The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,
The verse is a family-names entry in the list of those who responded to the decree or proclamation of Cyrus and went up or returned to Jerusalem and to their own land. The chapter's list shows that they took up the offer to leave captivity and return. The return numbered nearly fifty thousand Jews. More precisely, 42,360 persons had already returned with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus, distinct both from the Jews who still remained in Babylon and from the large company that afterward went to Jerusalem with Ezra.
The verse belongs to the earlier account of the returning exiles and the temple-building period to which Haggai belongs, identifying a group of returnees by family names. The first two chapters of Ezra record the beginning of the temple's rebuilding under the decree of Cyrus, so the verse does not date the temple's beginning to 457 B.C.
The verse is a family-names entry in the list of those who responded to the decree or proclamation of Cyrus and went up or returned to Jerusalem and to their own land. The chapter's list shows that they took up the offer to leave captivity and return. The return numbered nearly fifty thousand Jews. More precisely, 42,360 persons had already returned with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus, distinct both from the Jews who still remained in Babylon and from the large company that afterward went to Jerusalem with Ezra.
The verse belongs to the earlier account of the returning exiles and the temple-building period to which Haggai belongs, identifying a group of returnees by family names. The first two chapters of Ezra record the beginning of the temple's rebuilding under the decree of Cyrus, so the verse does not date the temple's beginning to 457 B.C.