Commentary on 1 Chronicles 9:1–2 (Summary)

The paragraph division at the beginning of this section varies in the different Bible versions. Some form a division at 1 Chronicles 9:1 (NIV, NLT; this too is the division set forth in this commentary); others at 1 Chronicles 9:2 (NKJV, NRSV). The ESV and KJV have no paragraph division at the beginning of the chapter. The repetition of Israel in 1 Chronicles 2:1 and 1 Chronicles 9:1 suggests a bookend (inclusio) construction encasing the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 2:1–9:1 as a complete literary unit.

With 1 Chronicles 9:1 the Chronicler presents the terrible truth of Judah’s exile to Babylon. The cause is made clear: because of their unfaithfulness (NKJV). The Hebrew word the Chronicler uses for disobedience is ma'al, a word that he uses quite regularly. This is a term that was used earlier in the genealogies to explain the exile of the northern tribes east of the Jordan (1 Chronicles 5:25–26). Such unfaithfulness is consistently linked to idolatry, the forbidden worship of foreign gods. The result of such behaviour throughout his narrative account is divine discipline, the ultimate expression of which was the invasion by foreign armies and exile to foreign lands. 2 Chronicles 36:1–23 recounts the phases of deportations to Babylon that took place in this painful final phase of Judah's history.¹

But the Chronicler does not leave the community hopeless and forsaken in exile, so he turns quickly to the return of the community from exile in Babylon. The list of 1 Chronicles 9:2–17 also occurs substantially in Nehemiah 11:3–19 and was obviously taken from the same official archives. There is a significant addition at 1 Chronicles 9:3 because the Chronicler wants to set the record straight: the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were also represented among the citizens of the new state (Ezra 6:21). For him it was a matter of principle and a cause of joy that there was no exclusive restriction. Sinners though the northerners had been, the grace of God was a big enough umbrella to cover them as well as sinning Judeans and Benjaminites.²

1 Chronicles 9:2 states, Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants (1 Chronicles 9:2; see also Nehemiah 11:3), though Chronicles drops the descendants of Solomon’s servants. 1 Chronicles 9:3–34 goes on to describe the resettlement of Jerusalem using this framework, except the temple servants are not mentioned again.³

Note that the Chronicler begins this section with the assurance that all Israel—Ephraim and Judah alike—had documentary evidence of their genealogical history written, he says, in The Book of the Kings of Israel (1 Chronicles 9:1; see also 2 Chronicles 20:34; 2 Chronicles 27:7; 2 Chronicles 28:26; 2 Chronicles 32:32; 2 Chronicles 35:27; 2 Chronicles 36:8). This means that in the context of compilation of this genealogy, the Jews, who had been taken into exile, now upon their return had to prove their ancestry as a condition for citizenship and occupation of the land, especially Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:20).

The odd statement that Israel would be among the first to live in the rebuilt city (1 Chronicles 9:2) is a forerunner of the promise that someday both Israel and Judah would be reunited as the one people of God and called Israel (Ezekiel 37:15–23; Ezra 7:7).⁴

The priests were sons of Aaron and the Levites were descendants of Levi outside of the Aaronic family. The temple servants or netinim are often referred to in Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 2:43; Ezra 7:7, Ezra 7:24; Ezra 8:20); they were probably captured foreigners who served as assistants to Levites at the temple (Numbers 31:30). It may also be possible that they were descendants of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:23) pressed into the mundane work required for maintaining the tabernacle (Ezra 8:20).⁵ This is the only time the Chronicler mentions these people by this title. He speaks of other foreigners, however, on a number of other occasions (see 1 Chronicles 2:55; 1 Chronicles 4:25).⁶

The Chronicler also remarks that these early returnees went to the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities (1 Chronicles 9:2). Preceding lists and genealogies often referred to the places where the ancestors of these Israelites lived before the exile.⁷ The prophets had already announced that Israel would repossess the promised land after exile (see Isaiah 34:17; Isaiah 57:13; Isaiah 60:21; Obadiah 1:17–20). The account of the Chronicler so far is interspersed with the names of several locations (see n. 11 below) and his purpose was to bolster the inheritance rights of the families of his day. At this point, the Chronicler makes his interest in repossession of these tribal properties explicit. The restoration of Israel was incomplete until those original tribal inheritances were possessed once again.⁸ 1 Chronicles 9:2 still speaks of different cities, although the next verse focuses attention on Jerusalem.⁹