heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel." From the terms of this proclamation, it is clear that the privilege granted to return to Judæa was not restricted to the children of the captivity at Babylon, but extended throughout all the kingdom, to all the people who chose to avail themselves of it. Of these the narrative proceeds to say, "Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord." It was naturally to be supposed that the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, should take the lead on such an occasion; but of those who went up with them, we cannot conclude from the enumeration by their families that they were confined to the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi only.
The second chapter of Ezra begins with reciting the names "of the children of the province that went up out of the captivity," and then gives the general enumeration (ver. 2) of "the number of the men of the people of Israel," as "the children of Parosh 2172, the children of Shephatiah 372," and others. Some of these names — Parosh, Shephatiah, Arah, Pahath Moab, Elam, and the rest, — seem certainly to have been names of individuals, but the larger portion seems rather to have been names of places, principally of Judah and Benjamin, though some we might trace beyond the boundaries of those tribes. Where, however, it must be almost entirely a conjecture, it would be perhaps not only futile, but also a weakening of the argument, to attempt to identify any of these names with the ancient names of places or families, and therefore we may proceed at once to observe, that at verse 59 it is stated, there were some claiming to be Israelites who could not even "show their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel," and yet they were not rejected on that account, except as from the priesthood. If they had been captives of the Babylonians within seventy years previously, they could scarcely have failed in being able to show their father's house; but if they were of the Assyrian captivity, which was 150 years previous to the Babylonian, it was extremely probable that after the lapse of upwards of two hundred years, many would have been found unable to do so, though they might have been unquestionably what they claimed to be — of the seed
