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.