And of the sons of Bebai; Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty and eight males.
The verse names Zechariah, the son and descendant of Bebai, and twenty-eight males with him, among those who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with Ezra. It belongs to the account of the large number of Jews who returned with Ezra after the earlier return under Zerubbabel. Those returning Jews gathered at the river Ahava before the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. That gathering beside the river Ahava is connected with fasting and prayer, by which the helpless group sought God's protection and then traveled safely through a dangerous land.
The journey was made with the decree of Artaxerxes, a renewed and greatly enlarged decree recorded in the previous chapter. The verse stands at the beginning of the remainder of the book recording the experiences of the Jews at Jerusalem, their backsliding, their humility, their seeking of God, and the faithful reproofs given by Ezra and others. The book containing the verse was written by Ezra, a priest. The chapter belongs to B.C. 458, closing the fifty-eight years from B.C. 515 between the previous chapter and this chapter, with the story of Esther falling between and nearer the middle of the reign of Xerxes from B.C. 485 to 474, about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with the third year of Xerxes in B.C. 482, Esther made queen in his seventh year in B.C. 478, and Haman's plot in his thirteenth year in B.C. 472. The verse belongs to the passage Ezra 6-8 appointed for the morning of June 13, with John 21 in the evening.
The verse is simply names of persons, part of the lists of the leading ones who went up from the captivity, and is not an expressed precious promise to God's people. It belongs with more than fifteen hundred verses of names in the Bible that cannot be counted as distinct promises. This proves that every verse is not a promise and that the total of promises is far less than thirty-six thousand.
The verse names Zechariah, the son and descendant of Bebai, and twenty-eight males with him, among those who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with Ezra. It belongs to the account of the large number of Jews who returned with Ezra after the earlier return under Zerubbabel. Those returning Jews gathered at the river Ahava before the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. That gathering beside the river Ahava is connected with fasting and prayer, by which the helpless group sought God's protection and then traveled safely through a dangerous land.
The journey was made with the decree of Artaxerxes, a renewed and greatly enlarged decree recorded in the previous chapter. The verse stands at the beginning of the remainder of the book recording the experiences of the Jews at Jerusalem, their backsliding, their humility, their seeking of God, and the faithful reproofs given by Ezra and others. The book containing the verse was written by Ezra, a priest. The chapter belongs to B.C. 458, closing the fifty-eight years from B.C. 515 between the previous chapter and this chapter, with the story of Esther falling between and nearer the middle of the reign of Xerxes from B.C. 485 to 474, about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with the third year of Xerxes in B.C. 482, Esther made queen in his seventh year in B.C. 478, and Haman's plot in his thirteenth year in B.C. 472. The verse belongs to the passage Ezra 6-8 appointed for the morning of June 13, with John 21 in the evening.
The verse is simply names of persons, part of the lists of the leading ones who went up from the captivity, and is not an expressed precious promise to God's people. It belongs with more than fifteen hundred verses of names in the Bible that cannot be counted as distinct promises. This proves that every verse is not a promise and that the total of promises is far less than thirty-six thousand.