8:1-20 Ezra assembles the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah. God raised up the spirits of a small remnant to accompany him. What a pity that good men should omit a good work, for want of being spoken to!And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari,.... These were of the same division of Levites as Sherebiah:

his brethren and their sons, twenty; these thirty eight, with those they came with, were all Levites; the Nethinims follow.