Both Ezra 2:64 and Nehemiah 7:66 agree that the totals for the whole assembly was 42,360, yet Ezra adds up to 29,818 and Nehemiah to 31,089?<\/p>\n\t
Ezra gives a detailed listing of families of Judah, Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites. (Ezra 1:5). That listing is from Ezra 2:1-67. Thus there were 29,818 listed plus an additional 12,542 people who came with them. In addition, Ezra’s list is of those who enrolled to go to Israel. In other words, this was the list of intended travelers.<\/p>\n
Nehemiah has a list of those who arrived in Jerusalem. Thus, there are small differences in numbers as some would die and others would join or have been born during the journey. It is also possible that some changed their minds and didn’t complete the journey while others joined even though they had not registered their intention. However, the total still came to the same amount: 42,360 people. Nehemiah’s detailed list covers 31,089 men, leaving an additional 11,271 “miscellaneous” people.<\/p>\n
The detailed counts covered only the men (Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7) divided into 32 family groups. The remainder were likely the men from other tribes who were not considered a part of Judah before the captivity. Nehemiah’s list may have a greater number in the detailed account because the male children grew up during the journey and were then counted as adults after the arrival.<\/p>\n
Finally, we need to note that Nehemiah’s list is a record of a\u00a0found<\/em> genealogy (Nehemiah 7:5). Nothing was said that it was an inspired listing, so the found list might have contained errors in the detailed count. There are differences in the family names, but that is easily explained because of variant spellings or the use of alternative names (some people went by multiple names).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Both Ezra 2:64 and Nehemiah 7:66 agree that the totals for the whole assembly was 42,360, yet Ezra adds up to 29,818 and Nehemiah to 31,089? Answer: Ezra gives a detailed listing of families of Judah, Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites. (Ezra 1:5). That listing is from Ezra 2:1-67. Thus there were 29,818…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,793],"class_list":["post-18195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apparent-contradictions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5823,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-proof-is-there-that-jews-returned-with-nehemiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":0},"title":"What proof is there that Jews returned with Nehemiah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw your web page Q&A regarding how many waves of people were taken to Babylon. You also list three return groups. Is there any scriptural support for any Jews returning with Nehemiah? Answer: The list of those who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:2-67. The total\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23972,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-the-lists-in-ezra-2-and-nehemiah-7-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":1},"title":"Why are the lists in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 different?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When I read Ezra and Nehemiah, I had some problems with the counting numbers recorded in both books. I believe the list of names in Ezra chapter 2 and Nehemiah chapter 7 are the same thing. But the number of singers and porters are different in these two books.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5819,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-always-heard-about-the-three-waves-of-the-babylonian-captivity-but-where-is-this-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":2},"title":"I’ve always heard about the three waves of the Babylonian captivity, but where is this found?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've always heard about the three waves of the Babylonian captivity, but where is this found? Answer: Three Captivities Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim, was put into power by Pharaoh Neco who had killed his brother. Babylon attacked Judah and Jehoiakim surrendered to Babylon for three years, but he rebelled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45115,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-hate-people-born-outside-of-their-parents-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":3},"title":"Does God hate people born outside of their parents’ marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does God hate people born outside of their parents' marriage? Answer: Absolutely not! There has been confusion due to a passage in the Old Law: \"No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15694,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/they-promised-to-put-away-their-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":4},"title":"They Promised to Put Away Their Wives","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton The book of Ezra is a remarkable book of \u201cthose whose spirits God had moved\u201d (Ezra 1:5). The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins for seven decades and the house of the Lord was burned. Zerubbabel led the faithful back to Jerusalem and the Temple was rebuilt.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55431,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/names-names-names-ezra-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":18195,"position":5},"title":"Names Names Names (Ezra 2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jarrod M. Jacobs Interspersed in the Bible are lists of names. Sometimes, these are genealogies of certain families (Genesis 5, 10, etc.). Often, these genealogies focus on Judah's descendants leading to Christ (Ruth 4; Matthew 1; Luke 3). At other times, these names teach us about faith (Hebrews 11;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}