The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore,
The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore. This gross amount Isaiah 12 more than the particular numbers given in the catalogue, when added together, come to. Reckoning up the smaller numbers, we shall find that they amount to 29,818 in this chapter, and to 31,089 in the parallel chapter of Nehemiah. Ezra also mentions 494 persons omitted by Nehemiah, and Nehemiah mentions 1,765 not noticed Ezra. If, therefore, Ezra's surplus be added to the sum in Nehemiah, and Nehemiah's surplus to the number in Ezra, they will both become 31,583. Subtracting this from 42,360, there will be a deficiency of 10,777. These are omitted because they did not belong to Judah and Benjamin, or to the priests, but to the other tribes. The servants and singers, male and female, are reckoned separately (Ezra 2:65), so that putting all these items together, the number of all who went with Zerubbabel amounted to 50,000, with 8,000 beasts of burden, (Alting, quoted in Davidson's 'Hermeneutics') (see further the notes at Nehemiah 7:1-73.)