HASHUM

(Haʹshum) [possibly, rich or broad-nosed].

Ancestral head of a family of Israelites, members of which returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel in 537 B.C.E. (Ezra 2:1, 2, 19; Neh. 7:22) Upon Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem in 468 B.C.E., seven men of the “sons of Hashum” dismissed their foreign wives. (Ezra 10:33, 44) The family representative or one bearing the name Hashum stood to the left of Ezra as he read the book of the law to the Israelites assembled at the public square before the Water Gate of Jerusalem. (Neh. 8:1-4) Likewise a representative of the house of Hashum attested by seal the “trustworthy arrangement” contracted during Nehemiah’s governorship.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 14, 18.