The children of Bani numbered six hundred forty and two among those who returned from captivity. They went up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus in response to his proclamation. That decree set them free to leave captivity and return to their own land in order to rebuild the temple. The whole returning company numbered 42,360 people, described as nearly fifty thousand Jews.
The verse belongs to the record in Ezra 1-2, within Ezra 1-6, of the temple begun under the decree of Cyrus. That portion belongs to the same time as the book of Haggai, concerns the building of the temple at Jerusalem then, and is typical of the work of God now. Its setting is Jerusalem about B.C. 520, fifteen years after the foundations of the temple were laid, when the city was in a dilapidated condition and the temple building was languishing. The people had departed from the Lord and had become discouraged, while the rulers were Darius Hystaspes and Zerubbabel the governor of Judea, and the prophets were Haggai and Zechariah. It does not belong to the beginning dated to B.C. 457 in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, which marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
The children of Bani numbered six hundred forty and two among those who returned from captivity. They went up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus in response to his proclamation. That decree set them free to leave captivity and return to their own land in order to rebuild the temple. The whole returning company numbered 42,360 people, described as nearly fifty thousand Jews.
The verse belongs to the record in Ezra 1-2, within Ezra 1-6, of the temple begun under the decree of Cyrus. That portion belongs to the same time as the book of Haggai, concerns the building of the temple at Jerusalem then, and is typical of the work of God now. Its setting is Jerusalem about B.C. 520, fifteen years after the foundations of the temple were laid, when the city was in a dilapidated condition and the temple building was languishing. The people had departed from the Lord and had become discouraged, while the rulers were Darius Hystaspes and Zerubbabel the governor of Judea, and the prophets were Haggai and Zechariah. It does not belong to the beginning dated to B.C. 457 in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, which marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.