Bilshan

Bilshan appears in two parallel registers of the Jews who came out of the Babylonian captivity. He is named only as one of the leaders who travelled back with Zerubbabel; nothing else is said of him.

In the Ezra Register

Ezra opens his catalogue of returnees by setting the frame: "Now these are the sons of the province, who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his city" (Ezr 2:1). The leaders are then listed: "who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah" (Ezr 2:2). Bilshan stands seventh in the list, between Mordecai and Mispar.

In the Nehemiah Register

Nehemiah's parallel register repeats the catalogue with minor variations in the other names: "These are the sons of the province, that went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and that returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city; who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah" (Ne 7:6-7). Bilshan's name is identical in both lists; several of the surrounding names shift form (Seraiah / Azariah, Reelaiah / Raamiah, Mispar / Mispereth, Rehum / Nehum), and the Nehemiah list adds Nahamani, but Bilshan stays fixed at the same point in the sequence, paired again with Mordecai.