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1 Chronicles 9 Bible study: Morning by morning
The lists end with why Judah went to Babylon, "for their disobedience" (9:1), and then with who lived around God's house: gatekeepers set by "David and Samuel the seer" in "their office of trust" (9:22), who opened it "morning by morning" (9:27), some of them sons of Korah (9:19), and singers at their work "day and night" (9:33).
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“They stayed around God’s house, because that was their duty; and it was their duty to open it morning by morning.”
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“1 Chronicles 9:19 traces Shallum the chief gatekeeper back to Korah.”
Is that in 1 Chronicles 9, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
The lists end with a reason
Eight chapters of names close in one verse: "So all Israel were listed by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience" (9:1). The book doesn't only say that Judah went into exile; it says why. The word the WEB gives as disobedience is the Hebrew noun ma'al, an unfaithful act (tap disobedience). 1 Chronicles uses the noun only twice: here, and in the next chapter, "So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the LORD" (10:13). Its verb came earlier, of Achar, "who committed a trespass in the devoted thing" (2:7), and of the half-tribe of Manasseh: "They trespassed against the God of their fathers" (5:25).
Where it leads to Jesus
The doorkeeper keeps watch
1 Chronicles 9:23leads toMark 13:34-35
The gatekeepers "had the oversight of the gates of the LORD’s house, even the house of the tent, as guards" (9:23), and "They stayed around God’s house, because that was their duty" (9:27). Jesus told of a man "having left his house and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch" (Mark 13:34), and said, "Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming" (Mark 13:35). The parable comes in Jesus' teaching on his coming: "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory" (Mark 13:26). Jesus doesn't cite 1 Chronicles 9, so setting his words beside it is a reading, resting on a shared picture, servants set to keep watch at the door of a house. Some hear in the gatekeepers of God's house the watchfulness Jesus asks of everyone: "What I tell you, I tell all: Watch!" (Mark 13:37). Others keep Mark 13 to Jesus' teaching about his coming, and read 9:23-27 only as the Levites' duties, without looking from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Chronicles 9
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Chronicles 9 is waiting in Favor
- In their cities
- An office of trust
- Beside Nehemiah 11
- From the camp to the house
- 15 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
שׁוֹעֵרsho'ersay sho-ER
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "porter". Strong's: "a janitor doorkeeper, porter", and it traces the word "(as denominative from 8179)", sha'ar, the gate: the word of "the king’s gate eastward" (9:18) and "the gates of the LORD’s house" (9:23). It comes 37 times in the Hebrew Bible and 14 in 1 Chronicles, six of them in this chapter (9:17, 9:18, 9:21, 9:22, 9:24, 9:26). Its first use in the Hebrew Bible is in 2 Samuel: "the watchman called to the gatekeeper" (2 Samuel 18:26). The "four chief gatekeepers" (9:26) are in Hebrew gibborei ha-sho'arim, with gibbor, the word of the mighty men (Strong's H1368). In 26:1 the WEB gives sho'er as "doorkeepers" (26:1).
For your group
1 Chronicles 9 Bible study questions
- 1The four chief gatekeepers were "in an office of trust" (9:26), and their duty was "to open it morning by morning" (9:27). What ordinary task has been trusted to you right now, and what would doing it faithfully look like this week?
- 2The lists end with a plain reason: "Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience" (9:1). Why do you think the book names the failure plainly instead of leaving it out?
- 3The house was opened "morning by morning" (9:27), the bread set out "every Sabbath" (9:32), and the singers worked "day and night" (9:33). What daily or weekly rhythm helps you keep coming back to God? What would you like to add or protect?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Chronicles 9 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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