Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezra 2:64

"The whole assembly together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore," — Ezra 2:64 (ASV)

This sum total is the same in Nehemiah; but the individual sums in Ezra make 29,818, and in Nehemiah 31,089. The apocryphal Esdras agrees with the total, but its individual figures add up to 33,950, adding that children below twelve were not counted. Many attempts at reconciliation have been adopted; but it is better to suppose that errors had crept into the original documents.