Number of darics given to the fund for rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 2:69)
The number 61000 appears in Ezra 2:69, where it indicates the amount of gold darics that the returning exiles gave to the building fund for the temple in Jerusalem. After the Babylonian exile, the Israelites returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel and began rebuilding the destroyed temple. The gifts – 61000 gold darics, 5000 silver minas, and 100 priestly garments – testify to the people's willingness to sacrifice and their devotion to God and his sanctuary. Although the number 61000 does not have an established symbolic value in biblical numerology, the context in which it appears is of great theological significance: the rebuilding of the temple represents the restoration of the covenant relationship between God and his people after the judgment of exile. A daric (Hebrew: אֲדַרְכֹּן, adarkon) was a Persian gold coin named after King Darius I. The use of this Persian monetary unit in the text confirms the historical context under Persian rule. Some scholars debate whether the Hebrew אֲדַרְכֹּן (adarkon) in Ezra and דַּרְכְּמוֹן (darkemon) in Nehemiah refer to the same coin or different monetary units. Both are usually linked to the Persian daric. The rebuilding of the temple after the exile is a central theme in prophetic and rabbinic literature. The Second Temple was completed around 516 BCE and stood until its destruction in 70 CE.*