Ezra 2: Group Study Handout

How to use: read Ezra 2 aloud together, then take the questions in order. One page is enough for an evening.

Overview

The people who returned from Babylon are named, including Zerubbabel and Jeshua (vv. 1-2). Families are listed with their numbers, such as the children of Parosh, who numbered two thousand one hundred seventy-two (vv.

Key verse

“Now these are the children of the province, who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his city;”
Ezra 2:1 (WEB)

Outline

Ezra 2:1–2 Introduction of Returnees
Ezra 2:3–35 List of Families
Ezra 2:36–42 Priests and Levites
Ezra 2:43–58 Temple Servants and Others
Ezra 2:59–63 Genealogical Challenges
Ezra 2:64–70 Summary of Return and Offerings

Discussion questions

Who leads the returning company in v2, and how many names stand beside Zerubbabel?
What could the families from Tel Melah and Tel Harsha not show in vv. 59-60?
Priests missing from the genealogy are told to wait for a priest 'with Urim and with Thummim' in vv. 62-63: what is at stake in that pause?
Why does a list of 42,360 people in v64 end with gifts given 'according to their ability' in v69?
When has your name being 'registered' somewhere, or missing from a list, changed what you were allowed to do?

Go deeper

Passages that echo Ezra 2: Nehemiah 7, Ezra 8, Ezra 10.

Before next time: read Ezra 3.