All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.
All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. The vessels here specified amount only to the number of 2,489. Hence, it is probable that the larger vases only are mentioned, while the inventory of the whole, including great and small, came to the gross sum stated in the text. Sheshbazzar - i:e., Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel (cf. Ezra 3:8; Ezra 5:16: cf. 1 Chronicles 3:17). He was born in Babylon, and called by his family Zerubbabel -
i.e., sown in Babylon. Sheshbazzar, signifying 'fire-worshippers,' was the name given him at court, as other names were given to Daniel and his friends. He was recognized among the exiles as hereditary prince of Judah.
Them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem. All the Jewish exiles did not embrace the privilege which the Persian king granted them. The great proportion, born in Babylon, preferred continuing in their comfortable homes to undertaking a distant, expensive, and hazardous journey to a desolate land. For it must be remembered that it was not the fertile regions of Central Palestine the returning exiles were to go to. These were already colonized; and there was no intention to dispossess the colonists. 'It was only the bare, ungenial territory that lay between this and the fertile vales around Hebron, also occupied upon the south, that was contemplated in the proclamation. This must be distinctly borne in mind when, in order to understand the spirit in which the decree was received, we transfer ourselves to the provinces around Babylon, and picture, in comparison with their circumstances there, the position which the Hebrews were invited to occupy' (Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' pp. 215, 216). Nor did the returning exiles all go at once. The first band went with Zerubbabel, others afterward with Ezra, and a large number with Nehemish at a still later period.