Matthew Poole and continuators on Ezra 2:1

1 NOw these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city ;

i. e. The Israelites, called the children of the province, either 1. Of Babylon, of which Province we oft read, as ch. 7. 16. Dan. 2▪ 48. & 3. 1, 12, 30. called the Province by way of eminency; of which they are called children, because of their Birth and Habitation in it for a long time, it being usual to call the Inhabitants of any City or place its Children. Or rather 2. Of Iudaea, called a Province, ch. 5. 8. And he calls it thus emphatically to mind himself and his Brethren of that sad change which their sins had made among them, that from an illustrious, independent, and sormidable Kingdom were faln to be an obscure, servile, and contemptible Province, first under the chaldeans, and now under the Persians.

Either unto those Cities or Towns which belonged to their several Ancestors. Or rather, to those which were now allotted to them▪ and from this time possessed by them. For their former Cities were either demolished, or possessed by other persons, which they were not now in a capacity of disturbing.

Marginal references: Neh. 7. 6. &c.