1 Chronicles 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter lists the people who settled again in Jerusalem and in their own towns after the exile to Babylon: families from Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, along with priests, Levites and temple servants. It then describes the Levites who served at the house of God, the gatekeepers and their four-sided watch, the keepers of the storerooms and holy objects, those who prepared the flour, wine, oil, incense, spices and bread, and the singers who were on duty day and night. The chapter closes by returning to Gibeon and repeating the family line of Jehiel down through Saul, Jonathan and their descendants, which leads into the account of Saul's death in the next chapter.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • All Israel was registered by genealogy.
   • Those registrations were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
   • They were carried away to Babylon.
   • The exile to Babylon was because of their unfaithfulness.
2. 9:2
   • The first inhabitants who lived on their own property in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and the temple servants.
3. 9:3
   • Some of the descendants of Judah lived in Jerusalem.
   • Some of the descendants of Benjamin lived in Jerusalem.
   • Some of the descendants of Ephraim lived in Jerusalem.
   • Some of the descendants of Manasseh lived in Jerusalem.
4. 9:4
   • Uthai was the son of Ammihud.
   • Ammihud was the son of Omri.
   • Omri was the son of Imri.
   • Imri was the son of Bani.
   • Bani was of the descendants of Perez.
   • Perez was the son of Judah.
5. 9:5
   • Of the Shilonites there was Asaiah the firstborn.
   • Asaiah's sons were also among them.
6. 9:6
   • Of the sons of Zerah there was Jeuel.
   • Their relatives numbered six hundred and ninety.
7. 9:7
   • Of the sons of Benjamin there was Sallu the son of Meshullam.
   • Meshullam was the son of Hodaviah.
   • Hodaviah was the son of Hassenuah.
8. 9:8
   • Ibneiah was the son of Jeroham.
   • Elah was the son of Uzzi.
   • Uzzi was the son of Michri.
   • Meshullam was the son of Shephatiah.
   • Shephatiah was the son of Reuel.
   • Reuel was the son of Ibnijah.
9. 9:9
   • Their relatives, according to their genealogies, numbered nine hundred and fifty-six.
   • All these men were heads of fathers' houses for their fathers' houses.
10. 9:10
    • Of the priests there were Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, and Jachin.
11. 9:11
    • Azariah was the son of Hilkiah.
    • Hilkiah was the son of Meshullam.
    • Meshullam was the son of Zadok.
    • Zadok was the son of Meraioth.
    • Meraioth was the son of Ahitub.
    • Azariah was the chief officer of the house of God.
12. 9:12
    • Adaiah was the son of Jeroham.
    • Jeroham was the son of Pashhur.
    • Pashhur was the son of Malchijah.
    • Maasai was the son of Adiel.
    • Adiel was the son of Jahzerah.
    • Jahzerah was the son of Meshullam.
    • Meshullam was the son of Meshillemith.
    • Meshillemith was the son of Immer.
13. 9:13
    • Their relatives, heads of their fathers' houses, numbered one thousand seven hundred and sixty.
    • They were capable men for the work of the service of the house of God.
14. 9:14
    • Of the Levites there was Shemaiah the son of Hasshub.
    • Hasshub was the son of Azrikam.
    • Azrikam was the son of Hashabiah.
    • Hashabiah was of the sons of Merari.
15. 9:15
    • Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal were among the Levites.
    • Mattaniah was the son of Mica.
    • Mica was the son of Zichri.
    • Zichri was the son of Asaph.
16. 9:16
    • Obadiah was the son of Shemaiah.
    • Shemaiah was the son of Galal.
    • Galal was the son of Jeduthun.
    • Berechiah was the son of Asa.
    • Asa was the son of Elkanah.
    • Berechiah lived in the villages of the Netophathites.
17. 9:17
    • The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, and Ahiman.
    • Their relatives were with them.
    • Shallum was the chief.
18. 9:18
    • Until now they were stationed at the king's gate on the east side.
