The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 122

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER IX. this expression describes inhabitants of the land before the Captivity or subsequent to Ver. 1.-So all llll'ael were reckoned by it. Almost all the oldor authorities, nod genealogies. The Hebrew verb (1eir:i;,i:i) Keil amongst those of more modern date, is sufficiently satisfied by the rendering take the former position ; Movors, Bertheo.u, toere enrolled, or were reguitered. The book nnd others take the latter, as 11lso Canon of the kings of Israel ILil.d Judah, The Rawlinson (' Speaker's Commentary,' iii. book referred to is ofteu styled "The book 157, 211). It must be admitted that thero of the kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xx. 34 ; is some obscurity, and which accounts for xxxiii. 18); and it is more probable that the contrariety of opinion, Bnt obsourity that is the intended title here, and that the and contrariety notwithstanding, a com- words ahould follow thus: And Judah were parison of vers. 2 and 3 with Neh. xi. 1--4 carried captive to Babylon because of their produces two impressions almost irresistible, transgressions. Thie the Masoreti.c accent- viz. that the difficulty iij occo.sioned by some ing- dictates, though the Septuagint, Vulgate, comparo.tively slight corruption or mutila- and Luther have our Authorized Version tion in our ver. 2; and that, wh11tever the orcler. The incou \'Cnicnce to certain of uot refcrenco is in Neh. xi. 1-4 (und there is Leing able to find their registers is alluded no ambiguity there), thllt it is iu the present to in Ezra ii. 59. passage. The fourfold cl~ssificatiou in.tends Ver. 2.-Now the first inhabitants that the Israel people (Isa. xx1v. 2; Hoe. 1v. 9), dwelt in their poSBessiona, in their cities. the priests, the Levites, the Nethinims, i.e. I\ ut hnritiea are very divided as to whether tho~o given os helpers of the priests, bond- on. 1x. 1-44.J THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 113