Outline of Chapter 9:

       vv.    1–

vv.

Charts

I ntroduction: Should I put this intro back with 1Chron. 8? 1Chron. 9 pays an interesting homage to King Saul. As most of us recall Saul, he was a paranoiac-schizophrenic who spent the last few years of his life trying to kill David, his God-appointed successor. As king, Saul killed a number of innocents, including priests and gentiles with whom Israel was allied. However, in this chapter, we include Saul’s genealogy, following out his line for another 11 generations. We forget that God chose Saul and that Saul, when chosen, was the man for the job. God did not simply choose someone that He knew would screw up—God chose a man who was once great. God did not say, “You want a king? I got your king, right here!” Saul was a charismatic man with great potential and great abilities. Following out his line helps to give respect to Saul for what he did right.

However, the bulk of 1Chron. 9 deals with the return of the people from exile to Jerusalem. This closely parallels Neh. 11 and I will exegete the two together.

This naturally makes me ask, why does the first portion on this chapter deal with those returning after the exile, and why does that final third of this chapter deal with the line of Saul? Maybe this chapters should have been divided up into two chapters? The only thing that seems to makes sense is that Saul’s line here is almost identical to his line at the end of chapter 8; suggesting a problem with the early manuscripts?

I may not want to exegete the final 10 verses!!! On the other hand, the final 10 verses of this chapter deal with the genealogy of Saul. I may want to insert this near the end of the book of 1Samuel. Or, better yet, at the end of 2Sam. 2:7 or 8. I may want to exegete these verses side-by-side with there parallel verses in chapter 8.