=2.= _the first inhabitants_] It has been thought that the word “first” here refers to _pre-eminence_ (compare Nehemiah xi. 3), and that the list which follows (verses 4 ff.) is a list of _chief men_. It is better, however, to take “first” in a temporal sense, meaning “pre-exilic,” and to suppose that the Chronicler or whoever placed this chapter here mistakenly imagined this list to be a pre-exilic register. That it is not really pre-exilic is certain by reason of its vital connection with the post-exilic list in Nehemiah xi. 3‒19. The suggestion that the resemblances are due to the continuity of population in Jerusalem before and after the exile is utterly improbable. _in their cities_] The phrase is apparently an abridgment of words in Nehemiah xi. 3, and is really meaningless in the present context. In Nehemiah it signifies “townships in Judah” where certain persons, who now elected to dwell in Jerusalem, had formerly resided. _Israel_] i.e. laymen as distinguished from men of Levitical descent. According to verse 3 _Israel_ included at least Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh (compare Psalms lxxx. 2, where Judah――the speaker――associates Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh with herself in her appeal to the God of _Israel_, See also note on 2 Chronicles xxx. 18). This is a totally different usage from that of earlier times, when _Israel_ meant the Northern kingdom, and _Judah_ the Southern. _Nethinim_] These were a class of Temple servants reckoned as inferior to the Levites. Perhaps they were of foreign extraction and included the Gibeonites (compare Joshua ix. 23). They are mentioned nowhere else in the Old Testament except in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. ³And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh; =3.= _of Ephraim and Manasseh_] See note on 2 Chronicles xxx. 18. =4‒6= (compare Nehemiah xi. 4‒6). THE SONS OF JUDAH. ⁴Uthai the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani, of the children of Perez the son of Judah. =4.= _Uthai_] In Nehemiah _Athaiah_. The two words are more alike in Hebrew than in English and are perhaps various readings of one name. _Perez_] compare ii. 4, 5. We have here (verses 4‒6) a threefold division of the tribe of Judah into the descendants of Perez, Shelah, and Zerah, just as in Numbers xxvi. 20. ⁵And of the Shilonites; Asaiah the firstborn, and his sons. =5.= _Shilonites_] Or _Shelanites_ as Numbers xxvi. 20; they were descendants of Shelah, who is mentioned as a son of Judah in ii. 3. For other descendants, see iv. 21 f., and Nehemiah xi. 5. _Asaiah_] In Nehemiah xi. 5 _Maaseiah_, a kindred name. ⁶And of the sons of Zerah; Jeuel, and their brethren, six hundred and ninety. =6.= _Jeuel_] In Nehemiah xi. 5 the “sons of Zerah” are missing.