Now that the walls were completed, Nehemiah faced the job of repopulating the city. He needed a census to choose new inhabitants for the city. The completion of this project is reported in Nehemiah chapter 11. While preparing for this redistribution of population, Nehemiah found a list of the families who had returned with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel in the first return nearly one hundred years earlier. Because he decided to follow the arrangement of this list for his own census, Nehemiah included it in his memoirs as it is recorded in 7:4-73.
This list is almost the same as the list of returnees published in Ezra chapter 2. Nevertheless, there are some puzzling differences in names and numbers. Since we have already discussed the basic organization of the list in the commentary on Ezra chapter 2, we will not discuss it again here. In the reproduction of Nehemiah’s list that follows, the main phrases in which Nehemiah’s list differs from Ezra’s are indicated in italics. Asterisks indicate points at which Nehemiah has omitted material from Ezra. These markings will make it easier for you to compare the two lists if you choose to do so. After presenting the list, we will try to account for these discrepancies.
The list of exiles who returned
Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. 5 So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there:
6 These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive* (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, 7 in company with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah):
The list of the men of Israel:
the descendants of Parosh 2,172
9 of Shephatiah 372
10 of Arah 652
11 of Pahath-Moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab) 2,818
12 of Elam 1,254
13 of Zattu 845
14 of Zakkai 760
15 of Binnui 648
16 of Bebai 628
17 of Azgad 2,322
18 of Adonikam 667
19 of Bigvai 2,067
20 of Adin 655
21 of Ater (through Hezekiah) 98
22 of Hashum 328
23 of Bezai 324
24 of Hariph 112
25 of Gibeon 95
26 the men of Bethlehem and Netophah 188
27 of Anathoth 128
28 of Beth Azmaveth 42
29 of Kiriath Jearim, Kephirah and Beeroth 743
30 of Ramah and Geba 621
31 of Mikmash 122
32 of Bethel and Ai 123
33 of the other Nebo 52
34 of the other Elam 1,254
35 of Harim 320
36 of Jericho 345
37 of Lod, Hadid and Ono 721
38 of Senaah 3,930.
One might wonder whether it’s worth the time and bother to compare the differences between this list and the list in Ezra. A comparison might be unnecessary if there were no critics waiting to pounce on alleged errors in the Bible. Critics point to “discrepancies” between the two lists in their efforts to discredit the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. In the face of such attacks on the Bible, we must take time to study the issue.
Out of necessity this study will become a bit technical. As you read the following comments, try to concentrate on the basic principles without getting bogged down in details.
How shall we explain the discrepancies between these two lists? Many of the names are identical, and the wording and arrangement of the two lists is so very close. It seems certain that they describe the same period of Israel’s history and that the two lists are derived from the same written source. It does not seem plausible to claim these are two different lists, which just happen to have some of the same names. They are clearly variant forms of the same basic list.