8:1 These [are] now the chief of their fathers, and [this is]
the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in
the reign of a Artaxerxes the king.
8:13 And of the b last sons of Adonikam, whose names [are]
these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them
threescore males.
(b) That came to go with Ezra.
8:15 And I gathered them together to the c river that runneth
to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I
viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of
the sons of Levi.
(c) To that place of Euphrates, where the Ahava river
enters it.
8:17 And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the d chief at
the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say
unto Iddo, [and] to his brethren the Nethinims, at the
place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers
for the house of our God.
(d) He was the chief teacher of the law to the Levites.
8:21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that
we might afflict f ourselves before our God, to seek of
him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for
all our substance.
(f) He shows that the purpose of fasting is to humble the
body to the spirit, which must proceed from the heart
that is touched, or else it is hypocrisy.
8:22 For I was g ashamed to require of the king a band of
soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the
way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand
of our God [is] upon all them for good that seek him; but
his power and his wrath [is] against all them that forsake
him.
(g) He thought it better to commit himself to the
protection of God, than by seeking these ordinary means
to give others a reason to think that he doubted God's
power.
8:26 I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty h
talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents,
[and] of gold an hundred talents;
8:31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth
[day] of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the
hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the
hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in k wait by the
way.
(k) This declared that their journey was full of danger and
yet God delivered them according to their prayer.
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, l
Levites;
(l) This was a token of a good conscience and of his
integrity that he would have witnesses of his fidelity.
