Harsha

Harsha is the head of one of the Nethinim families whose descendants come up out of Babylon at the return. Like the other Nethinim ancestors, he is a name preserved only in the two parallel rosters of returnees.

Among the Returning Nethinim

Ezra's roster places the line in the closing run of Nethinim names: "the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha," (Ezra 2:52). Nehemiah's parallel transcription preserves the same triple in the same order, with one name spelled slightly differently: "the sons of Bazlith, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha," (Nehemiah 7:54). The double witness fixes Harsha as a recognized Nethinim ancestor, and the small Bazluth/Bazlith variation between the two lists shows the kind of textual transmission that affected these long return-rolls without disturbing the Harsha entry itself.