This is not in reference to the ten tribes, or nation called the "house of Israel", but redefining the house or nation of Judah and Benjamin called "the house of Judah" as the Israelites. This is an attempt by the Kenite scribes to establish the Kenites (Nethinims) as having a God given right to control the records and practices within the Temple that would be rebuilt after the captivity.

Today this would be like having the leaders of Islam taking over the Christian church, or vise-versa; for in time that church would be giving the teaching of the doctrines of those people that were in control. The leaders would determine what was to be taught and accepted in the society and religious order. These scribes writing this book of the Chronicles have already told us that they are in control in I Chronicles 2:55, and this fact was verified by the prophet Ezra in Ezra 8:15, yet we know that God allowed it to happen to fulfill His eternal will and purpose. God's Word forecasted each and every event that would happen when the Messiah, Jesus the Christ was born, to the minute details of his death and crucifixion in Genesis 3:15, Psalms 22, Isaiah 53 and many more passages in the Old Testament.

I Chronicles 9:2 "Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites and the Nethinims."

Though it names the "Levites as the priests, and the Nethinims," remember that by the time the house of Judah came out of the captivity in Babylon, very few Levite priests were in the company of that small remnant of Judah and Benjamin tribes that went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, streets and walls of Jerusalem. Ezra calls our attention to this fact in Ezra 8:15; "...and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi." All of the more than three hundred priests were Kenite "Nethinims" [Strangers given to service] at the time of Ezra's numbering of the people; so Ezra sent a Kenite priest back to Babylon, to try to get Levitical priests so that sacrifices could be done in the temple they were returning to rebuild. Levites were required to make the sacrifices before the alter, as in that manner laid out by God through Moses. Think of it, 220 Nethinim priest, and not one Levite. What kind of a foundation are these Kenite religious leaders going to establish in the new temple that will be built? Is it any wonder that the descendants of these Religious Jewish Kenite leaders sought to kill Jesus at his birth, and later at the start of his ministry? Jesus called attention to the hidden activity that was going on in the Temple through their substitution of the Kenite's tradition for the Law of Moses.

Matthew 23:1, 2 "Then Spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, Saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:"

We know who these scribes were for they identify themselves in I Chronicles 2:55, "...Kenites that came from Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." They were from the three families of the offspring of Cain; Cain was the first murderer. Jesus knew these sons of Cain had taken over the priesthood, and he continues to identify them in John 8:44;

John 8:44 "Ye [Jesus speaking to the scribes and Pharisees] are of your father the devil [Satan], and the lusts of your father [Cain] ye will do. He [Cain, the son of Satan through Eve] was a murderer from the beginning [Genesis 4:8], and abode not in the truth [lying to God after he killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:9-12)], because there is no truth in him [Cain]. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Jesus was speaking to you and I in the Gospel of Matthew and John; telling us exactly who it is that will be crucifying him, and who is sitting in the seat of Moses in the temple. Tradition today leads us to believe that those Jewish religious leaders are of Jacob, and Judah, yet Jesus is telling us here that they are from Cain, the first Murderer in the Garden of Eden, "the beginning". Also that Cain, the first murderer is from, [or the son of his father] the "the devil", also known by the name of Satan. These are the ones that are giving us these books of Chronicles.

I Chronicles 9:3 "And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh;"

II Kings 17:23-33 records the removal of the "house or nation of Israel" by Assyria. The House of Israel included all the tribes except Judah and Benjamin, from their tribal lands to the north of Jerusalem. The land around Jerusalem belonged to the nation, or "house of Judah". Then after the Israelites [Ephraim and Manasseh] were removed off their lands, the king of Assyria replaced the land with people from five other nations that were conquered by Assyria.

