Ezra 1:5

Chief of the fathers. These were the hereditary heads of families, whose authority was recognized. Although the permit to return had been so worded as to include all believers in Jehovah, only the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, are specifically mentioned. Members of other tribes, if any, must have been in the minority.

Whose spirit God had raised. Only a comparative minority of the exiles returned. Even many of the clans of Judah and Benjamin chose to remain in the land of their adoption. Many had come to honor and wealth in Babylonia, as cuneiform records reveal, and were unwilling to forsake all they had acquired by hard labor through the years in exchange for an uncertain future in desolate Judea. It is for this reason that later on efforts were again made to lead back to Judea others who had remained behind in the initial return movement (see Ezra 7:7; Zech. 6:10). The first company willing to risk all for their country and for their God was composed of patriots and zealots; perhaps also of some who had nothing to lose by the move and who could only improve their lot by returning to their former homeland. Those who remained behind may have justified their decision by quoting Jeremiah’s admonition of more than half a century earlier, to build houses, plant fields, found families, and take an active interest in the welfare of their land of exile (Jer. 29:4–7). Those who declined to return to Palestine formed the nucleus of the strong and influential Jewish communities that existed in Babylonia throughout its successive history until very recent times.