    • They were the gatekeepers for the camps of the sons of Levi.
19. 9:19
    • Shallum was the son of Kore.
    • Kore was the son of Ebiasaph.
    • Ebiasaph was the son of Korah.
    • Shallum and his relatives of his father's house, the Korahites, were over the work of the service.
    • They were keepers of the thresholds of the tent.
    • Their fathers had been over the camp of the LORD.
    • Their fathers were keepers of the entrance.
20. 9:20
    • Phinehas was the son of Eleazar.
    • Phinehas was formerly the ruler over them.
    • The LORD was with Phinehas.
21. 9:21
    • Zechariah was the son of Meshelemiah.
    • Zechariah was the gatekeeper at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
22. 9:22
    • All those chosen as gatekeepers at the thresholds numbered two hundred and twelve.
    • They were registered by genealogy in their villages.
    • David and Samuel the seer had established them in their office of trust.
23. 9:23
    • They and their sons had charge of the gates of the house of the LORD.
    • The house of the LORD is called the house of the tent.
    • Their charge was by watches.
24. 9:24
    • The gatekeepers were on four sides: east, west, north, and south.
25. 9:25
    • Their relatives in their villages were to come in for seven days at fixed times to be with them.
26. 9:26
    • The four chief gatekeepers were in a position of trust.
    • These four were Levites.
    • They were over the chambers of the house of God.
    • They were over the treasuries of the house of God.
27. 9:27
    • They spent the night around the house of God.
    • The guard duty was upon them.
    • They were in charge of the key, and of opening it every morning.
28. 9:28
    • Some of them were in charge of the vessels used in the service.
    • They brought the vessels in by count and took them out by count.
29. 9:29
    • Some of them were appointed over the furnishings and over all the holy vessels.
    • They were appointed over the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the frankincense, and the spices.
30. 9:30
    • Some of the sons of the priests prepared the mixture of the spices.
31. 9:31
    • Mattithiah was one of the Levites.
    • Mattithiah was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite.
    • Mattithiah was entrusted with the making of the flat cakes baked in pans.
32. 9:32
    • Some of their relatives, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the bread of the arrangement.
    • They prepared it every sabbath.
33. 9:33
    • These were the singers.
    • They were heads of fathers' houses of the Levites.
    • They stayed in the chambers.
    • They were free from other duty.
    • They were engaged in that work day and night.
34. 9:34
    • These were the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, chiefs according to their genealogies.
    • These lived in Jerusalem.
35. 9:35
    • The father of Gibeon lived in Gibeon.
    • The father of Gibeon was named Jehiel.
    • His wife's name was Maacah.
36. 9:36
    • His firstborn son was Abdon.
    • His other sons included Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, and Nadab.
37. 9:37
    • His sons also included Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth.
38. 9:38
    • Mikloth begat Shimeam.
    • They also lived in Jerusalem with their relatives, opposite their relatives.
39. 9:39
    • Ner begat Kish.
    • Kish begat Saul.
    • Saul begat Jonathan.
    • Saul begat Malchishua.
    • Saul begat Abinadab.
    • Saul begat Eshbaal.
40. 9:40
    • The son of Jonathan was Merib-baal.
    • Merib-baal begat Micah.
41. 9:41
    • The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tahrea, and Ahaz.
42. 9:42
    • Ahaz begat Jarah.
    • Jarah begat Alemeth.
    • Jarah begat Azmaveth.
    • Jarah begat Zimri.
    • Zimri begat Moza.
43. 9:43
    • Moza begat Binea.
    • Rephaiah was Binea's son.
    • Eleasah was Rephaiah's son.
    • Azel was Eleasah's son.
44. 9:44
    • Azel had six sons.
    • Their names were Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan.
    • These were the sons of Azel.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

