The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight.
The verse records ninety-eight children of Ater of Hezekiah as one entry in the list of those who returned from captivity. Placed among genealogical and name lists, it is a record of names and numbers rather than an expressed promise. The list records those who responded to the decree of Cyrus and went up to Jerusalem from exile with the aim of rebuilding the temple.
The first return with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus comprised 42,360 persons, nearly fifty thousand Jews who accepted the offer of Cyrus to return to their own land. Many Jews still remained in Babylon in exile after this return, to whom the invitation to return still applied, yet the return marked the end of the captivity because the exiles were free to go. The return and rebuilding of the temple belong to the time contemporary with the message of Haggai around 520 B.C.
The verse belongs to the record of the temple begun under the decree of Cyrus, not to a beginning in B.C. 457. B.C. 457 marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem predicted in Daniel 9:25, which was the commandment of God carried out through Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes and complete only when the last king acted in the seventh year of Artaxerxes.
The verse records ninety-eight children of Ater of Hezekiah as one entry in the list of those who returned from captivity. Placed among genealogical and name lists, it is a record of names and numbers rather than an expressed promise. The list records those who responded to the decree of Cyrus and went up to Jerusalem from exile with the aim of rebuilding the temple.
The first return with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus comprised 42,360 persons, nearly fifty thousand Jews who accepted the offer of Cyrus to return to their own land. Many Jews still remained in Babylon in exile after this return, to whom the invitation to return still applied, yet the return marked the end of the captivity because the exiles were free to go. The return and rebuilding of the temple belong to the time contemporary with the message of Haggai around 520 B.C.
The verse belongs to the record of the temple begun under the decree of Cyrus, not to a beginning in B.C. 457. B.C. 457 marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem predicted in Daniel 9:25, which was the commandment of God carried out through Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes and complete only when the last king acted in the seventh year of Artaxerxes.