II Kings 17:23, and 24: "Until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets." [23] "And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath [Kenites], and from Sephar-vaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof." [24]

Israel had sinned greatly in the sight of the Lord, and God removed them off the land, using the Assyrian army. So these five nations, including the Kenites from Hamath are now occupying the land of Israel at this time, and were living beside the house of Judah, with their brother tribes gone. This removal took place between the years 745 B. C. and 722 B. C., over a hundred years before the house of Judah went into captivity over in Babylon. By this time, Ephraim and Manasseh had been brought to an area just north of Lake Van in Iraq, and split into tribal units to migrate through the Caucasus Mountain, to fan out and scatter throughout Europe, and on to the Americas, to be known to this day as "Caucasians". The tribes of the nation called "the house of Israel" called themselves by many names, such as the Celts, Gauls, Cimmerons, Scythians, and so on: for our people had lost their true identity as part of Israel. They identify themselves only as members of the scattering, meaning "Caucasians".

Jesus also warned us that the churches that He finds pleasure with know the true identify of these Kenites, those people that claim to be of Judah. Revelation 2:9 "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou art rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." Only those churches that taught as the church of Smyrna and Philadelphia taught were pleasing to Him. They knew the Word of God, and could identify the false traditions of the Kenites, and were not taken in by false teaching.

So as we continue reading through the names and lines of Genealogies of these two books, we will find much of it to be truth, but just as Satan works, there is deception to anything that the devil and his kids do, so expect it. Remember what happened after the house of Israel, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, including the tribes to the north departed off the land. The land fell apart, and taken over by wild animals for the five nations the Assyrians brought in to fill the land and make it productive. So the king of Assyria brought back Levitical priests, trying to make things right to the eyes of the true God, trying to make the people fear the Lord.

II Kings 17:32 "So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places."

Remember the problem with the house of Israel was that they had left God's laws and ways and went whoring after heathen pagan religious forms, to sacrifice on those high places. All these Levitical priests of the house of Israel knew were heathen sacrifices and that is why God sent them into captivity. So here they were teaching these Kenites and other to do the same thing they had always done, only instead of sacrificing in the name of their gods, it was in the name of the true God, but still in these high places of heathen altars.

II Kings 17:33 "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence."

When these five heathen nations saw the Levitical priests of the house of Israel teaching them to do the same things that they had done, they continued doing it, only in the name of God, not their little gods. So keep in mind that Ephraim and Manasseh, named here are not the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph that received the blessing from their grandfather Jacob, as recorded in Genesis 48:16-20. But more than likely Kenites carrying the name of Ephraim and Manasseh.

I Chronicles 9:4 "Utali the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Banni, of the children of Pharez the son of Judah."

I Chronicles 9:5 "And of the Sholonites; Asaiah the first born, and his sons."

As we read these names, remember that the Kenites had lived amongst the Israelites for the past 500 years, and were naming their children after the common names of the Israelites. The prophet Jeremiah saw this in Jeremiah 35:2 - 5, when Jeremiah the son of the Rechabites came to the temple leading the other Kenites. The prophet ran a test to see how true these Kenites were to following their forefather's teaching, and through that test, not one of the Kenites yielded to the temptation of the true God.

I Chronicles 9:6 "And the sons of Zerah; Jeuel, and their brethren, six hundred and ninety."

I Chronicles 9:7 "And the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hasenuah,"

I Chronicles 9:8 "And Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephathiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnaijah;"

I Chronicles 9:9 "And their brethren, according to their generations, nine hundred and fifty and six. All these men wee chief of the fathers in the house of their fathers."

I Chronicles. 9:10 "And the priests; Jedaiah, and Jehoiarib, and Jachin,"

I Chronicles 9:11 "And Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;"

"The ruler to the house of God" is the High priest. More than likely a Kenite filled this position, as they controlled the priesthood by this time; about 400 B.C.

I Chronicles 9:12 "And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;"

I Chronicles 9:13 "And their brethren, heads of the house of their fathers, a thousand and seven hundred and threescore; very able men for the work of the service of the house of God."

I Chronicles 9:14 "And of the Levites; Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the son of Merari;"

I Chronicles 9:15 "And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah the son of Micah, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;"

I Chronicles 9:16 "And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, the Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, that dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites."

