1 Chronicles 9 · a question people ask
Is this list from after the exile?
The chapter doesn't give a year. It sets the list right after "Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience" (9:1), and calls these people "the first inhabitants who lived in their possessions in their cities" (9:2). The Hebrew word behind first is one Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "former, first, chief" (Strong's H7223). Nehemiah 11 has a list of its own of those who lived in Jerusalem, and it shares words with 9:2: "in the cities of Judah, everyone lived in his possession in their cities—Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the children of Solomon’s servants" (Nehemiah 11:3). 1 Chronicles 9 also looks back: the gatekeepers are those "whom David and Samuel the seer ordained" (9:22), and "Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them in time past" (9:20). The chapter doesn't say when its list was made, and this study doesn't either.
The verses
“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. Now the first inhabitants who lived in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants.”
“Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them in time past, and the LORD was with him.”
“All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred twelve. These were listed by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer ordained in their office of trust.”
“Now these are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem; but in the cities of Judah, everyone lived in his possession in their cities—Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the children of Solomon’s servants.”