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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Ezra 2:64–70, “The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore, Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women. Their horses were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred forty and five; Their camels, four hundred thirty and five; their asses, six thousand seven hundred and twenty. And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place: They gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work threescore and one thousand drams of gold, and five thousand pound of silver, and one hundred priests’ garments. So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.”
There were 42,360 people who came back from Babylon to Jerusalem just seventy years after the entire nation was taken away into captivity, except a few very poor people. They brought back 337 singers to sing in the Temple. This reminds us of Psalm 137 (1-6, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”) The Temple singers had nothing to do in Babylon so, at least, it was worthwhile for them return to Jerusalem where they could go back to their proper profession. The people who came back to Jerusalem gave as much as they could to rebuild the Temple. All these gifts were needed to complement the treasures given back by Cyrus.
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