NOTES for Neh 7:1-73
After the work of building the wall was completed, the inhabitants of Jerusalem did not immediately settle the city. The half-empty city within its walls must have looked desolate. Once, King David brought disaster through an unlawful census that reduced the number of the people, but now the situation is entirely different: the population has fallen sharply as a result of wars and captivity, and the Lord has put it into Nehemiah's heart to conduct a census. The purpose of this census is also different. It is carried out not to control the collection of taxes or to let the ruler feel important by taking pride in the number of his subjects, but so that leaders who care for the people can assess and reasonably distribute their strength, depleted after foreign conquests.
Yet the smaller the number of the people, the higher the quality required of the faithful remnant and the greater the demands that can be made of those who remain. The strict measures taken by Ezra cannot be understood outside these critical circumstances.