Chapter eight fills in the details of Ezra’s trip from Babylon to Jerusalem. The names of the chiefs of the fathers, along with the number accompanying them, have been recorded by God. It is interesting to note that these are reckoned by genealogy (Ezra 8:3). No longer do we find the people recorded by city as we did in the second chapter; the response appears to be more individual: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev. 2:7, etc.). Also, it seemed especially important that each be able to specify their lineage. As we noted earlier, the assembly is not to be a mixed multitude; each person at the Lord’s Table should be able to clearly state their family, not now by natural birth, but by new birth.
If the numbers are representative of the whole, then significantly fewer people returned with Ezra than did some 50 years earlier with Zerubbabel. God, however, acknowledges them all, whether 28 or 300 (Ezra 8:5,11).