The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four.
The number is 1,254 children of Elam among those who responded to Cyrus's decree and proclamation and went up from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. They are listed among the Israelites who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and settled in their cities and in their own land. Only a remnant of Israel came back, yet the return included people from the tribes of Israel. Nearly fifty thousand returned in all, which ended the captivity in the sense that they were free to go, even though many remained in exile.
The verse belongs to the historical account of the temple rebuilding in Ezra 1-6, concerning the temple work begun under Cyrus's decree. That history belongs to the same period as Haggai's message. It is not the work begun in B.C. 457 in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, which marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
Together with the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading ones who went up from the captivity, the verse gives simply names and numbers rather than an expressed precious promise to God's people. It is one of more than fifteen hundred verses of names in Scripture showing that not every verse is a promise.
The number is 1,254 children of Elam among those who responded to Cyrus's decree and proclamation and went up from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. They are listed among the Israelites who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and settled in their cities and in their own land. Only a remnant of Israel came back, yet the return included people from the tribes of Israel. Nearly fifty thousand returned in all, which ended the captivity in the sense that they were free to go, even though many remained in exile.
The verse belongs to the historical account of the temple rebuilding in Ezra 1-6, concerning the temple work begun under Cyrus's decree. That history belongs to the same period as Haggai's message. It is not the work begun in B.C. 457 in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, which marks the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
Together with the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading ones who went up from the captivity, the verse gives simply names and numbers rather than an expressed precious promise to God's people. It is one of more than fifteen hundred verses of names in Scripture showing that not every verse is a promise.