The Exiles Return

2 ^(A)Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles ^(B)whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. ² They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, ^(C)Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

The number of the men of the people of Israel:

^64 (A)The whole assembly together was 42,360,

Rebuilding the Temple

⁸ Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, ^(A)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and ^(B)Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They ^(C)appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to ^(D)supervise the work of the house of the Lord.

^2 (A)Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and ^(B)Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were ^(C)with them, supporting them.