The names are families among the Jews who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus in response to his proclamation and decree, after being made free to leave captivity. The total number of those who returned is given as 42,360. The returning company is reckoned as nearly fifty thousand who returned to their own land. The return shows that the decree brought the captivity to an end in the sense of restoring the people's freedom, although many Jews remained in Babylon. The return described forms the historical setting for Haggai's temple-building message, which belongs especially to the time when the temple was being rebuilt as in Ezra 6.
The names are families among the Jews who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in the first year of Cyrus in response to his proclamation and decree, after being made free to leave captivity. The total number of those who returned is given as 42,360. The returning company is reckoned as nearly fifty thousand who returned to their own land. The return shows that the decree brought the captivity to an end in the sense of restoring the people's freedom, although many Jews remained in Babylon. The return described forms the historical setting for Haggai's temple-building message, which belongs especially to the time when the temple was being rebuilt as in Ezra 6.