[4] The section comprising chapter 1 to 6 describes the history before the arrival of Ezra in the land of Judah [5][6] in 468 BCE.

[15][16] The list here is not an account the people who were recently back from the journey, but those who have arrived and settled down after returning from Babylon, where they currently reside in Palestine among the other inhabitants of the land – non-Jews and also the Jews who never left the land, "whom the Babylonians has left behind as undesirable".

[21] The number of the people here shows the depletion of the population; in time of Moses "the whole number of the people of Israel...from 20 years old and upward,... was 603,550" (Numbers 1:45–46) not counting the Levites, whereas in the time of David, "in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000" (2 Samuel 24:9), but now the returned exiles, including the priests and Levites, only "amount to 42,360" (verse 64).

[33] Those arrived back in Jerusalem and Judah gave freewill offerings "toward the rebuilding of the house of God".

[34] The conclusion of the list is similar to the beginning (verse 1): "by affirming the resettlement of the exiles", as every person has now settled "in their own towns".