1 Chronicleschapter 9
44 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Now the first to resettle their own property in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for the very people whose names it records. It is the one chapter of the book's lists set in the compiler's own time, after the return from Babylon. It names who came back to live in Jerusalem, and then the priests, Levites and gatekeepers who kept the temple running. Listen for the detail about keys, rooms and daily tasks, and for the way the chapter ends on a family already recorded. The first hearers heard their own names written in the same book as Adam's.
Context
- Who
- The very people whose names stand in this chapter
- What
- The families who resettled Jerusalem after the exile, with the duties of the priests, Levites and gatekeepers, and Saul's family repeated at the close.
- Where
- Jerusalem, its temple gates, storerooms and the rooms where the singers lived.
- When
- The generation after the return from Babylon, roughly 538 to 450 BC.
- Why
- To show the restored community in its place at the end of Israel's whole register, and to lead into the story of the kings.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the returned community, and it is the one chapter of the genealogies set in the writer's own time.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
It lists who moved back into Jerusalem, men of Judah, of Benjamin and of Ephraim and Manasseh, northerners included by name, along with priests, Levites, gatekeepers and temple servants.
The gatekeepers' work is described in unusual detail because it was a working office. Crews held the four sides of the temple, lodged around the house overnight, opened it every morning and held the keys. Others counted the articles of worship out and back in, and others had charge of the chambers and the treasuries, the flour, wine, oil, frankincense and spices, while one family's whole charge was the bread set out before God.
The system ran on rotation. Levites came in from their villages for seven-day periods and then went home, so the work fell evenly on families spread across the province. The musicians lived in the temple chambers and were exempt from other duty because they were on duty day and night.
A first hearer knew what a roster of this kind meant, since sanctuary staffs across the ancient Near East were organized by family into rotating shares with the rosters kept and the shares inherited.
Significance
Every earlier chapter has been building toward this one. The register ran from Adam through the patriarchs and the kings, and it ends with the men who unlocked the gate that morning.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For a small and tired congregation the message was that their names stood in the same book and in the same hand as the first man's. The widening at Adam widens again here, around them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The chapter of the resettled families has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading.
Its subject is met in the portion Beha'alotcha, which sets out the service of the Levites. The corpus carries Midrash Tanchuma, Beha'alotcha 7:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 12:1 under the twenty-second verse, where the gatekeepers are said to have been appointed by David and Samuel. The same verse carries Taanit 27a:8, a tractate about the fasts and the courses of service, and Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:8:6. The duty roster of the Temple is a subject Jewish study returns to often, and these are the doors the corpus opens on it.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. His note on the first verse puts the whole of the nine chapters of genealogy in Ezra's own mouth. He wrote the part of the record he found. The greater part stands in the book of the kings of Israel, and what he had was the genealogy of the Judeans exiled to Babylon, among whom he was (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:1:1). This is the reading that lets the tradition hold the gaps and the book together.
The gatekeepers are read as a real office with a real rule. Shallum the son of Kore and his brothers of the house of Korah kept the thresholds of the Tent, and Rashi states the duty in his own words. They let no person enter the Tent of Meeting except the priests at their service (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:19:1). The gate east of the house he fixes as a named gate, the King's Gate (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:18:1). The appointment the twenty-second verse gives to David and Samuel he reads as a permanent standing rather than a passing arrangement (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:22:1). The seven days of the twenty-fifth verse he takes as the end of a seven-day turn, which is the shape of the courses (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:25:1).
One note in the chapter carries a hard tradition, and a Christian reader should hear it as the tradition's own. The verse says that Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over the gatekeepers in time past and that the Lord was with him. Rashi reads that as prophecy. He then reports the Sages holding that this is Phinehas the priest of the Torah, and that the Presence left him because he failed to annul the vow of Jephthah (Rashi on I Chronicles 9:20:1). The reading makes a silence in the book of Judges into a fault answered here, and it is a saying of the Sages rather than a statement of the text.
The corpus carries eighteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Counted across the fifteen files, chapters 3, 8, 9 and 10 each carry eighteen such notes against six quotable ones. Fourteen stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 9:4:1, 9:5:1, 9:6:1, 9:9:1, 9:10:1, 9:11:1, 9:12:1, 9:13:1, 9:14:1, 9:16:1, 9:17:1, 9:21:1, 9:23:1 and 9:24:1. Three stand at Radak on I Chronicles 9:2:1, 9:3:1 and 9:26:1, and one at Malbim on I Chronicles 9:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty-three rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the fourth verse it holds Tractate Soferim 7:3.
