come up out of captivity (with Ezra), the sons of the captivity, offered burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, out of gratitude for the favour shown by God in the gracious restoration of His people Israel. This is implied in the words: “burnt-offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel” (the twelve tribes), and twelve he-goats for a sin-offering, as in Ezr 6:17. Ninety-six (8 x 12) lambs and seventy-seven lambs (77, the intensified seven) were likewise brought as a burnt-offering. “All this was a burnt-offering for the Lord,” of which, therefore, nothing could be eaten by the offerers. The sin-offering preceded the burnt-offering, as the necessary basis of an acceptable burnt-offering. The sin-offerings availed as an atonement for the sins of all Israel, and the burnt-offerings typified the surrender of the entire nation to the service of the Lord. Thus the fact that these were offered for all Israel was an actual declaration that they who had now returned were henceforth resolved, together with all Israel, to dedicate their lives to the service of the Lord their God.
Verse 36
Hereupon the royal decrees (the commission, Ezr 7:12-26) were delivered to the satraps of the king, and to the governors on this side the river; and they furthered the people and the house of God, as Artaxerxes had commanded in his edict, Ezr 7:20-24. On אחשׁדּרפּנים and פּחוות, see rem. on Dan 3:2. The satraps were the military chiefs of the province, the פּחוות, the heads of the civil government. נשּׂא, to lift up, to support, like Ezr 1:4. Ezra's Proceedings in the Severance of the Strange Women from the Congregation of Israel - Ezr 9:1
When Ezra, some time after his arrival, was in the temple at Jerusalem, the princes of the people informed him that the Israelites had mingled themselves by marriage with the people of the lands (Ezr 9:1-2). Deeply moved by this communication, he sat astonished till the time of the evening sacrifice, while all who feared God's word assembled about
