Bible study · Ezra 2:1-70
Ezra 2: Everyone to his city
Read Ezra 2:1-70 before you meet.
In a few lines
Ezra 2 is more than a list: it names the returning people family by family and town by town, "everyone to his city" (2:1), still counts those who "could not show their fathers’ houses" (2:59), and ends with gifts "according to their ability" (2:69) for the LORD's house before it was rebuilt; Nehemiah 7 gives the list again, with the same total and some different details.
The verse to carry
“Some of the heads of fathers’ households, when they came to the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for God’s house to set it up in its place.”
Ezra 2:68
To talk about
1. Some who went up "could not show their fathers’ houses and their offspring, whether they were of Israel" (2:59), and the list still names and counts them (2:60). Where do you feel you have to prove you belong? What does this chapter say to that?
2. "They gave according to their ability" (2:69), for a house that wasn't rebuilt yet (2:68). What would giving according to your ability look like for you right now, in time, money or care?
3. The chapter names family after family and town after town (2:3-58). Why do you think the Bible keeps a list like this? Who would you want remembered by name in the story of your own faith?