Phinehas draws the heaviest run. On the twentieth verse the corpus holds Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 1:1:24, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:10:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:2:32. Bereshit Rabbah 60:3, Vayikra Rabbah 37:4, Kohelet Rabbah 10:15:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 47:11 stand with them. Vayikra Rabbah 37 is the chapter of that work on vows, which is the subject Rashi's note joins to this verse.
The gatekeepers and the Temple stores carry the rest. On the twenty-second verse the corpus holds Taanit 27a:8, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:2:7, Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:8:6 and Bamidbar Rabbah 15:11. Seder Olam Rabbah 20:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Beha'alotcha 7:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 12:1 stand with them. The men trusted with the vessels and the baking carry four passages of the Introductions to Tanaitic Literature. On the twenty-seventh verse it holds the introduction to the tractate Shekalim at 26 and 33, with the remains of ancient tannaitic compilations at 17. On the thirty-first it holds the same remains at 18. On the twenty-ninth it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 758:9. On the thirty-fifth, Gibeon again, it holds Tractate Soferim 6:7 and 7:4, and on the forty-fourth Pesachim 62b:16. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 9:1:1 to 9:25:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 9:4:1, 9:5:1, 9:6:1, 9:9:1, 9:10:1, 9:11:1, 9:12:1, 9:13:1, 9:14:1, 9:16:1, 9:17:1, 9:21:1, 9:23:1 and 9:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 9:2:1, 9:3:1 and 9:26:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 9:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/9.json, the 23 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The first to return and settle in Jerusalem
So all Israel was recorded in the genealogies: The verse closes nine chapters of genealogy: all Israel was recorded in the genealogies written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. That names a source outside the Chronicler's work. The verse sets exile before a single returned name appears: Judah was exiled to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.
1 Chronicles 9:1
“Were reckoned by genealogies - Jarchi considers these as the words of Ezra, the compiler of the book; as if he had said: I have given the genealogies of the Israelites as I have found them in a book which was carried into Babylon, when the people were carried thither for their transgressions; and this book which I found is that which I have transcribed in the preceding chapters.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 9:2-9
Now the first to resettle their own property: The list sorts by class: Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants. The same four groups reappear at Nehemiah 11:3 to 19, and Barnes reads both writers as drawing on one fuller document. Gill notes that verse 3 has descendants of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh living together in Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 9:2
“Israelites - The common people of Judah and Israel, called here by the general name of Israelites, which was given them before that unhappy division of the kingdoms, and now is restored to them when the Israelites are united with the Jews in one and the same commonwealth, that so all the names and signs of their former division might be blotted out.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
descendants of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh: Gill holds that the descendants from Ephraim and Manasseh who lived in Jerusalem had joined Judah before the exile and returned with it. Henry hears Hosea 1:11 here. Nehemiah 11:4 to 19 gives the parallel list of the descendants of Judah and Benjamin in Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 9:3
“And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin,.... Of which tribes were the largest number that went into, and returned out of, captivity: and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh; such of those tribes who had joined the others when Jeroboam introduced his idolatry, or had fled to them when Samaria was besieged and taken by Shalmaneser, and so went into captivity with Judah, and now returned; and as many of them as took the advantage of the proclamation of Cyrus, who were carried captive with the ten tribes.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:3
“The correspondence and the diversity between the account here and in Nehemiah Neh. 11:4-19 are explained by the probability that both writers drew from a common and fuller document. They selected, in some instances, different names, or names which are now different through corruption; and they frequently expressed the genealogies of the same persons differently, both going on the principle of compression by means of omissions, but omitting from their lists different links of the chain.”
1 Chronicles 9:3
“It was foretold that the children of Judah and of Israel should be gathered together and come up out of the land ( Hos. i. 11 ), and that they should be one nation again, Ezek. xxxvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Uthai son of Ammihud: , a descendant of Perez son of Judah, is the Athaiah of Nehemiah 11:4, where his line is given differently. Clarke takes this chapter as the list of the first to resettle. Perez was the forefather of David (Ruth 4:18 to 22).
