The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy and three.

EZRA 2:36KJV
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Ezra 2:36 (KJV)

What does Ezra 2:36 mean?

Ezra 2:36 lists one group of priests who returned from exile to Jerusalem: the descendants of Jedaiah, from the family line of Jeshua, numbering 973 men. This verse is part of a census that records the families and numbers of people who came back to Judah after the Babylonian captivity.

Ezra is recounting the names and numbers of those who returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. The focus here is on the priests, specifically those connected to Jedaiah and Jeshua, two important ancestral figures. This careful record-keeping shows the importance of lineage and priestly roles in restoring worship in the rebuilt community.

Where else these words appear

“Jedaiah” Hebrew H3048 · used in 11 verses

“Jeshua” Hebrew H3442 · used in 29 verses

  • 1 Chronicles 24:11 The ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
  • Ezra 8:33 Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, Levites;
  • Nehemiah 9:4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.

“nine” Hebrew H8672 · used in 57 verses

  • Genesis 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
  • Numbers 34:13 And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot, which the LORD commanded to give unto the nine tribes, and to the half tribe:
  • 2 Kings 25:3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

“seventy” Hebrew H7657 · used in 90 verses

  • Genesis 4:24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
  • Numbers 7:73 His offering was one silver charger, the weight whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:
  • 1 Chronicles 21:14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.