Ezra 3:9

Ezr 3:9 Then stood Jeshua [with] his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, [with] their sons and their brethren the Levites.

Ver. 9. Then stood Jeshua] Not the high priest, but another, a Levite.

The sons of Henadad, with their sons] A generation of godly and active men in the things of God, see Neh 3:18; Neh 3:24; Neh 10:9. Grace is not hereditary, the white halcyons hatch black young ones, Heroum filii noxae. Nevertheless, nurture helpeth nature; and good men strive to mend that by education which they have marred by propagation. They cocker not, but correct their children; they pray for them, and drop good principles into them; they smooth them as arrows, Psa 128:3-4, getting off the knottiness of their nature; and leave not till they see them the work of God’s hands, so as to sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and to fear the God of Israel, Isa 29:23. These sons of Henadad, as they attended upon the temple work, so themselves were as the polished corners of the temple, Psa 144:12.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ezr 3:9. Then stood Jeshua with his sons — This person was not the high- priest, so called, but a Levite, of whom see Ezr 2:40. To set forward the workmen — To encourage them to a cheerful and vigorous prosecution of the work.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They gave them exhortations, and encouraged every man forward in the work.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jeshua with his sons--not the high priest, but a Levite (Ezr 2:40). To these, as probably distinguished for their mechanical skill and taste, the duty of acting as overseers was particularly committed.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(9) Together—As one man. Jeshua and Kadmiel, both of the stock of Judah, or Hodaviah (Ezr_2:40), or Hodevah (Neh_7:43), were the two heads of Levitical families; and their fewness is compensated by their unanimity and vigour. Henadad is not mentioned in Ezr_2:40, though it is a Levitical name in Nehemiah. Why omitted there, or why inserted here, it is not possible to determine.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. This verse presents considerable difficulty: (a) The English reader cannot fail to be struck with the awkwardness of the final clause, ‘the sons of Henadad … the Levites’. (b) The names here mentioned have been understood by different commentators to represent four, two and three families.

(a) The manifest dislocation of the verse has caused some to conjecture that it is a gloss, which has found its way into the text, having been originally introduced to supplement the previous verse by the names of those who had been appointed to the work and by emphasizing the fact that they undertook the duty. This conjecture, which is not without probability, would assign a very early date to the gloss, since the verse appears in the LXX. and, though in a corrupt form, in 1Es_5:58, ‘Then stood up Jesus, and his sons and brethren, and Cadmiel his brother and the sons of Madiabun, with the sons of Joda the son of Eliadun, with their sons and brethren, all Levites, with one accord, betters forward of the business, labouring to advance the works in the house of God’ (A.V.).

If we dismiss this conjecture on the ground of its lack of external evidence, we must be prepared to treat the verse as having come down to us in some way corrupted or mutilated.

The key to the verse lies in the last words, ‘the Levites’. The verse describes who the Levites were that received the commission (described in Ezr_3:8), and how they discharged it. The student therefore will take care not to confound the Jeshua here mentioned with the Jeshua (the high-priest) mentioned in the previous verse. This Jeshua is the Levite whose name occurs in chap. Ezr_2:40.

The natural arrangement of the words (illustrated by 1Es_5:58 quoted above) would be, ‘Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, (and) the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brethren (i.e. all) the Levites together, to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God.’ The verse thus specifies the Levites who undertook the oversight of the workmen.

(b) The names of the Levitical families who returned appear in chap. Ezr_2:40, where there is some uncertainty whether the expression ‘of the children of Hodaviah’ refers to Kadmiel alone or to ‘the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel’ taken together.

The ‘Judah’ of our verse is probably a misreading for Hodaviah, not, as some prefer, an alternative name of the same person.

(1) Some see in the verse a mention of four Levitical families, i.e. those of Jeshua, Kadmiel, Judah, and Henadad.

(2) Others think that only two are intended, i.e. those of Jeshua and Kadmiel, who are further defined as sons of Hodaviah (=Judah), and as sons of Henadad.

(3) It seems better to suppose that there are three families referred to: (i) ‘Jeshua with his sons and his brethren,’ apparently a complete family, (ii) ‘Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Hodaviah’, apparently a special branch of the family of Kadmiel, (iii) ‘And the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren’, who, though not mentioned in Ezr_2:40, are represented in Nehemiah’s time (Neh_3:18; Neh_3:24; Neh_10:9).

The absence of Henadad’s name from the list in chap. Ezr_2:40 is strange. But we must account for it by supposing either that the Henadad family never left Palestine, or that they came to Jerusalem between the arrival of Zerubbabel and the beginning of the second year, or that they belonged to the class more numerous than scholars have hitherto taken account of, i.e. those who returned to Jerusalem from exile in other countries. Perhaps the family of Henadad (‘the grace or favour of Hadad’, cf. Hadad, Benhadad, Hadadrimmon) had Syrian connexions or had found refuge in Syria during the disasters of Israel and Judah. Compare Ezr_6:21, ‘all such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land’.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then stood Jeshua, with his sons,.... Not Jeshua the high priest before mentioned, but Jeshua the Levite, Ezr 2:40,

and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together; the same with Hodaviah, Ezr 2:40

to set forward the workmen in the house of God; to give them orders to begin and lay the foundation, and hasten and animate them to it:

the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites: two of this man's sons are mentioned in Neh 3:18.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jeshua - See the marginal reference. Not the high priest, but the head of one of the two Levitical houses which had returned.

Together - The Hebrew phrase is very emphatic - “they stood up as one man.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jeshua; not the high priest so called, but a Levite, of whom see Ezr 2:40.

To set forward the workmen; by their presence and favour to encourage them to a cheerful and vigorous prosecution of the work.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Jeshua… Kadmiel — Levites mentioned in the list of the returned, Ezr_2:40. This Jeshua is not to be confounded with the high priest, the son of Jozadak, of the same name.

Sons of Judah — Instead of Judah, we should probably read Hodevah (Neh_7:43) or Hodaviah, who is also mentioned in Ezr_2:40.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jeshua here is the head of the Levitical family mentioned in Ezr_2:40 as "the children of Jeshua," and Kadmiel is the head of the other family. Judah represents the "Hodaviah" of that place, and is probably a corrupt reading, as Nehemiah (Neh_7:43) has "Hodevah." The sons of Henadad, who are here united with the Jeshuites and Kadmielites, constitute a third Levitical family, which (as the text stands) was also engaged in superintending the work. But there is some reason to suspect that the passage is an unauthorized addition to the true text.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joshua - Not the high-priest so called, but a Levite, of whom see chap. ii, 40. To set forward - To encourage them to a vigourous prosecution of the work.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And Jeshua...stood They stood and recited the song together around the ones who did the work of the foundation of the Temple.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.