1 Chronicles 9:4
“Uthai, the son of Ammihud,.... Called Athaiah, Neh 11:4 though his ancestors there are differently reckoned here; his genealogy here is traced from his father Ammihud, through Omri, Imri, Bani, Pharez, to Judah.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:4
“Uthai the son of Ammihud - The list here is nearly the same with those found in Ezra and Nehemiah, and contains those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel; but the list in Nehemiah is more ample, probably because it contains those who came afterwards. The object of the sacred writer here was to give the list of those who came first. Now the first inhabitants, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
From the Shilonites: Gill reads the Shilonites as the Shelanites of Numbers 26:20, the clan of Judah's son Shelah, and takes Asaiah as the Maaseiah of Nehemiah 11:5. Judah's three surviving sons each have a family in verses 4 to 6. Perez, Shelah and Zerah all returned.
1 Chronicles 9:5
“And of the Shilonites,.... Not called so from the city of Shiloh, which was in Ephraim; whereas these here intended were of the tribe of Judah, and were either the descendants of a man whose name was Shiloni, Neh 11:5 or rather these are the same with the Shelanites, Num 26:20 so called from Shelah the son of Judah; and so the Targum here is,"and of the tribe of Shelah:" Asaiah the firstborn, and his sons; the same with Maaseiah, Neh 11:5.”
From the Zerahites: Zerah was the twin brother of Perez (Genesis 38:27 to 30). Gill counts the 690 as the whole of Judah's families in Jerusalem, taking in the houses of Perez and Shelah. Nehemiah 11:6 gives 468 for the descendants of Perez alone.
1 Chronicles 9:6
“And of the sons of Zerah,.... Another son of Judah: Jeuel, and their brethren; six hundred and ninety; or their kinsmen; for this number includes all of the posterity of Pharez, Shelah and Zerah mentioned.”
Sallu son of Meshullam: Sallu heads the Benjamites here as in Nehemiah 11:7, where his ancestors are given under other names. Gill suggests these men bore two names, Joel and Pedaiah among them. Benjamin had gone into exile with Judah.
1 Chronicles 9:7
“And of the sons of Benjamin,.... Who were of the tribe of Benjamin, and went with Judah into captivity, and returned with them, and such of them as dwelt in Jerusalem before that: Sallu the son of Meshullam; whose pedigree is differently given, Neh 11:7, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hassenaah; perhaps these men had two names, there called Joel and Pedaiah.”
Ibneiah son of Jeroham: Ibneiah, Elah and a second Meshullam are named beside Sallu as Benjamite heads. Nehemiah 11:8 names Gabbai and Sallai at this point, so the two lists chose different men. Barnes holds that both writers selected from a fuller record.
1 Chronicles 9:8
“And Ibneiah the son of Jeroham,.... Who with two more, Elah and Meshullam, whose ancestors are given, of whom we have no mention elsewhere, were all of the tribe of Benjamin, said to settle at Jerusalem.”
and 956 of their relatives: Wesley notes that Nehemiah 11:8 counts 928 Benjamite relatives against the 956 here. He suggests Nehemiah counted only those chosen by lot to live in Jerusalem. These heads of families were recorded by genealogy.
1 Chronicles 9:9
“And fifty-six - They are reckoned but nine hundred and twenty- eight in Neh. xi, 8, either because there he mentions only those that were by lot determined to dwell at Jerusalem, to whom he here adds those who freely offered themselves to it; or because some of the persons first placed there were dead, or removed from Jerusalem upon some emergent occasion.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Priests and Levites back in their places
1 Chronicles 9:10-16
From the priests: Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, and Jachin are three of the twenty-four priestly courses set out in 1 Chronicles 24: Jehoiarib first, Jedaiah second, Jachin twenty-first. The returned priesthood thus takes up an order older than the exile. The Levites named through verse 16 trace back to Merari and to Asaph.
1 Chronicles 9:10
“Jedaiah,” “Jehoiarib,” and “Jachin,” are not here names of individuals but of priestly families. From 1Ch 24:7-17, it appears that Jehoiarib was the original head of the first “course,” Jedaiah of the second shift, and Jachin of the twenty-first shift.
Azariah son of Hilkiah: Nehemiah 11:11 has Seraiah where this verse has Azariah, and Meshullam here is the Shallum of 1 Chronicles 6:12 to 13. Clarke takes the chief official as the high priest's deputy, since Jeshua held the high priesthood; Gill applies the title to Ahitub. The line is Zadok's.
