Ezra 8:13

And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) And of the last sons.—The younger branches, the elder being reported in Ezra 2:13.

Benson Commentary

Ezra 8:13. Of the last sons of Adonikam — It seems the rest went before, so that now all the sons of that family returned.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-20 Ezra assembles the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah. God raised up the spirits of a small remnant to accompany him. What a pity that good men should omit a good work, for want of being spoken to!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Punctuate as follows:

Ezra 8:2. ... of the sons of David, Hattush of the sons of Shechaniah.

Ezra 8:3. Of the sons of Pharosh, Zechariah ....

Hattush, the descendant of David, was the grandson of Shechaniah (see marginal reference).

Most of these names Ezra 8:2-14 occur also as those of heads of families in the list of the Jews who returned with Zerubbabel Ezra 2:3-15. The Septuagint and Syriac versions supply omissions in Ezra 8:5, Ezra 8:10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 8

Ezr 8:1-14. Ezra's Companions from Babylon.

1. this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon—The number given here amounts to 1754. But this is the register of adult males only, and as there were women and children also (Ezr 8:21), the whole caravan may be considered as comprising between six thousand and seven thousand.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh,.... Who is so described, to distinguish him from another Shechaniah, Ezra 8:5,

Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy, of the males an hundred and fifty; males only were reckoned, not women and children; though that there were such that went up is clear from Ezra 8:21, from hence to the end of Ezra 8:14 an account is given of the number of the males that went up with Ezra, who were chiefly, if not altogether, sons of those that went up with Zerubbabel; such of them as were left there behind, and now returned, at least a great number of them, see Ezra 2:1, it is particularly remarked of the sons of Adonikam, Ezra 8:13, that they were the last of them; not that they were the last that came in to go with Ezra, or were backward and dilatory, but the last with respect to the first of his sons that were gone before, and seem with them to be the whole of his family; the number of all that went up under their respective heads amounts to 1496.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these] R.V. Of the sons of Adonikam, that were the last; and these are their names.

‘The sons of Adonikam, that were the last’. (Acheronim) is a peculiar expression. It is generally supposed that the elder branches of this house had joined with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:13) and that the younger branches (‘the last’) returned with Ezra.

Others have supposed that the sons of Adonikam attached themselves ‘late’, last of all, to Ezra’s company.

It is noteworthy that this ‘household’, is represented not by one name, but by three. Perhaps we have here the names of three families, Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah, who had but recently attached themselves to the Adonikam ‘house’. It may be conjectured that these ‘last’ sons of Adonikam had not yet become sufficiently united to have a single representative.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - The last sons of Adonikam are probably his younger sons, whose descendants returned with Ezra, their elder brethren's families having returned with Zerubbabel. DETAILS OF EZRA'S JOURNEY FROM BABYLON TO JERUSALEM (Ezra 8:15-31). We gather from scattered statements in this passage -

1. That Ezra, with his companions, after a journey of nine days' duration, reached Ahava from Babylon on the ninth day of the first month;

2. That he rested three days at Ahava, and proclaimed a fast;

3. That he was there joined by a small number of Levites and a considerable body of Nethinims from the immediate neighbourhood;

4. That, on the twelfth day of the first month, he resumed his journey, and, though threatened by some opposition upon the way, arrived safely at his destination fourteen weeks after he quitted Ahava, and exactly four months after he had started from Babylon. The only other important fact mentioned is, that at Ahava twelve of the principal priests were selected by Ezra, and the royal offering of silver, gold, and vessels handed over to them for safe custody, after having been carefully weighed. The weights are recorded with Ezra's usual exactness in vers. 26, 27. Ezra 8:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The addition אחרנים, last (comp. 2 Samuel 19:12), is thus explained by J. H. Mich.: respectu eorum qui primum cum Zorobabele sub Cyro in patriam redierunt c. ii. 13. Bertheau, however, considers this explanation untenable, because אחרנים stands in the present series only with the sons of Adonikam, while it is nevertheless certain, that many families belonging also to other races than this had returned with Zerubbabel, in comparison with whom all who returned with Ezra might be called last. This reason, however, is not conclusive; for in Ezra 8:13 the further statement also differs, both in form and matter, from those in the former verses. Here, instead of the name of the head of the house, we read the words "last, and these their names;" whereupon three names are given, and not till then וגו ועמּהם, "and with them sixty males." Here, then, it is not the head of the house who is named, but in his place three heads of families, amounting together to sixty males. Now, as these three families did not form a house, these sixty sons of Adonikam who returned with Ezra are, with regard to the six hundred and sixty-six sons of Adonikam who returned with Zerubbabel, designated the last, or last arrived, and thus comprised with them as one house.