Of the sons of Pahath-moab; Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.
This verse belongs to the list of the captive Jews who gathered and prepared to travel with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem. It records Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, of the sons of Pahath-moab, coming with two hundred males, whom he led and who accompanied him. The return took place under Ezra in response to the invitation to leave Babylon. Ezra made the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem carrying the decree of Artaxerxes.
In the wider account of the chapter, the returning company fasted and prayed by the river Ahava and traveled safely through a dangerous land. Ezra 8 belongs to B.C. 458, fifty-eight years after B.C. 515, so the story of Esther falls in the years between those dates, more nearly in the middle of the reign of Xerxes, who is Ahasuerus, B.C. 485 to 474. That is about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with Xerxes' 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.
This verse belongs to the list of the captive Jews who gathered and prepared to travel with Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem. It records Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, of the sons of Pahath-moab, coming with two hundred males, whom he led and who accompanied him. The return took place under Ezra in response to the invitation to leave Babylon. Ezra made the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem carrying the decree of Artaxerxes.
In the wider account of the chapter, the returning company fasted and prayed by the river Ahava and traveled safely through a dangerous land. Ezra 8 belongs to B.C. 458, fifty-eight years after B.C. 515, so the story of Esther falls in the years between those dates, more nearly in the middle of the reign of Xerxes, who is Ahasuerus, B.C. 485 to 474. That is about sixty years after the first return and forty years after the completion of the temple, with Xerxes' 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.