Chapter 2

Titled "The Exiles Return".

There is a list of people with whom the people returned.  Among them are Nehemiah and Mordecai.  These two and the others are likely the "prominent leaders" on the trip.  The next verses have the counts by  family(?) that returned.  It reads a bit like a genealogy.  They are divided into people, priests, Levites, temple servants, and Solomon's servants.

2022 - I had always wondered why Mordecai would not have gone back to Jerusalem, given the chance.  It doesn't say anything about him doing so in the Book of Esther, but his name is mentioned prominently here, as a leader even, of a returning group. (If this is the same Mordecai.)

Then a further accounting of people is given.  These people could not prove what house of Israel they descended from, but they were Jews, and claimed that heritage.  These are counted also, but excluded from the priesthood as unclean - until there was a priest who could consult the Urim and the Thummim. 

In all there were 42,360 men going home.  A sizable group!  When they get to the temple, they make some free will offerings and determine to erect a new temple on the site of the old.