And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.
I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava х 'Ahªwaa' (H163); Septuagint, ho Eui; Alexandrine, Euei] - called in later times Ihi. Ezra here speaks in the first person. In general the sacred historians write of their own doings in the third person, as did Xenophon, Cesar, and many other eminent historians of antiquity. But the present is an exceptional case, and the reason why Ezra relates this narrative in the first person seems to be that he is giving a report of the execution of his public commission-he is not here relating the procedure of God to His people, but the performance of a responsible trust committed to him by the king.
This river has not been ascertained. The probability is that the Ahava was one of the streams or numerous canals of Mesopotamia communicating with the Euphrates ('Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature'). But it was certainly in Babylonia, on the banks of that stream; and perhaps in the neighborhood of a town of the same name was the place appointed for general rendezvous, generally believed to be identical with the modern Hit, direct east of Damascus (see Winer, 'Realworterbuch;' also Rosenmuller, 'Biblical Geography,' 2:, p. 121). The emigrants encamped there for three days, according to Oriental custom, while the preparations for the departure were being completed, and Ezra was arranging the order of the caravan.
I ... found there none of the sons of Levi - i:e., the ordinary Levites. Notwithstanding the privilege of exemption from all taxes granted to persons engaged to the temple service, none of the Levitical tribes were induced to join the settlement in Jerusalem; and it was even not without difficulty Ezra persuaded some of the priestly families to accompany him.