uch as Cyrus and Darius;
etc., the Jews' great patrons, seem not to have been very averse, though
the entire idolatry of their kingdoms made them generally conceal it.

[6] This strange reading in Josephus's present copies of four millions
instead of forty thousand, is one of the grossest errors that is
in them, and ought to be corrected from Ezra 2:61; 1 Esd. 5:40; and
Nehemiah 7:66, who all agree the general sum was but about forty-two
thousand three hundred and sixty. It is also very plain that Josephus
thought, that when Esdras afterwards brought up another company out of
Babylon and Persia, in the days of Xerxes, they were also, as well as
these, out of the two tribes, and out of them only, and were in all no
more than "a seed" and "a remnant," while an "immense number" of the
ten tribes never returned, but, as he believed, continued then beyond
Euphrates, ch. 5. sect. 2, 3; of which multitude, the Jews beyond
Euphrates, he speaks frequently elsewhere, though, by the way, he never
takes them to be idolaters, but looks on them still as observers of the
laws of Moses. The "certain part" of the people that now came up from
Babylon, at the end of this chapter, imply the same smaller number of
Jews that now came up, and will no way agree with the four millions.

[7] The history contained in this section is entirely wanting in all our
other copies, both of Ezra and Esdras.

[8] Dr. Hudson takes notice here, that this kind of brass or copper, or
rather mixture of gold and brass or copper, was called aurichalcum, and
that this was of old esteemed the most precious of all metals.

[9] This procedure of Esdras, and of the best part of the Jewish nation,
after their return from the Babylonish captivity, of reducing the Jewish
marriages, once for all, to the strictness of the law of Moses, without
any regard to the greatness of those who had broken it, and without
regard to that natural affection or compassion for their heathen wives,
and their children by them, which made it so hard for Esdras to correct
it, deserves greatly to be observed and imitated in all attempts for
reformation among Christians, the contrary conduct having ever been the
bane of true religion, both among Jews and Christians, while political
views, or human passions, or prudential motives, are suffered to
take place instead of the Divine laws, and so the blessing of God is
forfeited, and the church still suffered to continue corrupt from one
generation