Ezra 8:19

This is the second return from Babylon. The first, under Zerubbabel and Joshua, rebuilt the temple (Ezra 1–6), and it lay about eighty years in the past. Now, around 458 BC, King Artaxerxes has commissioned Ezra to go up to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:11–26), and the families travelling with him have just been listed (Ezra 8:1–14). The road ahead runs for hundreds of miles and is open to bandits and hostile peoples, so the caravan has to be organised before it moves.

Ezra gathers everyone “to the river that runneth to Ahava”. ʼAhăvâʼ names a river or canal near Babylon, and probably the district around it. Its exact site is unknown today, and the name is probably of foreign origin. A place like this gave a large company water for people and animals and open ground for a camp, and the same spot is where Ezra goes on to proclaim a fast and seek God’s protection (Ezra 8:21–23). They live there “in tents three days”, long enough to settle, check provisions and take stock of who has come.

Then Ezra “viewed” the company. He looks over the lay people and the priests, the descendants of Aaron, and finds that the third group is missing altogether. The Hebrew for “sons” is bên, the ordinary word for a son, used here for the descendants of a tribe. Lêvîy, Levi, was one of Jacob’s twelve sons, his name means “attached”, and his tribe had been set apart for God’s service.

The priests were one family within the tribe of Levi, and they offered the sacrifices and burned the incense. The rest of the tribe, the Levites, were given to Aaron and his sons to serve alongside them (Numbers 3:6–9), and the whole chapter of Numbers 3 sets out their charge. They held no territory of their own in Canaan and lived on the tithes and offerings of the people. In the wilderness they carried the tabernacle. In the temple they assisted the priests and cared for the courts and chambers (1 Chronicles 23:24–32), sang and played (1 Chronicles 25:1–8), and kept the gates and the treasuries (1 Chronicles 26:1–19). Later, in Jerusalem, Levites stand among the people and help them understand the law as it is read (Nehemiah 8:7–8), and the people bring portions to support the singers and porters in their work (Nehemiah 12:44–47).

Ezra’s whole purpose was to seek the law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it in Israel (Ezra 7:10). A temple served by priests alone could never be the worship that law describes. Many Levites had likely built settled lives in Babylon, and the service waiting for them in Jerusalem was demanding and unglamorous, which may explain why none had volunteered. Ezra will hold the whole caravan at Ahava until the gap is filled.

Ezra acts immediately. “Then sent I” uses shâlach, the common verb for sending, and here it is a formal commission. He calls eleven men. Nine are “chief men”, where the Hebrew is rôʼsh, “head”, the word for a leader of a family or clan. Their standing would give weight to the appeal. Two are “men of understanding”, from bîyn, to understand or discern. Persuading families to leave Babylon for a hard road and hard service called for wisdom as well as rank, and Ezra sends both. The name Elnathan comes three times in the list, twice among the chief men and once among the men of understanding. It may simply have been a common name, borne here by three different men.

The delegation goes to “Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia”. ʼIddôw is a name of uncertain derivation, and the man who bears it is the recognised head of the community there. Kâçiphyâʼ, a name perhaps related to the Hebrew for silver (kesef), is called simply a “place”, mâqôwm, and the verse names it twice. Its location in Babylonia is unknown, but Levites and temple servants were clearly living there in numbers, and Ezra aims his request where the men he needs can be found.

He also prepares the message. Behind “I sent them with commandment” stand yâtsâʼ, to go out or, in its causative form, to bring out, and tsâvâh, to command. “I told them what they should say” joins sûwm, a verb for putting or setting, with dâbâr, “word”, and dâbar, “to speak”: Ezra set the words for them to speak. They are to address Iddo and “his brethren the Nethinims”, where “brethren” is ʼâch, brother, which may point to kinship or to close association among those living at Casiphia.

The request is that they “bring unto us ministers for the house of our God”. “Bring” is bôwʼ, to come, in the form that means to cause to come. “Ministers” is from shârath, to attend or serve, a broad word that covers every kind of service in the sanctuary. The “house”, bayith, of “our God”, ʼĕlôhîym, is the temple in Jerusalem. Ezra asks for people of every rank who will serve there.

Ezra opens his report of the result with its cause: “by the good hand of our God upon us”. Yâd, “hand”, is the regular Hebrew way of speaking of the one through whom a thing is done, and of power and direction. Ṭôwb, “good”, is a very wide word for what is pleasant, excellent and beneficial. Together they say that God himself was at work, in kindness, for this company. The phrase runs through Ezra’s account and Nehemiah’s. Ezra received all he asked of the king “according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him” (Ezra 7:6), he reached Jerusalem “according to the good hand of his God upon him” (Ezra 7:9), the same hand delivered the caravan from enemies on the road (Ezra 8:31), and Nehemiah says of his own request to the king that it was granted “according to the good hand of my God upon me” (Nehemiah 2:8).

Ezra had chosen his men well and worded his message with care, and he gives the credit for the outcome to God. Diligent planning and dependence on God stand side by side in this chapter, where the recruiting is followed directly by fasting and prayer. God supplied the specific need of that hour, as Paul later promises the Philippians that God will supply all their need (Philippians 4:19).

The Nethinims were a class of temple servants distinct from both priests and Levites. Nâthîyn comes from the verb nathan, “to give”, so the name means “the given ones”, people given over to the service of the sanctuary. Their work was the heavy daily labour of the house, such as drawing water, cutting wood for the altar and general upkeep, which left the Levites free for their own duties. Verse 20 says that “David and the princes had appointed” them “for the service of the Levites”, so their place went back to the days when David ordered the worship of the temple.

Their origin is often traced to peoples outside Israel, and especially to the Gibeonites, whom Joshua made “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD” (Joshua 9:27). Scripture does not state that link outright, so it is best held as likely.

Two hundred and twenty of them came, nearly six for every Levite. The humblest servants of the house answered the call in the greatest numbers.

The care taken at Ahava to staff an earthly temple points forward to what God has given in his Son. Jesus spoke of his own body as the temple: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19–21). He is our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14), who offered himself once (Hebrews 7:27) and entered the holy place by his own blood (Hebrews 9:11–14). He is the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6), the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Through him we draw near to God with boldness (Hebrews 10:19–22).

In Christ the whole people of God is a serving people. Believers are “lively stones” built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), made “kings and priests unto God” (Revelation 1:6), and they are built together on Christ the chief corner stone as a dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2:20–22). Christ himself supplies the workers this house needs. As Ezra sent chosen men with a message, Jesus sent his apostles to teach all nations (Matthew 28:18–20) in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). He gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11–13), and Paul lists the character that those who oversee his church should have (1 Timothy 3:1–7).

The Nethinims have their fulfilment here too. The Lord of the house took the servant’s place: “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The Spirit gives different gifts to different members for the good of all (1 Corinthians 12:4–11), and Paul says that the members of the body that look weaker are necessary, and that God gives fuller honour to the parts that lack it (1 Corinthians 12:22–25). And as Ezra’s servants were written down one by one, the good shepherd “calleth his own sheep by name” (John 10:3).

This passage gives us a picture of God’s work being done carefully. Ezra counts before he marches, sees what is missing, and sends the right people with the right words to the right place. He then names God as the one who brought the answer. Prayerful dependence and careful planning belong together in his account, and the church’s work today rests on the same two things.

It also shows who God is toward those who serve him. He supplied thirty-eight Levites when there were none, and he saw to it that two hundred and twenty water-carriers and woodcutters stand in Scripture as people known by name. Service that few people see is seen by him. If your work for Christ’s church is the kind that is rarely noticed, this verse is in the Bible for you: the God who had the Nethinims written down knows your name as well.