who counted as a member of the community, and above all who could serve as a priest. A family whose records had been lost in the deportation had no way to prove either claim.
5:38
This priestly family had married into the household of Barzelus, that is Barzillai the Gileadite, a wealthy supporter of David, and had taken the wife's family name rather than keeping its own. Taking a wife's name was unusual and here it broke the paper trail, so the family could no longer show descent from Aaron.
5:40
The King James "clothed with doctrine and truth" is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Urim and Thummim, two objects kept in the pouch of the high priest's breastpiece and used to put a question to God and receive a yes or no answer. Since no high priest was then serving with them, the disputed priests were suspended rather than condemned, with the case left open.
5:41
The individual figures listed above do not add up to this total, and the same mismatch appears in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7. The King James here reads "forty thousand" where the Greek manuscripts give forty two thousand three hundred and sixty. The cutoff at twelve years old is peculiar to 1 Esdras; the parallel lists give no age.
5:43
"Beasts used to the yoke" are draft animals, oxen and donkeys harnessed for plowing and hauling. They are counted separately from the riding and pack animals because they represent the community's ability to farm and to build.
5:44
In 1611 "his" served as the possessive of "it", so "in his own place" means on its original site. Rebuilding on the exact former foundation mattered: the altar and sanctuary were held to belong to that spot and no other.
5:45
The King James "pounds" stands for the Greek mina, a weight of about sixty shekels, somewhere near a pound and a quarter or about half a kilogram. A thousand minas of gold is therefore a very large gift by weight, since coinage was not yet in general use and precious metal was reckoned by weight. The vestments are the specialized robes a priest could not serve without, and donating a hundred of them equipped the priesthood outright.
5:47
The seventh month, Tishri, falls in September and October and carried the densest cluster of festivals in the year. The "open place of the first gate" is the public square inside the eastern entrance, the normal spot for assemblies and legal business.
5:48
An altar was a large stone table built out in the open. Animals and grain were burned on it as gifts to God. Building it first, before the temple, meant worship could start right away.
5:49
A burnt sacrifice was consumed whole on the altar, with no portion kept back for the priests or the worshiper. "The book of Moses" means the law, the first five books, where the procedure is set out in detail.
5:50
The Greek is ambiguous and can be read two ways: that people from the surrounding nations joined the returning exiles, or that those nations massed against them. The sentence then explains the haste with which the altar went up, which fits the second reading, but the wording itself does not settle it.
5:51
The Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, ran seven days in the autumn. Families lived in temporary shelters of branches for its duration, recalling the years in the wilderness, and it doubled as the harvest festival. The King James "as was meet" means as was fitting or proper.
5:52
The "continual oblations" are the standing offerings made morning and evening every day without interruption. New moons mark the first day of each lunar month, fixed by sighting the new crescent, and each one called for its own set of sacrifices over and above the daily ones.
5:54
The King James "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh specifically. The workmen were paid partly in wages and partly in rations, a normal arrangement on a large building site.
5:55
Zidon, usually spelled Sidon, and Tyre were Phoenician port cities on the coast of what is now Lebanon, and their timber trade was long established. Libanus is the Lebanon mountain range, whose cedar was the prestige building timber of the region. The King James "carrs" are carts, and "floats" are rafts: the logs were lashed together and towed down the coast by sea, then landed at Joppa, modern Jaffa, the nearest harbor to Jerusalem, about thirty five miles inland from it. Solomon had imported cedar the same way for the first temple.
5:57
The second month is Iyyar, falling in April and May, after the spring rains and before the summer heat, the practical start of a building season.
5:58
Twenty was the age at which a Levite became eligible for temple duty. The King James "setters forward of the business" means the men who drove the work along, foremen rather than laborers.
5:59
Cymbals are two round metal plates. You clap them together for a loud ringing sound.
5:60
David was remembered as the organizer of temple music, assigning the guilds of singers and instrumentalists their orders and duties. To sing "according as David the king of Israel had ordained" means following that established pattern of service.
5:61
The line about mercy and glory lasting forever is the standing refrain of Israel's public praise, familiar from Psalm 136 and used elsewhere at moments of dedication.
5:63
The King James "ancients" means old men, not people of a distant age. The "former house" is Solomon's temple, burned by the Babylonians in 587 or 586 BC, so the oldest men present had seen it standing as children and could measure this foundation against it.
5:65
The King James "marvellously" here means to an astonishing degree, describing sheer volume of sound rather than anything wonderful in itself.
5:66
Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes of the old southern kingdom, and the returning exiles came almost entirely from them. Naming the enemies this way identifies them as the peoples settled in the surrounding territory, chiefly to the north.
5:69
The name Azbazareth is garbled in the manuscripts and cannot be matched with certainty to a known ruler; Esarhaddon and Shalmaneser are the usual candidates. The claim refers to Assyria's practice of deporting conquered populations and resettling them elsewhere, which after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BC brought foreign groups into its territory. Their descendants worshiped the God of Israel alongside gods of their own, which is why they can say they obey the same Lord and why the reply in verse 70 refuses them.
5:72
The King James "heathen" simply renders the word for the nations, the non Israelite peoples of the region, without the contempt the English word later picked up. "Holding them strait" means penning them in and cutting off supplies, a blockade rather than open attack.
5:73
Cyrus issued his decree about 538 BC and Darius came to the throne in 522 BC, so the interval between the two reigns was roughly sixteen years, not the two stated here. 1 Esdras compresses a long stoppage, and the reigns of Cambyses and others in between drop out of the account.

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