1 Chronicles 9:11
“And Azariah the son of Hilkiah,.... That is, the son of Azariah, whose name was Seraiah, see 1Ch 6:13, whose pedigree is traced up from Hilkiah through Meshullam, called Shallum, 1Ch 6:12. Zadok, Meraioth, to Ahitub: the ruler of the house of God; high priest in it; which is to be understood of Ahitub, and not of Azariah or Seraiah in the time of Ezra; for Joshua was then high priest.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:11
“The ruler of the house of God - The high priest at this time was Jeshua the son of Jozadak, (Ezr 3:8), and Seraiah, (Neh 11:11), called here Azariah, was the ruler of the house; the person next in authority to the high priest, and who probably had the guard of the temple and command of the priests, Levites, etc. It is likely that the person here was the same as is called the second priest, 2Ki 25:18 (note), who was the sagan or high priest’s deputy. See the note there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adaiah son of Jeroham: Gill notes that Nehemiah 11:12 names three more generations between Jeroham and Pashhur. Maasai's line runs back to Immer, head of the sixteenth priestly course in 1 Chronicles 24:14. Both names recur among the returned priests (Ezra 2:37 to 38).
1 Chronicles 9:12
“And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur,.... In this genealogy, between Jeroham and Pashur, were three more here omitted, Pelaliah, Amzi, Zechariah, Neh 11:12, and then Pashur the son of Malchijah, as here: and Maasiai the son of Adiel; whose pedigree is traced up from hence, through Jahzerah, Meshullam, Meshillemith, to Immer; one of the five heads of the courses settled by David, 1Ch 24:14. The names of this man, and of his ancestors, are given, with some variation, in Neh 11:13.”
and 1,760 of their relatives: The 1,760 priests are the relatives of the heads of families named in verses 10 to 12. Wesley notes that the Hebrew calls these able men mighty men of valor, for their service guarded the holy things of the house of God. Nehemiah 11:12 to 14 gives smaller figures.
1 Chronicles 9:13
“Able men - Hebrew. mighty men of valour: which is here noted as an excellent qualification for their place; because the priests might meet with great opposition in the discharge of their office, in the execution of the censures upon all impure persons without exception, and in preserving sacred things from violation by the touch of forbidden hands.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Shemaiah son of Hasshub: , a Merarite, heads the Levites here and in Nehemiah 11:15. Hashabiah was a name that ran among the Merarites, borne by an ancestor of Ethan the singer in 1 Chronicles 6:45. Merari's line leads the list.
1 Chronicles 9:14
“And of the Levites,.... Having given an account of the two first classes of the people, the Israelites and priests, the author of the book now proceeds to the Levites, the third class; and the first mentioned is Shemaiah, whose ancestors, Hashub, Azrikam, and Hashabiah: were of the sons of Merari; the third son of Levi.”
Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal, and Mattaniah: Mattaniah descends from Asaph, David's singer, and Nehemiah 11:17 names him as the leader of thanksgiving and prayer. Gill reports the view of Hillerus that Bakbakkar is the Bakbukiah of the same verse. Asaph's house still sang.
1 Chronicles 9:15
“And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah,.... Four more of the chief of the Levites, the pedigree of the last of which is traced up by Micah and Zichri to Asaph, the singer in the times of David, a descendant of Gershon, the first son of Levi; the first of these is thought by Hillerus (t) to be the same with Bakbukiah, Neh 11:17. (t) Onamastic. Sacr. p. 401, 548.”
Obadiah son of Shemaiah: Gill identifies Obadiah with Abda son of Shammua in Nehemiah 11:17, and Jeduthun with Ethan, David's singer. Netophah lay near Bethlehem, and Nehemiah 12:28 says the singers gathered from its villages. Singers lived outside the city.
1 Chronicles 9:16
“And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah,.... Called Abda the son of Shammua, Neh 11:17. the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun; who was Ethan, another of the singers in the time of David: and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, that dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites; the villages about Netophah, which was in the tribe of Judah, 1Ch 2:54, Neh 7:26 which may be understood either of Elkanah, the ancestor of Berechiah, whose dwelling was there; or of Berechiah, and must be rendered: who had dwelt there; for now he dwelt at Jerusalem.”
Gatekeepers who guarded the four sides of the house
1 Chronicles 9:17-21
These were the gatekeepers: The gatekeepers are Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their relatives, and Shallum was stationed at the King’s Gate. Verse 20 traces the office to Phinehas son of Eleazar. The Korahites descend from Korah, whose rebellion was judged in Numbers 16, though his sons did not die with him.
Shallum was their chief: Gill explains the King's Gate as the eastern entrance by which the king went into the temple. Barnes reads the verse as saying that Shallum's house, once over all the gates, kept only the east gate when the Chronicler wrote. The camp of the Levites recalls the wilderness order.
