From a number of indications to be found in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah it is evident that from the very commencement of the settlement of the exiles in Palestine differences arose between them and the Israelites whom they found there on their return. There seem to have been several causes for these differences; but what largely lay at the bottom of them was the contention of the returned exiles that they alone represented the true Israelites; those who had been left in the land had become mixed with the heathen[145] by living among them and intermarrying with them, and were therefore not regarded as true Israelites. But more than this; it would seem that among the exiles themselves there were some who belonged to the priesthood, but that this was denied by the leaders among the exiles; this is gathered from Ezra ii. 61-63, where the enumeration of some priestly families is given concerning whom it is said: “These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood. And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.” Among the exiled people, too, were some who “could not show their fathers’ houses and their seed, whether they were of Israel” (Ezra ii. 39). Thus both those who had been living in Palestine, and some of those who returned with the exiles, had a grievance. This was greatly aggravated when Zerubbabel refused the help of any but those whom he considered true Israelites in the building of the temple (Ezra iv. 1-5): “... Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building....” (cp. Neh. ii. 19, iv. 1 ff.).