Wesley Corpus

Chapter XII The chief of the priests and Levites that came up with Zerubbabel, ver. 1 - 9. The succession of the chief - priests, ver. 10 - 21. The eminent Levites, ver. 22 - 26. The wall dedicated, ver. 27 - 43. The offices of the priests and Levites settled, ver. 44 - 47. Priests - The chief of the priests, the heads of those twenty four courses which David appointed by divine direction, 1Chron 24:1 - 19. And whereas there were twenty four, and here but twenty - two, and ver.12, &c. only twenty, the reason of this difference may be, because two of the twenty four courses were extinct in Babylon, and two of the persons here named, ver.2,5, Hattush, and Maadiah, may be omitted in the account of the posterity of these, ver.12, &c. because they had no posterity. Ezra - Either this was another Ezra, or if it were the same mentioned Ezra 7:1, he lived to a great age; which may well be supposed, considering his great sobriety, and his great piety to which God promised long life, and withal the special providence of God continuing him so long in such a season, wherein the church of God did greatly need his help and counsel. Moreover, &c. - He was to see, that the psalms of thanksgiving were continually sung in the temple, in due time and manner. Jeshua - Here follows a catalogue of the Jewish high - priests; which was the more necessary, because their times were now to be measured, not by the years of their kings as formerly, but by their high - priests. Priests - As their fathers were priests in the days of Joshua, so in the days of Joiakim the son of Joshua, the sons of those persons executed the priesthood in their father's steads, some of their fathers probably being yet living, and many of them dead. Darius - Darius Noehus; and so this Jaddua might be father to him who was in the days of Darius Codomanus, and of Alexander the Great.