1 Chronicles 9:18
“Who hitherto waited in the king's gate eastward,.... At the gate through which the king went into the temple, and was at the east of it; and here these porters were placed in the same order after the captivity, and their return from it, as before: they were porters in the companies of the children of Levi; or in the camp of Levi, which was placed around the tabernacle, as in the wilderness: the Septuagint version is, "these are the gates of the camp of the children of Levi"; at which these porters were placed.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:18
“Who hitherto waited - Translate, “Who to this day waits. These were the porters in the stations of the sons of Levi.” The words of the first clause refer to Shallum, and imply that, whereas Shallum (or his house) had originally the general superintendence of the temple gates, a change had been made when the author wrote, and Shallum’s charge had become the east gate only.”
Shallum son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph: Barnes takes this Shallum as a later man than the one in verse 17, charged with the inner doors. He traces the name to Meshelemiah, a Korahite gatekeeper of David's time (1 Chronicles 26:1, 14). Ebiasaph links the family to Korah in 1 Chronicles 6:37.
1 Chronicles 9:19
“Shallum the son of Kore - A different person from the Shallum of 1Ch 9:17, and with a different office, namely, the guarding the inner doors of the temple. The original Shallum, Shelemaiah, or Meshelemaiah, was a Levite of the time of David 1Ch 26:14. His descendants were still called by his name, but had now a more important charge assigned to them.”
Phinehas son of Eleazar had been in charge: Numbers 3:32 set Eleazar over the leaders of the Levites, and Phinehas his son is remembered for his zeal at Peor (Numbers 25:7 to 13). Clarke reports the Targum's reading that Phinehas ruled the gatekeepers from the day the tabernacle was set up. The office looked back to him.
1 Chronicles 9:20
And Phinehas - The Targum says, “And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was ruler over them from ancient times, from the day in which the tabernacle was set up in the wilderness; and the Word of the Lord was his assistant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah son of Meshelemiah: Zechariah was the firstborn of Meshelemiah in 1 Chronicles 26:2, and 26:14 records him as a wise counselor whose lot fell to the North Gate. He kept the entrance of the Tent of Meeting in David's day. Barnes names his father as Shallum.
1 Chronicles 9:21
“Was - In the time of David, as the following verse sheweth. The door - Of the door which led out of the priests court into the tabernacle, in which the ark was placed. Before the temple was built, they had a mean and moveable tent, which they made use of in the mean time.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 9:22-27
The number of those chosen to be gatekeepers: The gatekeepers chosen for the thresholds numbered 212, and David and Samuel the seer had appointed them. Their relatives came from their villages at fixed times to serve with them for seven-day periods. The four chief gatekeepers stayed, entrusted with the rooms and the treasuries of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 9:22
“The porters, like the singers Neh 12:29, dwelt for the most part in the villages round Jerusalem. They were the descendants of those originally selected for the work by David. David’s arrangements are here regarded as having had the sanction of Samuel - which would imply that he planned them in the lifetime of Saul, while he was still a fugitive and an outlaw.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:22
“Villages - Where their usual residence was, and whence they came to Jerusalem in their courses. Ordain - In the times of the Judges there was much disorder both in the Jewish state and church, and the Levites came to the tabernacle promiscuously, and as their inclinations or occasions brought them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
they and their descendants were assigned: The office passed from father to son. Wesley reads the house called the Tent as the tabernacle of Moses, which stood at Gibeon until the temple was built (1 Chronicles 16:39). The gatekeepers of the return served in their fathers' place.
1 Chronicles 9:23
“The oversight - Namely, in David's time. Tabernacle - This is added to explain what he means by the house of the Lord, not that tabernacle which David had set up for the ark; but that more solemn tabernacle, which Moses had made by God's express command; which in David's time was at Gibeon; in which God was worshipped until the temple was built.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The gatekeepers were stationed on the four sides: Gill cites the Targum for twenty-four watches, six on each side of the house. 1 Chronicles 26:12 to 18 records how David's gatekeepers were assigned their gates by lot. Every side was watched.
1 Chronicles 9:24
“In four quarters were the porters,.... For, according to the Targum on 1Ch 9:22 there were twenty four wards: towards the east, west, north, and south; and, as the same paraphrase has it, six wards to the east, six to the west, six to the north, and six to the south.”
Their relatives came from their villages: The village gatekeepers came in for a week at a time. Barnes reckons that with the 172 of Nehemiah 11:19 and twenty-four on watch at once, each group served about once in seven weeks. The four chiefs stayed on duty.
