Why was ancestry so important (Ezra 2:59)?
Such records were essential in matters of property inheritance, but they were also important spiritually. Jews who could demonstrate their family purity after two or three generations in a foreign land showed that they had not mingled with pagans and (by implication) pagan gods. The Quest Study Bible Who were these people who came to help the exiles (Ezra 4:12)? The people who proffered their help were evidently from the area of Samaria, though they are not explicitly described as such. After the fall of Samaria in 722 b.c., the Assyrian kings kept importing inhabitants from Mesopotamia and Syria who worshiped the Lord, but also served their own gods (2 Kings 17:2433). The newcomers influence doubtless diluted further the faith of the northerners, who had already apostatized from the sole worship of the Lord in the tenth century. NIV Bible Commentary Why is Cyrus called the king of Babylon (Ezra 5:13)? The Judean elders probably used this title to contrast Cyrus with the former king of
