“be assisted by the men of his place.” There are two groups of people in this verse. The people who survived the captivity who were going to make the journey back to Judea, and the people where he lived (“the men of his place”) who were to help out those who were going back to Judea by giving them money (silver and gold) and goods for the journey.

Although the Jews were allowed to return from the Babylonian Captivity to Judea, more of them stayed in Babylon (now conquered by Persia) than returned. After the Jews were carried away to Babylon there were always more Jews outside of Israel than in it, and that is still true today. The Jews in foreign countries are known as the “diaspora.” In 1 Peter 1:1, they are called the people “of the Dispersion.”