1 Chronicles 9:25
“See the marginal references. If the number of warders was, as stated in Nehemiah (Neh 11:19) 172 (i. e. 168 besides the four chief warders), and the number employed at any one time was, as under David 1Ch 26:17-18, twenty-four, then the turn of the courses to keep ward came every seven weeks.”
the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites: Gill describes the four chiefs as permanent officers over all 212, who stayed in their office and never went back to the villages. They also kept the rooms and treasuries, a charge 1 Chronicles 26:20 to 22 gives to Levites of David's day. Their trust was lasting.
1 Chronicles 9:26
“For these Levites, the four chief porters, were in their set office,.... The four chief porters who were over all the two hundred and twelve, and had one over them, 1Ch 9:17, these were never changed, nor went into the country villages; but were always upon the spot, and in their office, superintending the rest: and were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God; see 1Ch 26:20.”
They would spend the night stationed: The chiefs lodged around the house of God and opened it each morning. Psalm 134:1 calls on the servants of the LORD who stand by night in his house to bless him. Their watch ran from night to morning.
1 Chronicles 9:27
“It is good for ministers to be near their work, that they may give themselves wholly to it. The Levites pitched about the tabernacle when they marched through the wilderness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Vessels, spices, and singers on duty day and night
1 Chronicles 9:28-34
in charge of the articles used in worship: Some Levites counted the articles whenever they were brought in or taken out, and others kept the flour, wine, oil, frankincense, and spices. Kohathites were responsible for preparing the rows of the showbread every Sabbath. The musicians were exempt from other duties because they were on duty day and night.
Others were put in charge of the furnishings: Gill explains that these Levites gave out the holy vessels for use and saw them returned. The flour, wine and oil supplied the grain and drink offerings, and frankincense went with the grain offering (Leviticus 2:1). All were kept under guard.
1 Chronicles 9:29
“Some of them also were appointed to oversee the vessels, and all the instruments of the sanctuary,.... They were committed to their care; they delivered them out on occasion, and their business was to see that they were returned when they had done their use and service: and the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices; which were used in meat offerings, drink offerings, &c. see 1Ch 26:20 under the second temple, Ahiah was over the libations or drink offerings (x). (x) Ibid. (Misn. Shekalim, c. 5. sect. 1.)”
some of the sons of the priests: Clarke notes that only priests could prepare this blend, and anyone else who made it did so on pain of death (Exodus 30:34 to 38). The Levites kept the spices in verse 29, and the priests mixed them. The two offices stayed distinct.
1 Chronicles 9:30
“The sons of the priests made the ointment - Only the priests were permitted to make this ointment; all others were forbidden to do it on pain of death; see Exo 30:34-38 (note), and the notes there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A Levite named Mattithiah: Barnes takes this Shallum as the Korahite of verse 19, whose firstborn in David's day was Zechariah (1 Chronicles 26:2). He reads Mattithiah as the eldest descendant of that house at the time described. The baking fell to a Levite.
rows of the showbread every Sabbath: Leviticus 24:5 to 9 orders twelve loaves set in two rows before the LORD each Sabbath and eaten by the priests. Gill notes that the Kohathites prepared the bread while the priests set it on the table. David ate this bread at Nob (1 Samuel 21:6).
1 Chronicles 9:32
“And other of their brethren, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the shewbread, to prepare it every sabbath,.... Twelve loaves of which were set every week before the ark upon the shewbread table, and the old ones taken away: now the work of these Levites was to make this shewbread, and get it ready every week to be set upon the table, and which was done not by them, but by priests; under the second temple, the family of Garmu was set over this work (a). (a) Misn. Shekalim, ut supra. (c. 5. sect. 1.)”
Those who were musicians, the heads: Barnes notes that no names follow the heading and holds that they have fallen out of the text. He reads the singers' freedom as release from other work, so that an overseer was on duty at every hour. Wesley ties the watch to the morning and evening services.
1 Chronicles 9:33
“The singers - No names follow, and it is thought that they have fallen out. Were free - “Free,” i. e. from any special duties besides those of supervision, which was so arranged among the overseers that someone exercised it during every part of both day and night.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:33
“That work - Either composing or ordering sacred songs; or actually singing; or teaching others to sing them. Day and night - Continually, and particularly in the morning and evening, the two times appointed for solemn service. Thus was God continually praised, as it is fit he should be, who is continually doing us good.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
All these were heads of Levite families: These words about the heads of Levite families who lived in Jerusalem repeat 1 Chronicles 8:28. Henry suggests a copyist's eye passed from one line to the other, so the family of Gibeon follows again in verses 35 to 44. Barnes notes that the offices passed by genealogy.
