What Does 1 Chronicles 9:2 Mean in the King James?
Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
“Nethinims” means “given ones,” showing that belonging in this community includes a place received through service.
THE MEANING
This verse names Israelites, priests, Levites, and Nethinim dwelling in their holdings and cities. A shared place holds distinct identities and roles together. Belonging takes shape both through where people dwell and through the part each carries in the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only prominent or self-defined roles count as belonging: the list includes the Nethinim, whose name means “given ones,” among those who dwell in the cities.
THE ROOT
הַנְּתִינִים
han-netinim
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“Nethinims” in this verse is han-netinim. Nethinim is a plural form from natan, carrying the sense of people given or assigned to a role. By naming them alongside Israelites, priests, and Levites, the verse shows belonging through lineage, place, and received role together.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This verb carries the sense behind the Nethinim’s name: people given a place or role.
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
The same root connects a gift with the “given ones,” linking their name to what is received.
אֲחֻזָּה
ʾăḥuzzāh
GROWS FROM
אחז
To grasp, hold, or take possession.
The word translated “possessions” grows from a root of holding: these are holdings, places held and inhabited. Set beside the Nethinim, the word brings held places and given roles into the same picture of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
achaz: Grasp, seize, hold.
אָחַז
This verb gives the holdings in the verse their sense of something taken hold of.
achuzzah: A holding, possession, or landed holding.
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun names the held place in which the people dwell.
הַיֹּשְׁבִים
hayyoshvim
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, or dwell.
The word for inhabitants means “those who dwell,” joining the people to the act of remaining in a place. The cities are made present as lived places by those who inhabit them.
ALSO GROWS
yashab: Sit, remain, dwell.
יָשַׁב
This is the root verb behind the people described as inhabitants.
moshav: A seat, dwelling, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun carries dwelling from the act of sitting or remaining into the place where people settle.
THE PATTERN
A community takes shape when distinct members inhabit one shared order of belonging.
So the priests, and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.THE THREAD
Also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name.The Hebrew behind “had appointed” comes from נתן (natan, “give”), the root behind “Nethinims.” This makes explicit what the name carries: they are the given ones, placed in a role within the shared work.
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