1 Chronicles 9:1
So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.
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EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
1 Chronicles 9:1. They were written in the book — In the public records, wherein there was an account of that kingdom, and of the several families in it.9:1-44 Genealogies. - This chapter expresses that one end of recording all these genealogies was, to direct the Jews, when they returned out of captivity, with whom to unite, and where to reside. Here is an account of the good state into which the affairs of religion were put, on the return from Babylon. Every one knew his charge. Work is likely to be done well when every one knows the duty of his place, and makes a business of it. God is the God of order. Thus was the temple a figure of the heavenly one, where they rest not day nor night from praising God, Re 4:8. Blessed be His name, believers there shall, not in turn, but all together, without interruption, praise him night and day: may the Lord make each of us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.Rather, "So all Israel were reckoned ... the kings of Israel. And Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their transgressions." CHAPTER 9

1Ch 9:1-26. Original Registers of Israel and Judah's Genealogies.

1. all Israel were reckoned by genealogies—From the beginning of the Hebrew nation, public records were kept, containing a registration of the name of every individual, as well as the tribe and family to which he belonged. "The book of the kings of Israel and Judah" does not refer to the two canonical books that are known in Scripture by that name, but to authenticated copies of those registers, placed under the official care of the sovereigns; and as a great number of the Israelites (1Ch 9:3) took refuge in Judah during the invasion of Shalmaneser, they carried the public records along with them. The genealogies given in the preceding chapters were drawn from the public records in the archives both of Israel and Judah; and those given in this chapter relate to the period subsequent to the restoration; whence it appears (compare 1Ch 3:17-24) that the genealogical registers were kept during the captivity in Babylon. These genealogical tables, then, are of the highest authority for truth and correctness, the earlier portion being extracted from the authenticated records of the nation; and as to those which belong to the time of the captivity, they were drawn up by a contemporary writer, who, besides enjoying the best sources of information, and being of the strictest integrity, was guided and preserved from all error by divine inspiration.The chief of the tribe of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, who returned from captivity, and dwelt at Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 9:1-9. Also the priests and Levites, and how they executed their office in the temple at Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 9:10-34. The family of Saul, 1 Chronicles 9:35-44.

In the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; not in that sacred and canonical book so called, but (as hath been oft observed before) in the public records, wherein there was an account of that kingdom, and of the several families in it, according to their genealogies. Who were carried away, i.e. which tribe or people of Judah last mentioned.

So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies,.... Not now by the writer of this book in the preceding chapters; for two of the tribes are not reckoned at all, and the rest but in part; but there had been kept an exact account of them:

and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel; not in the canonical book or books of Kings, but in the annals, journals, and diaries, which each king took care to be kept with some exactness, often referred to in the preceding books; out of which this writer, under a divine direction, had taken what was proper to be continued, and had carried the genealogy down to the captivity of the ten tribes; but the genealogy being lost with them, he could proceed no further, nor say anything more concerning them:

but Judah; for so the word should be stopped, and read according to the Hebrew accents:

who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression; their idolatry, and were now returned again; of them the writer proposes to give a further account.

So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were {a} carried away to Babylon for their transgression.

(a) Until now he has described their genealogies before they went into captivity, and now he describes their history after their return.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
1. they were written in the book] This book is apparently referred to in 1 Chronicles 5:17.

of Israel and Judah, who were carried away] R.V. of Israel: and Judah was carried away captive. The statement that Judah was led captive calls attention to the fact that the list which follows refers to post-exilic times.Verse 1. - So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies. The Hebrew verb (חִתְיַחְשׂי) is sufficiently satisfied by the rendering were enrolled, or were registered. The book of the kings of Israel and Judah. The book referred to is often styled "The book of the kings of Israel" (2 Chronicles 20:34; 2 Chronicles 33:18); and it is more probable that that is the intended title here, and that the words should follow thus: And Judah were carried captive to Babylon because of their transgressions. This the Masoretic accenting dictates, though the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther have our Authorized Version order. The inconvenience to certain of not being able to find their registers is alluded to in Ezra 2:59. Jonathan's sons and grandsons. His son is called here and in 1 Chronicles 9:40 Meribbaal, while in 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 9:6; 2 Samuel 16:1., 2 Samuel 19:25, he is called Mephibosheth, because the name "striver with Baal" has been changed into מפיבשׁת, exterminans idolum. This Meribbaal, who was lame in his feet (cf. 2 Samuel 4:4), had a son Micha (מיכה, in 2 Samuel 9:12 written מיכא), of whom came a numerous race. He had four sons (1 Chronicles 8:35), and the family of the last-named of these (Ahaz) is traced down, in 1 Chronicles 8:36-40, through ten generations to the great-grandson of Eshek. First it is traced from Ahaz to Alemeth (1 Chronicles 8:36); then through Zimri, brother of this latter, to Binea, by הוליד; then further by בּנו (hisson) to Azel, of whom in 1 Chronicles 8:38 six sons are enumerated; and finally, in 1 Chronicles 8:39, the sons of his brother Eshek are named, and the sons and grandsons of the first-born of this latter are then enumerated. The last two verses are wanting after 1 Chronicles 9:44. The names in the two registers correspond, except at one point, where we cannot get rid of the discrepancy that for יחועדּה (1 Chronicles 8:36) there stands in 1 Chronicles 9:42 יערה both times, probably through an error of transcription, by which out of the shortened form יעדּה there arose יערה, ד and ר being interchanged. Besides this, instead of the תּארע of 1 Chronicles 8:35, we have in 1 Chronicles 9:41, according to the harder pronunciation of the gutturals, תּחרע; and for רפה, 1 Chronicles 8:37, we have in 1 Chronicles 9:41 the longer original form רפיה. Now since Ahaz, whose posterity is traced down to the tenth generation, was descended from Jonathan in the third generation, and his grandfather Mephibosheth was a boy of five years of age at the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 4:4), the grandsons of Ulam, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:40, will be the thirteenth generation of Jonathan's descendants. Now Jonathan fell along with Saul in the year 1055 b.c., and consequently this thirteenth generation of Jonathan's descendants lived probably about 700 b.c., i.e., about 100 years before the Babylonian exile; for, according to the analogy of the royal race of David, we cannot reckon more than twenty-five years on an average for each generation.

(Note: Bertheau holds a contrary opinion to that given in the text, and thinks that by the numerous sons and grandsons of Ulam the son of Eshek we are brought down to post-exilic times, seeing that if Saul lived about 1080 b.c., and thirty years are reckoned to each one of the thirteen generations (Eshek being a descendant of Saul in the thirteenth generation), Azel and Eshek must have lived about 690 b.c. But this estimate is too high, for we cannot reckon sixty years to Saul and Jonathan from 1080 onwards, since Jonathan fell along with Saul in 1055, and his son Meribbaal was then hardly five years old, and must consequently have been born in 1060. For the following generations, moreover, not more than twenty-five years on an average should be reckoned. That being the case, the children's children of Ulam's sons, who were the twelfth generation of Micha's descendants, may have lived from 760 b.c. onwards, and during this period, from 760 to 700, may have increased to the troop of blooming grandchildren of Ulam mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:40. But even supposing that thirty years should be reckoned for each generation, the last-named generation of 150 grandsons and great-grandsons of Ulam would have lived in the period from 660 to 600, i.e., before the exile, or at least before the first great deportation of the people with Jehoiakim in the year 599 b.c.)

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