1 Chronicles 9:34
“Chief throughout their generations - The superintendents, that is, were the genealogical head of the different Levitical divisions, and bore special rule, each over those of his own blood and race. The hereditary principle prevailed, not only in the high priesthood, but also in the priestly offices of the second rank.”
Saul's family line set down again
1 Chronicles 9:35-44
the father of Gibeon: Saul's line repeats here from 1 Chronicles 8:29 to 38. Barnes reads the doubling as the seam that joins the genealogies to the history, which opens with Saul's death in chapter 10. The line runs past Jonathan through Merib-baal, called Mephibosheth in Samuel, and Micah down to Azel's six sons.
1 Chronicles 9:35
“And in Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon,.... Whose name is here mentioned, which is not in 1Ch 8:29. Jehiel: whose wife's name was Maachah; as there, but here called his sister, as a wife sometimes is, Gen 20:2. From hence to the end of the chapter is a repetition of the ancestors and posterity of Saul king of Israel; which is made to lead on to and connect the following history of the kings of Judah, begun in this book, and carried on in the next unto the Babylonish captivity, see 1Ch 8:29, and the notes there.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 9:35
“An almost exact repetition of 1Ch 8:29-38; and probably intentionally made by the author. In order to connect the genealogical section of his work with the historical, he re-introduces the genealogy of the person with whose death his historical section opens.”
Abdon was his firstborn son: Abdon, Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner and Nadab are the sons of Jeiel, and Ner is missing from 8:30. Barnes holds that the genealogy of Saul is repeated to lead into chapter 10, which opens with his death. Ner links Jeiel to Kish and Saul in verse 39.
Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth: Zechariah here is the Zecher of 8:31. Mikloth closes the list of Jeiel's sons in both copies, and his son follows in verse 38. With Ner added, the sons number ten here.
Mikloth was the father of Shimeam: Shimeam is spelled Shimeah in 8:32. The family's seat was Gibeon, the city whose people won a treaty from Joshua (Joshua 9) and which was later counted to Benjamin (Joshua 18:25). Some of the family lived in Jerusalem.
Ner was the father of Kish: 1 Samuel 14:51 names Kish and Ner as sons of Abiel, while this verse makes Ner the father of Kish. Esh-baal is the Ish-bosheth who reigned two years after Saul's death (2 Samuel 2:10). The two records stand side by side.
The son of Jonathan: Merib-baal is the Mephibosheth of 2 Samuel 4:4 and 9:6, Jonathan's son whom David kept at his table for his father's sake. His son Micah appears in 2 Samuel 9:12. Jonathan's line lasted through him.
Pithon, Melech, Tahrea, and Ahaz: The Hebrew of this verse lacks Ahaz, and Clarke notes that he was supplied from 8:35. The sons of Micah, Pithon, Melech and Tahrea, match that list, where Tahrea is spelled Tarea. Ahaz was the father of Jarah (verse 42).
1 Chronicles 9:41
“And Ahaz - This is added by our translators from 1Ch 8:35, but such liberties should only be taken in a note; for although the words are now sufficiently distinguished from the text by being printed in Italics, yet it is too much to expect that every editor of a Bible will attend to such distinctions, and in process of time the words will be found incorporated with the text. 1Ch 9:35, and the following verses, are a repetition of what we find in 1Ch 8:29-38 (note), where see the notes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ahaz was the father of Jarah: Jarah stands where 8:36 has Jehoaddah. The two lists agree on his three sons and on the descent through Zimri to Moza. Alemeth and Azmaveth also name places of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 6:60; Ezra 2:24).
Moza was the father of Binea: Rephaiah and Elasah appear as Raphah and Eleasah in 8:37. The line of Jonathan reaches Azel, the tenth generation after him. The Chronicler keeps Saul's house in view to the end of the genealogies.
And Azel had six sons: The same six sons are named in 8:38, and here the genealogies of chapters 1 to 9 end. Chapter 10 opens with Saul's death on Mount Gilboa, so the list of his house leads straight into the history. Eshek's line in 8:39 to 40 is left out.
