Bible Commentaries
1 Chronicles 9

Verses 1-44

Genealogies (concluded)

This chapter furnishes a record of the families and numbers of those who dwelt at Jerusalem after the captivity, and relates the ancestry and posterity of Saul.

1. In the book, etc.] RV ’in the book of the kings of Israel: and Judah was carried away.. to Babylon.’

2. Now the first inhabitants, etc.] This section (1 Chronicles 9:2-34) relates to the reoccupation of Jerusalem after the return from the exile, and appears to be a defective duplicate of Nehemiah 11:3 with some variations in the names.

The Israelites] i.e. the lay population as contrasted with the ecclesiastical orders.

Netliinims] These were persons selected from the people, in the ratio of one for every fifty, and given to the Levites as their servants in the times of Moses and David (Numbers 31:47; Ezra 8:20). From the mention of Mehunims among them (Ezra 2:60), who were doubtless descendants of the people of that name who were conquered by Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:7), it has been inferred that they included foreigners who were either prisoners of war, or who surrendered as the Gibeonites did: Joshua 9:27.

5. Shilonites] better, ’Shelanites,’ the descendants of Judah’s son Shelah: Numbers 26:20.

11. The ruler of the house of God] applied in 2 Chronicles 31:10, 2 Chronicles 31:13 to the high priest, but in 2 Chronicles 35:3 to others besides.

18. The king’s gate] In pre-exilic times this communicated between the Temple and the royal palace (2 Kings 16:18). The companies] RV ’the camp’: the phrase is transferred from the time of the wanderings, certain positions in the Temple corresponding to similar positions in the camp of the wilderness.

33. These are the singers] a list of names has fallen out. Free] i.e. were exempt from other duties.

35. And in Gibeon, etc.] This account of Saul’s ancestry and descendants is repeated from 1 Chronicles 8:29-38 as an introduction to the narrative of his death given in 1 Chronicles 10.