‘Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water, for he mourned because of the trespass of those of the captivity.'
His mission accomplished Ezra rose up from his position before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib. This would be one of the side chambers in the Temple. And once he was there he fasted, taking no bread or water, for he was ‘in mourning over the trespass of the returnees'. We can presume that he also prayed, and expressed his grief to God. This confirms the genuineness of his grief. He was heartbroken over the sins of the people.
Note On Jehoanan, the son of Eliashib.
The first thing we have to recognise is that Jehoanan, the son of Eliashib may be the name given to the chamber after some past celebrity. Both Jehoanan and Eliashib were popular names in Israel. No Jehoanan, son of Eliashib is otherwise known apart from the one who was probably son of the Eliashib who was over the chamber in the house of God (Nehemiah 12:23; Nehemiah 13:4; Nehemiah 13:7). This would be a strange description for a High Priest.
Jehoanan (YHWH is gracious) was the name given to Jehoanan the son of Kareah, a warlord in the days of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 40:7 ff; 2 Kings 25:23); Jehoanan the eldest son of king Josiah (1 Chronicles 3:15); Jehoanan a son of Elioenai, who was a post exilic prince (1 Chronicles 3:24); Jehoanan was the father of Azariah who was a priest in Solomon's time (1 Chronicles 5:35-36); Jehoanan was a Benjamite recruit of David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:5); Jehoanan was a Gadite recruit of David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:13); Jehoanan was an Ephraimite chief (2 Chronicles 28:12); Jehoanan, son of Hakkatan, was an exile who returned with Ezra (Ezra 8:12). So the name was very popular.
In this very chapter three other Eliashibs are mentioned, a singer (Ezra 10:24); a son of Zattu (Ezra 10:27); and a son of Bani (Ezra 10:36). It was the name given to a descendant of David (1 Chronicles 3:24); the name of the head of the eleventh course of priests (1 Chronicles 24:12); the name of a priest who was ‘appointed over the chamber of the house of our God' (Nehemiah 13:4; Nehemiah 13:7), who was later allied to Tobiah the Ammonite (Nehemiah 13:4), and allowed him the use of a great chamber in the Temple (Nehemiah 13:5). We are not told the name of his son.
Finally it was the name of a High Priest in the time of Nehemiah whose son was named Joiada (Nehemiah 13:28), whose grandson was called Jonathan, and whose great-grandson was called Jaddua. This Eliashib helped with the rebuilding of the wall (Nehemiah 3:1). His name appears in the list of High Priests (Nehemiah 12:10-11; Nehemiah 12:22), where again his son was Joiada and his grandson Jonathan, and his great grandson Jaddua.
In Nehemiah 12:22 a Johanan is mentioned in the sequence Eliashib, Joiada and Johanan and Jaddua, but it does not say that they were High Priests. On the basis of this sequence some have equated Johanan with Jonathan, but in Ezra 10:23 this Johanan is named as the son of Eliashib. And furthermore we have no grounds for seeing the four named as being father to son. Johanan and Jaddua may well have been otherwise related to Eliashib, with Eliashib's great grandson being named after this Jaddua, for it will be noted that they are all seemingly connected with the reign of Darius. It was common for names to run in families. Furthermore if we see Johanan as also being named Jonathan, he would therefore be the grandson of Eliashib. But if this is so why is he called the son of Eliashib in a context where that would be deceptive? Johanan is never stated to be the grandson of Eliashib.
It is far more likely that the Jehohanan spoken of in Ezra 10:6 who had a chamber in the house was the son of the Eliashib who was appointed over the chamber of the house of God who may well have given his adult son a chamber in the Temple area. There is no good reason for identifying this Eliashib with the High Priest. But all in all it would be foolish to argue a case from this multiplicity of facts.
An added complication is that in the Elephantine papyri dated 408 BC a Jehohanan is named as High Priest. But that Jehohanan may well have been named after the Johanan mentioned above as a contemporary relation of Joiada who was at some stage High Priest, possibly due to the current High Priest being unable to function one year at the Day of Atonement because he was ritually defiled (unclean). Anyone who so acted as High Priest remained High Priest for life.
It is clear from all this that we cannot take the statement about Jehohanan the son of Eliashib as an indicator of the date of Ezra's ministry in Jerusalem, because we do not know which Jehohanan it was.
End of Note.