1-Chronicles - 9:3



3 In Jerusalem lived of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh:

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of 1-Chronicles 9:3.

Differing Translations

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And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Juda, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and of Manasses.
And in Jerusalem dwelled of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and Manasseh;
And in Jerusalem there were living some of the sons of Judah, and of Benjamin, and of Ephraim and Manasseh;
Staying in Jerusalem were some from the sons of Judah, and from the sons of Benjamin, and also from the sons of Ephraim and of Manasseh:

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The correspondence and the diversity between the account here and in Nehemiah Nehemiah. 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.

And in Jerusalem dwelt - Several of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, took advantage of the proclamation of Cyrus to return to Jerusalem, and so mingled with the Israelites, and those to whom Jerusalem had previously appertained; and this was necessary in order to provide a sufficient population for so large a city.

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.

1-Chronicles 9:3, too, is not, as Bertheau and others think, "the superscription of the register of those dwelling in Jerusalem;" for were it that, mention must have been made in it of the priests and Levites, the enumeration of whom fills up the greater part of the following register, vv. 10-33. 1-Chronicles 9:3 corresponds rather to 1-Chronicles 9:35, and serves to introduce the contents of the whole chapter, and with it commences the enumeration itself. In Nehemiah 11, consequently, we have a register of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, while our chapter contains only a register of the former inhabitants of Jerusalem. Only in so far as it treats of the inhabitants of Jerusalem does Nehemiah's register resemble ours in plan; that is, to this extent, that the sons of Judah, the sons of Benjamin, priests and Levites, are enumerated seriatim as dwelling in Jerusalem, that is, that heads of the fathers'-houses of these inhabitants, as is stated by Nehemiah in the superscription 1-Chronicles 11:3, and in our chapter, at the end of the respective paragraphs, 1-Chronicles 9:9, 1-Chronicles 9:13, and in the subscription, 1-Chronicles 9:33 and 1-Chronicles 9:34.
But if we examine the contents of the two catalogues more minutely, their agreement is shown by the identity of several of the names of these heads. On this point Bertheau thus speaks: "Of the three heads of Judah, Uthai, Asaiah, and Jeuel, 1-Chronicles 9:4-6, we recognise the first two in Athaiah and Maaseiah, Nehemiah 11:4-5; only the third name, Jeuel, is omitted. Of the five heads of Benjamin, 1-Chronicles 9:5-7, it is true, we meet with only two, Sallu and Hodaviah, in Nehemiah 11:7-9; but it is manifest that there was no intention to communicate in that place a complete enumeration of the hereditary chiefs of Benjamin. The names of the six heads of the divisions of the priests, Jedaiah and Jehoiarib, Jachin, Azariah (Seriah occupies his place in the book of Nehemiah), Adaiah and Maasiai (represented in Nehemiah by Amashai), are enumerated in both places in the same order. Among the Levites there occur the names of Shemaiah and Mattaniah as representatives of the great Levitic divisions of Merari and Gershon-Asaph, and we easily recognise our עבדיה in the עבדּא of the book of Nehemiah. Only the two first of the four chiefs of the doorkeepers, Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, and Ahiman, are named in the abridged enumeration of the book of Nehemiah, while the two others are only referred to in the added ואחיהם." Now, even according to this statement of the matter, the difference is seen to be almost as great as the agreement; but in reality, as a more exact comparison of the catalogues shows, the true state of the case is very different. According to 1-Chronicles 9:3, there dwelt in Jerusalem also sons of Ephraim and Manasseh; but the catalogue from 1-Chronicles 9:4 onwards contains only sons of Judah and Benjamin, and not a single Ephraimite or Manassite. The reason of that is probably this, that only single families and individuals from among the latter dwelt there, while the register only makes mention of the heads of the larger family groups in the population of Jerusalem.

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