What is the context?
The account gives a total assembly of 42,360, alongside 7,337 male and female servants and 200 singers. It also records the animals that accompany them.
On arrival at the temple site, some family heads give freewill offerings for rebuilding. The gifts include gold, silver and priestly garments, and the giving is described as according to their ability.
The chapter ends with the people settling in their towns. They have returned and begun to provide for the work, but the temple has not yet been rebuilt.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry emphasizes that the acceptability of the offerings is connected with the people’s ability, rather than whether their gifts equal the wealth of earlier generations. Gill and Wesley understand arrival at the house of God as arrival at its site or ruins, not at an already restored temple. The scene marks a beginning made through willing gifts and settlement.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.