A freewill offering is a completely voluntary offering made by God’s people simply because they want to do so and not because they have to do so. The first time we read about such offerings is in Exodus 25:2–7 and Exodus 35:21–29. This is significant since it shows that the offerings that were given in Ezra 2:68 parallel the offerings given in Exodus 25:1–40 and Exodus 35:1–35. The exodus theme, which is in Ezra 1:1–11, is thus repeated in Ezra 2:1–70.
68 Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site.