The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy and three.
The priests. Each of their families was ranged under its prince or head, like those of the other tribes. It will be remembered that the whole body was divided into 24 courses, one of which, in rotation, discharged the sacerdotal duties every week, and each division was called after the name of its first prince or chief. It appears from this passage that only four of the courses of the priests returned from the Babylonian captivity; but these four courses were afterward, as the families increased, divided into 24, which were distinguished by the names of the original courses appointed by David. Hence, we find the course of Abijah or Abia (1 Chronicles 24:10) subsisting at the commencement of the Christian era (Luke 1:5).
The children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua - appointed by lot head of the second priestly course (1 Chronicles 24:7), distinguished here by his family connection with Jeshua from another sacerdotal family of the name of Jedaiah (Nehemiah 12:6-7; Nehemiah 12:19).