The Original List Discovered By Nehemiah In The Records Office, Possibly In Jerusalem (Nehemiah 7:6-7).
It is apparent that the list in Ezra was the first list of returnees made after their arrival in Judah, and that this is a second list, closely patterned on the first list, probably made on the accession of Zerubbabel to the governorship. This second list was updated in terms of comings of men to adulthood, deaths, arrival of more returnees, and possibly the return of a few disillusioned groups to Babylon. It ends with the triumphal statement that by the seventh month, that great festal month, all the returnees were, in as far as it was possible, established in their own cities. All would know of the significance of the seventh month, for during it was celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a ‘red letter' month.
‘These are the sons of the province, who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city,'
The opening heading of the record indicated that it was a list of the males in the district of Judah who had returned from the captivity, who had previously been borne off by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. They had returned to their own cities. But these cities would in the main also have been inhabited by syncretistic worshippers of YHWH, and these had been refused permission to worship in the new Temple.
‘Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.'
Prominent in this list are Zerubbabel, who became governor of Judah after Sheshbazzar died, and Jeshua the High Priest. See Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8-9; Ezra 4:2-3; Ezra 5:2.
The returnees had arrived under their twelve leaders, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel, whose names were as listed. The comparable list in Ezra show them as, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah, to which we should add Sheshbazzar to make up the twelve. The aim of presenting twelve leaders may have been in order to echo the Exodus (Numbers 1:1-16). There are a number of seeming differences between Ezra and Nehemiah, but it would have been quite normal Jewish practise for them to have taken new names, indicating a new beginning (compare how Saul became Paul). Thus sryh (Seraiah) is a variant of ‘zryh (Azariah). Compare for this Nehemiah 11:11 with 1 Chronicles 9:11. R‘lyh Reeliah) becomes r‘myh (Raamiah). Mspr (Mispar) becomes msprth (Mispereth) with th being the plural ending. Rehum becomes Nehum, a comparable switch of N to R being witnessed in names like Nebuchadnezzar (Nebuchadrezzar).