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy, the register's landing point in the resettled community of Jerusalem, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded in the genealogies | The chapter's own word for what the nine chapters have been doing stands four times, counted in the Berean text in the store, at verses 1, 9, 22 and 34. Verse 1 states the method for all of it, so all Israel was recorded in the genealogies written in the Book of the Kings of Israel, and names a source outside the Chronicler's own work. The same verse turns at once to the reason the roll had to be rebuilt, that Judah was exiled to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 9:1. | 1 Chronicles 9:1, 1 Chronicles 9:9, 1 Chronicles 9:22, 1 Chronicles 9:34 |
| The returned community, sorted by class | Verse 2 sorts before it names: Israelites, priests, Levites and temple servants, the last group first recorded at Ezra 2:43. Verse 3 sets Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh together in one city, and John Gill reads the four names as the divided kingdom settled in one place. Albert Barnes reads the close agreement with Nehemiah 11:3 to 19 as two writers drawing on one common and fuller document.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 9:2-9. | 1 Chronicles 9:2, 1 Chronicles 9:3, 1 Chronicles 9:9, 1 Chronicles 9:13 |
| Four trusts inside one house | The chapter sets out the working orders of the temple by what each was responsible for. The gatekeepers hold the thresholds and the keys, spending the night around the house of God because they opened it every morning at verse 27. Some count the articles of worship in and out at verse 28, some keep the flour, wine, oil, frankincense and spices at verse 29, and the sons of the priests mix the spices at verse 30. The Kohathites prepare the rows of showbread every Sabbath at verse 32, and the musicians are exempt from other duties because they were on duty day and night at verse 33.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Chronicles 9:28-34. | 1 Chronicles 9:27, 1 Chronicles 9:28, 1 Chronicles 9:29, 1 Chronicles 9:32, 1 Chronicles 9:33 |
| Gibeon, given twice | Verses 35 to 44 repeat the household of Gibeon and the line of Saul almost word for word from 8:29 to 38. Albert Barnes reads the doubling as the seam that joins the book's two halves, since the family whose death opens the narrative at chapter 10 is the family the genealogies close on. Adam Clarke passes on the account that two source documents stood behind the two passages and both were kept.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 9:35-44. | 1 Chronicles 9:35, 1 Chronicles 9:39, 1 Chronicles 9:44 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book guide gives this chapter a band of its own, titled All Israel Resettled, running from 9:1 to 9:44. Its form line reads that the funnel opens back out to priests, Levites, gatekeepers and laity, and its body line reads the chapter as the genealogy's landing point, the same widening that began at Adam widening again around the actual post-exilic community. The guide marks it one of the book's six keystone chapters.
The historical value
The gatekeepers' office at verses 22 to 27 is described as a working roster: 212 men, appointed by David and Samuel the seer, stationed on the four sides of the house, relieved from the villages at fixed times for seven-day periods, with four chief gatekeepers entrusted with the rooms and the treasuries.
The dossier sets the Babylonian temple prebend records beside chapters of this kind, the Eanna archive at Uruk and the Ebabbar archive at Sippar of the sixth to fifth centuries BC, where sanctuary staffs were organized by family into rotating shares with rosters kept and shares inherited. Its verdict is that the organization of a large sanctuary by family and rotation was ordinary practice across the ancient Near East, that the courses read like what a working temple actually required, and that the parallel settles nothing about when they were written down.
Verse 1 names a source outside the Chronicler's own work, the Book of the Kings of Israel, which is one of the places the book shows its archive.
The debated concept
The relation between this chapter and Nehemiah 11:3 to 19 is the question. The four groups and many of the names agree closely. Albert Barnes reads both writers as drawing on one common and fuller document rather than one copying the other. Knoppers reads the Chronicler as collecting the traditions available to him. The page reports the agreement and states no verdict on priority.
The Gibeon list of verses 35 to 44 stands twice in the book, here and at 8:29 to 38, with small differences. Adam Clarke passes on the account that two documents were kept rather than chosen between, and the same class of question is treated in the dossier under why the genealogies disagree with other lists.
The divine connection
The Korahites at verse 19 keep the thresholds of the Tent. Korah's own rebellion was judged at Numbers 16, and Numbers 26:11 records that his sons did not die with him. Their descendants stand here guarding the entrance their ancestor had once tried to take by force, and the trust was inherited through the generations between. The chapter states the descent and leaves the weight of it to the reader.
Verse 33 sets the musicians apart from every other duty because they were on duty day and night, which is the standing of the singers chapter 6 traced by pedigree, now stated as a working exemption.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 9:2-9; Gary Knoppers, 1 Chronicles 1-9, Anchor Bible, 2003, on 1 Chronicles 9:1-44 and H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible Commentary, 1982, on 1 Chronicles 9:1-34.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.