The Israelites contributed to the rebuilding of the temple as they had toward the construction of the Mosaic tabernacle ( Exodus 25:3-7; Exodus 35:2-9). Probably the Greek gold drachma is in view and the Babylonian silver mina ( Ezra 2:69). [1] If this is Song of Solomon , one Greek drachma was equivalent to one Roman denarius. [2] In the ancient world, this was one day"s wage for a working man (cf. Matthew 20:1-16). Obviously the exiles made a substantial contribution to the rebuilding of the temple that supplemented what Cyrus and the friends of the immigrants had previously donated ( Ezra 1:4; Ezra 1:6-11; cf. Exodus 25:4-7; Exodus 35:2-9; 2 Corinthians 8:3; 2 Corinthians 9:7). [source][source][source]
When this group of Jews returned to the Promised Land in537 B.C, they went first to Jerusalem ( Ezra 2:68). Later they settled in the towns where their ancestors had lived and where some of them had property rights ( Ezra 2:70; cf. Ezra 2:21-35). [source][source][source]
The record of those who returned that God preserved in this chapter shows His faithfulness in bringing a remnant of His people back to Palestine as He had promised. [source][source][source]
"One of the chief objectives of Ezra -Nehemiah was to show the Jews that they constituted the continuation of the preexilic Jewish community, the Israelite community that God had chosen." [3][source]