9:1

Family records were not sentimental. Land was inherited by descent, priestly and Levitical duties could only be performed by men of the right line, and tribal membership decided where a family belonged. After the return from Babylon a household that could not document its line could lose its claim to both. "The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah" is an older source the writer is citing; it is not the biblical books of Kings, and it has not survived.

9:2

Priests were descendants of Aaron and alone performed the sacrifices; Levites were the wider tribe of Levi, who assisted with the music, gatekeeping, storerooms and supplies. "Temple servants" translates Nethinim, literally "the given ones", a class of workers assigned to the heavy manual labor of the sanctuary, such as hauling water and wood, and traditionally of foreign descent.

9:3

Ephraim and Manasseh belonged to the northern kingdom, not to Judah. Their presence in Jerusalem is worth listing precisely because they had come from outside the south.

9:4

Pharez (also spelled Perez) was one of Judah's sons; his descendants formed the largest branch of the tribe, and David's line ran through him.

9:5

"Shilonites" is ambiguous in the Hebrew. It may mean people from the town of Shiloh, or it may be a spelling of "Shelanites," the descendants of Shelah, another son of Judah. Both readings are defensible and the text does not settle it.

9:6

Zerah was Pharez's twin brother and another son of Judah, so this is a second major branch of the same tribe.

9:9

A "family group" here is the ancestral house, the unit between the clan and the single household. Its head spoke for it in legal and civic matters and was the man the records were kept under.

9:11

This chief official is the senior administrator of the temple, often understood as the high priest. Zadok, further back in the line, was the priest who served under David and Solomon; his descendants held the leading priestly position for centuries.

9:13

The number is large because priestly service was organized in rotating shifts, with each division serving for a set period rather than all of them serving at once.

9:14

Levi had three sons (Gershon, Kohath and Merari) and their descendants formed the three divisions of the tribe, each with its own assigned duties at the sanctuary.

9:15

Asaph headed one of the families of temple musicians appointed in David's time; a group of psalms carries his name.

9:16

The Netophathites came from Netophah, a village near Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem.

9:17

The King James word is "porters," which in 1611 meant doorkeepers, not baggage carriers. Their job was closer to armed guard than to usher: they controlled who and what could enter the sacred precincts, and they were responsible for the stores and treasuries inside.

9:18

The King's Gate was the eastern entrance, the way the king came across from the palace to the temple.

9:19

Korah was the ancestor of a Levite family with a long-standing role in guarding the sanctuary. The "sacred tent" is the tabernacle, the portable tent-shrine that housed Israel's worship before the temple was built.

9:20

Phinehas was Aaron's grandson, from the wilderness generation centuries earlier. Naming him traces the gatekeepers' duty back to the oldest period of Israel's worship.

9:21

By the time this was written the temple had long replaced the tent, but the older vocabulary of "the tent of meeting" was kept for the sanctuary and its offices.

9:22

A "seer" was a prophet; the word means one who sees, and it was the older term for the role. "Did ordain in their set office" means formally appointed them to a permanent, fixed position rather than a temporary one.

9:23

The King James "by wards" means by watches or rotations, fixed turns of duty, like a guard roster.

9:25

The gatekeepers stationed permanently in Jerusalem were reinforced by relatives who came in from the outlying villages and served a week at a time before going home.

9:26

The storerooms held far more than equipment: tithes, offerings in kind, silver and gold, and the temple's accumulated treasure. Being placed over them was a position of financial trust.

9:28

The King James "by tale" means by count. The vessels were inventoried each time they left storage and again when they came back.

9:29

These are not household supplies but the raw materials of the offerings: flour and oil for the grain offerings, wine for the drink offerings, and frankincense and spices for the incense.

9:30

The anointing oil and the incense were made to fixed recipes, and mixing them was restricted to the priests' families rather than left to any perfumer.

9:31

These were flat griddle-pans used for a particular kind of grain offering, baked rather than boiled or fried.

9:32

The "special bread" is the shewbread, literally the bread of the Presence: twelve loaves, one for each tribe, set out in rows on a table inside the sanctuary and replaced every Sabbath, the old loaves then being eaten by the priests.

9:33

The King James says they were "free," meaning released from other Levitical duties, not that they were idle. Living in the temple rooms kept them available at any hour.

9:35

"Father of Gibeon" means founder or leading settler of the town of Gibeon, not the parent of a man named Gibeon. Gibeon lay a few miles north-west of Jerusalem.

9:39

This is the family of Saul, Israel's first king, and the list is placed here to lead directly into the account of his death in the next chapter.

9:40

Meribbaal is called Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel, and Eshbaal in the previous verse is called Ish-bosheth there. The element "baal" simply meant lord or master, but it was also the name of a Canaanite god, so later scribes often replaced it with "bosheth," meaning shame. Chronicles preserves the older forms.