Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Chronicles 9

Rather, So all Israel were reckoned ... the kings of Israel. And Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their transgressions.

The first inhabitants—that is, the first inhabitants of the holy land after the return from the captivity. They are enumerated under four heads:

1. Israelites, meaning the mass of the laity, whether belonging to the ten tribes or the two.
2. Priests.
3. Levites.
4. The lowest order of the ministry, the Nethinims.

These last, whose name is derived from a root meaning “to give,” were a kind of sacred servant—persons “given” to the Levites to perform the more laborious duties of the sanctuary. Some had been “given” as early as the time of Moses (Numbers 31:47), and the number afterward increased (Joshua 9:23; Ezra 8:20).

At the time of the return from the captivity, the services of the Nethinims became very important, owing to the small number of Levites who came back (Ezra 2:40–42). They are mentioned by the name Nethinims only in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

The correspondence and diversity between the account here and the one in Nehemiah 11:4-19 can be explained by the probability that both writers drew from a common, more complete document. In some instances, they selected different names, or names that now appear different due to textual corruption.

They also frequently recorded the genealogies of the same people differently. Both writers followed the principle of compressing their accounts by omitting names, but they each chose to omit different links in the genealogical chain.

The discrepancy between the numbers here and in Nehemiah 11:8 may arise from a corruption of the text, as is also the case in 1 Chronicles 9:13 and 1 Chronicles 9:22.

“Jedaiah,” “Jehoiarib,” and “Jachin” are not names of individuals here, but of priestly families. From 1 Chronicles 24:7–17, it appears that Jehoiarib was the original head of the first course, Jedaiah of the second shift, and Jachin of the twenty-first.