1 Chronicleschapter 9
44 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.
It stands in The first to return and settle in Jerusalem, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The registers close with the return from exile. 'So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies… and Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their transgression'. Then the names of the first who came back and dwelt again in their possessions: Israelites, priests, Levites, and Nethinim. The temple staff is described with care: the gatekeepers who kept the four quarters and lodged round about the house, the keepers of the vessels and the fine flour and the spices, and the singers who were 'free from other service; for they were employed in their work day and night.' Then Saul's line is repeated, and the story proper can begin.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 9The history
The chapter belongs to the returned community, and it is the one chapter of the genealogies set in the writer's own time.
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles , 1872
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 9 falls in Genealogies from Adam to Saul (chapters 1–9). The longest single genealogical block in Scripture; the Davidic-line focus; the Levitical emphasis; the post-exilic returnee list (ch. 9).
After it: David's reign: temple-framed, chapters 10–29.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The first to return and settle in Jerusalem
1. (v. 1)
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
all Israel were reckoned by genealogies: 1 Chr 9:1 closes nine chapters of genealogy with the book's method stated in one sentence, all Israel were reckoned by genealogies, then turns at once to the reason the roll must be rebuilt at all: Judah was carried away to Babylon for their transgression. The verse names a source outside the Chronicler's own work, the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, and sets exile as consequence before a single returned name appears. Genealogy and judgment stand in one verse, and the return that follows in verse 2 is the record's answer to both.
2. (vv. 2-9)
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
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
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
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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
the first inhabitants that dwelt: The chapter's list of returned dwellers sorts by class before it sorts by name: Israelites first, then priests, Levites, and the Nethinims, the temple servants first named at Ezra 2:43. The same four groups and many of the same names reappear at Neh 11:3-19, close enough that Barnes reads both writers drawing on one common and fuller document rather than one copying the other. Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh dwell together in verse 3, Gill notes, the reunited kingdom now settled in one city rather than two.
B. Priests and Levites back in their placesvv. 10-16
Jedaiah, and Jehoiarib, and Jachin: The priestly names at 9:10, Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, and Jachin, are not individuals but heads of three of the twenty-four courses David sets out fully in 1 Chr 24, Jehoiarib first, Jedaiah second, Jachin twenty-first, so the returned priesthood takes up an order older than the exile rather than inventing a new one. The Levites named through verse 16 trace back through Merari, Gershon and a line reaching Asaph, the singer's house chapter 16 already planted at the ark's return. The list works the way the Chronicler works genealogy throughout the book, naming continuity rather than narrating it.
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.
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
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.”
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
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.”
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.”
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.”
C. Gatekeepers who guarded the four sides of the house
1. (vv. 17-21)
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.”
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.”
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
1 Chronicles 9:21
“And Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah,....”
1 more voice on this verse
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
Shallum was the chief: The porters introduced at 9:17, Shallum, Akkub, Talmon and Ahiman, guarded the king's gate eastward, the entrance David's own kings used to reach the temple, and the office is traced back to Phinehas son of Eleazar, ruler over the gatekeepers in time past, and the LORD was with him. The Korahites named at verse 19 carry a history the name alone recalls: Korah's own rebellion was judged at Num 16, but his sons did not die with him, and their descendants stand here still keeping the gate their ancestor once tried to seize by force. A trust rebellion could not overturn is inherited, one generation guarding what another once wanted to take.
2. (vv. 22-27)
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
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
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.”
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.”
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.”
1 Chronicles 9:27
“And they lodged round about the house of God,....”
1 more voice on this verse
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
were two hundred and twelve: Two hundred and twelve gatekeepers stand under an office David and Samuel the seer together ordained, set at four posts toward the compass, and organized so that villages send fresh watches every seven days while four chief porters never rotate off, remaining over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God. Verse 27 states the office in its own terms: they lodged round about the house of God, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning pertained to them, a trust measured in keys held rather than words preached. Henry reads the whole company as ministers who kept near their work so they could give themselves wholly to it, the same discipline Levites once kept camped around the wilderness tabernacle.
D. Vessels, spices, and singers on duty day and nightvv. 28-34
bring them in and out by tale: Duties divide by trust rather than rank: some Levites count the ministering vessels in and out by tale, others oversee the sanctuary's instruments, flour, wine, oil, frankincense and spices, and only the sons of the priests may make the anointing ointment itself, a restriction Ex 30:34-38 sets by name. Verse 32 adds the Kohathites' weekly charge of the showbread, prepared fresh every sabbath for the table before the ark, and verse 33 sets the singers apart from every other duty, free because they were employed in that work day and night. The gatekeepers guard entry, the priests guard the ointment, and the singers guard the hours, three trusts inside one house.
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.)”
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
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.)”
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
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.”
E. Saul's family line set down againvv. 35-44
the father of Gibeon: Saul's line repeats here nearly word for word from 8:29-38, and the repetition is deliberate: the Chronicler closes his genealogies by picking up the very family whose death opens the narrative history in chapter 10, Barnes reading the doubling as the seam joining the book's two halves together. The line runs generations past Jonathan through Merib-baal, called Mephibosheth in Samuel, and Micah down to Azel's six sons, keeping a defeated dynasty's descendants on record long after the kingdom passed to David's house. Saul receives here what Chronicles gives every line it names, a place kept in the record, before chapter 10 gives him the verdict Samuel had left unstated.
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.”
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
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 9. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.