“Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city.”
In the seventh chapter of Nehemiah, beginning with the sixth verse, is a copy of the same register. Nehemiah says:
“And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein,
“These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city.”
Then follows in each a list of the families with the number of persons belonging to them. But in transcribing the numbers, either Ezra or Nehemiah has made many errors. A careful examination reveals no less than twenty, as shown by the following:
1.
“The children of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five” (Ez. ii, 5).
“The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two” (Neh. vii, 10).