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[68]
And thus did these men go, a certain and determinate number out
of every family, though I do not think it proper to recite particularly
the names of those families, that I may not take off the mind of my readers
from the connexion of the historical facts, and make it hard for them to
follow the coherence of my narrations; but the sum of those that went up,
above the age of twelve years, of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was
four hundred and sixty-two myriads and eight thousand 1
the Levites were seventy-four; the number of the women and children mixed
together was forty thousand seven hundred and forty-two; and besides these,
there were singers of the Levites one hundred and twenty-eight, and porters
one hundred and ten, and of the sacred ministers three hundred and ninety-two;
there were also others besides these, who said they were of the Israelites,
but were not able to show their genealogies, six hundred and sixty-two:
some there were also who were expelled out of the number and honor of the
priests, as having married wives whose genealogies they could not produce,
nor were they found in the genealogies of the Levites and priests; they
were about five hundred and twenty-five: the multitude also of servants
that followed those that went up to Jerusalem were seven thousand three
hundred and thirty-seven; the singing men and singing women were two hundred
and forty-five; the camels were four hundred and thirty-five; the beasts
used to the yoke were five thousand five hundred and twenty-five; and the
governors of all this multitude thus numbered were Zorobabel, the son of
Salathiel, of the posterity of David, and of the tribe of Judah; and Jeshua,
the son of Josedek the high priest; and besides these there were Mordecai
and Serebeus, who were distinguished from the multitude, and were rulers,
who also contributed a hundred pounds of gold, and five thousand of silver.
By this means therefore the priests and the Levites, and a certain part
of the entire people of the Jews that were in Babylon, came and dwelt in
Jerusalem; but the rest of the multitude returned every one to their own
countries.
2
1 This strange reading in Josephus's present copies of four millions instead of forty thousand, is one of the grossest errors that is in them, and ought to be corrected from Ezra 2:61; 1 Esd. 5:40; and Nehemiah 7:66, who all agree the general sum was but about forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty. It is also very plain that Josephus thought, that when Esdras afterwards brought up another company out of Babylon and Persia, in the days of Xerxes, they were also, as well as these, out of the two tribes, and out of them only, and were in all no more than "a seed" and "a remnant," while an "immense number" of the ten tribes never returned, but, as he believed, continued then beyond Euphrates, ch. 5. sect. 2, 3; of which multitude, the Jews beyond Euphrates, he speaks frequently elsewhere, though, by the way, he never takes them to be idolaters, but looks on them still as observers of the laws of Moses. The "certain part" of the people that now came up from Babylon, at the end of this chapter, imply the same smaller number of Jews that now came up, and will no way agree with the four millions.
2 HOW THE TEMPLE WAS BUILT WHILE THE CUTHEANS ENDEAVORED IN VAIN TO OBSTRUCT THE WORK.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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