And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty;
Ezra 8:19 belongs to the account of Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, at the gathering by the river Ahava where the captive Jews were consulted before setting out, as part of the large return with Ezra. It names Hashabiah and Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari among the Levites gathered for the journey, with their brethren and their sons, twenty persons in all. The journey was the second company to go up from Babylon to Jerusalem, organized and led by Ezra, a Jewish priest and scribe highly favored by Artaxerxes Longimanus, comprising about 1,800 Israelite men who left Babylon in 457 B.C.
The book of Ezra is devoted wholly to the history of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, mentioning Ezra himself only as connected with carrying it out. He had no personal part until the last of the seventy-nine years from the first year of Cyrus in 536 B.C. to the seventh year of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., when he had the honor of carrying the third and last portion of the decree recorded in chapter seven from Babylon to Jerusalem. The chapter is dated to B.C. 458, fifty-eight years after chapter seven dated to B.C. 515. The book of Esther falls between them nearer the middle of the reign of Xerxes, who is Ahasuerus, from B.C. 485 to 474, about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with his third year 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 decree of Artaxerxes under which the company traveled, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the commonwealth, is the starting point of the decree of Daniel 9:25 and the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. Hashabiah was one of the twelve chiefs whom Ezra separated as treasurers to receive the weighed silver and gold and vessels, to watch and keep them holy and bring them to the house of God at Jerusalem. The gathering by the river Ahava was a helpless band fasting and praying before passing through dreaded robber country, showing that united fasting and earnest pleading with God brings safe passage and deliverance. For his hand is upon all them for good that seek him but his power and wrath is against all them that forsake him, and when his people fasted and besought him he was entreated of them.
The verse belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, a time of Babylonian life among the ancient lands adjoining Israel that had dealings with that people, whose discoveries confirm the Bible narrative and give archaeological information.
Ezra 8:19 belongs to the account of Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, at the gathering by the river Ahava where the captive Jews were consulted before setting out, as part of the large return with Ezra. It names Hashabiah and Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari among the Levites gathered for the journey, with their brethren and their sons, twenty persons in all. The journey was the second company to go up from Babylon to Jerusalem, organized and led by Ezra, a Jewish priest and scribe highly favored by Artaxerxes Longimanus, comprising about 1,800 Israelite men who left Babylon in 457 B.C.
The book of Ezra is devoted wholly to the history of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, mentioning Ezra himself only as connected with carrying it out. He had no personal part until the last of the seventy-nine years from the first year of Cyrus in 536 B.C. to the seventh year of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., when he had the honor of carrying the third and last portion of the decree recorded in chapter seven from Babylon to Jerusalem. The chapter is dated to B.C. 458, fifty-eight years after chapter seven dated to B.C. 515. The book of Esther falls between them nearer the middle of the reign of Xerxes, who is Ahasuerus, from B.C. 485 to 474, about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with his third year 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 decree of Artaxerxes under which the company traveled, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the commonwealth, is the starting point of the decree of Daniel 9:25 and the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14. Hashabiah was one of the twelve chiefs whom Ezra separated as treasurers to receive the weighed silver and gold and vessels, to watch and keep them holy and bring them to the house of God at Jerusalem. The gathering by the river Ahava was a helpless band fasting and praying before passing through dreaded robber country, showing that united fasting and earnest pleading with God brings safe passage and deliverance. For his hand is upon all them for good that seek him but his power and wrath is against all them that forsake him, and when his people fasted and besought him he was entreated of them.
The verse belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, a time of Babylonian life among the ancient lands adjoining Israel that had dealings with that people, whose discoveries confirm the Bible narrative and give archaeological information.