Ezra 2

Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar,[b] Bigvai, Rehum,[c] and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:  v.2

Read chapter 2
In this chapter we have lists of all the captives that returned to the land.  All the Israelite captives were set free from under the Persian Empire.  We then must realize that Israelites weren't bought as slaves to people in the reigns of Babylon and Persia, but were more a minority and colony of people living in a foreign land subject to the king, first Nebuchadnezzar and Artexeres and Cyrus, for they were all set free to leave and return by the king and not the king buying them from their masters to set free or commanding the Persian people to set them free.  Even in captivity an account was kept of their family line, and if it was lost if they were a priest they would not be able be apart of the priesthood any more.  Family ties were important no matter where in teh world they were living.  It's a bummer the value of that seems lost in todays world- at least in the USA.  How do you value your family ties?
We see in verse two same names you might recognize.  Nehemiah, the cupbearer we read about in the book of Nehemiah, and Mordecai, Esther's uncles from the book of Esther.  This verse and others in this chapter are exactly the same to that in Nehemiah 7 and can conclude that this part of Ezra takes place at the same time or after what goes on in the chapters of Nehemiah one through seven.  Throughout scripture we read many lists of names that seem of no importance to us, but when we start to recognize names and their story it can make it more valuable- just like in a read of a graduation list most the names are people you may not know but you listen intently and shout joy when you hear of the ones you do.  Verses of lists of names or numbers that seem meaningless at times really do have a purpose and help shed light on a matter of time when things happened; which in a court is always one of the main things trying to prove if someone is guilty or not of a crime by proving or disproving their timeline of events.  What names, numbers, timeline with Nehemiah stand out to you in this chapter?