Ezra 2:15

Study note

Setting — The narrator records a post-exilic census, listing returning family groups and their exact headcounts. This verse falls between entries for Bigvai and Ater, functioning as an administrative tally of the repatriated community.

The words — The text employs בְּנֵי (benei) for "descendants" and עָדִין (Adin) for the clan name, followed by the numeral אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת חֲמִשִּׁים וָאַרְבָּעָה (454). These terms operate as precise demographic markers rather than narrative or theological descriptors.

The thread — The Adin lineage reappears in Nehemiah 7:20 with a count of 655 and in Ezra 8:6 where Ebed son of Jonathan leads fifty men from the group. These parallel records track the same family across different phases of the restoration timeline.

Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that covenant restoration is grounded in specific, enumerated families rather than vague crowds. The account demands attention to the concrete reality of named individuals rebuilding the community.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.