I Chronicles 9:17 "And the porters were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren: Shallum was the chief."

I Chronicles 9:18 "Who hitherto waited in the king's gate eastward: they were porters in the companies of the children of Levi."

I Chronicles 9:19 "And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: and their fathers, being over the host of the Lord, were keepers of the entry."

This verse takes you back a thousand years following the coming out of Egyptian captivity, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, worshipping in the tent called the tabernacle. Then as the Israelites moved from place to place, the tabernacle and all that went with it had to be packed up, and moved to the new location to be reset up, and made ready for daily sacrifices. This practice is outlined in Numbers 16; and Numbers 26:9-11. Each of the Levite families had their specific duties in the service of the tabernacle; so these verses 19 through 34 are sort of out of place at this time of the coming out of Babylon of the house of Judah.

I Chronicles 9:20 "And Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the ruler over them in time past, and the Lord was with him."

Phinehas became the high priest after the death of his father, Eleazar. He was selected by God because of his actions when the rest of the tribes were falling into heathen religious practice back in the wilderness. Phinehas took his javelin and ran it through one of the tribal leaders that took a heathen wife and started practicing her religious forms. Following Phinehas' action with the Javelin, many thousand men of Israel that did the same heathen practices were slain, and the camp site of the Israelites was purged of that sin, and made ready to enter into and take the promise land. Again this took place a thousand years prior to the coming out of captivity of Babylon, historically 1434 B.C., compared to 400 B.C. the time of this return to Jerusalem by these Kenites.

In the early case, the children of Israel were a unit of one nation, and under the laws of God, with Moses and the Levitical priesthood in charge. And in the latter, the Nethinims had taken over, strangers to God's service, and they were placing their traditions over the laws of Moses. Is it any wonder their descendants plotted to murder Jesus at the start of His ministry. They knew who Jesus was, as Jesus directed the people to the laws of Moses.

I Chronicles 9:21 "And Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was porter of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."

I Chronicles 9:22 "All these which were chosen to be porters in the gates were two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their set office."

I Chronicles 9:23 So they and their children had the oversight of the gates of the house of the Lord, namely, the house of the tabernacle, by wards."

I Chronicles 9:24 "In four quarters were the porters, toward the east, west, north, and south."

I Chronicles 9:25 "And their brethren, which were in their villages, were to come after seven days from time to time with them."

I Chronicles 9:26 "For these Levites, the four chief porters, were in their set office, and were over the chambers of treasuries of the house of God."

I Chronicles 9:27 "And they lodged round about the house of God, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning pertained to them."

I Chronicles 9:28 "And certain of them had the charge of ministering vessels, that they should bring them in and out by tale."

"By tale" means "by numbering", for this numbering by David was not by the will of God.

I Chronicles 9:29 "Some of them also were appointed to oversee the vessels, and all the instruments of the sanctuary, and the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices."

I Chronicles 9:30 "And some of the sons of the priests made the ointment of the spices."

I Chronicles 9:31 "And Mattithaih, one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, had the set office over the things that were made in the pans."

I Chronicles 9:32 "And other of their brethren, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the shewbread, to prepare it every sabbath."

I Chronicles 9:33 "And these are the singers, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers were free: for they were employed in that work day and night."

I Chronicles 9:34 "These chief fathers of the Levites were chief throughout their generations; these dwelt at Jerusalem."

I Chronicles 9:35 "And in Gibeon dwelt the father of Gibeon, Jehiel, whose wife's name was Maachah:"

I Chronicles 9:36 "And his firstborn son Abdon, then Zur, and Kish, and Baal, and Ner, and Nadab,"

I Chronicles 9:37 "And Gedor, and Ahio, and Zechariah, and Mikloth."

I Chronicles 9:38 "And Mikloth begat Shimeam. And they also dwelt with their brethren at Jerusalem, over against their brethren."

I Chronicles 9:39 "And Ner begat Kish; and Kish begat Saul; and Saul begat Jonathan, and Malchishua, and Abinadab, and Esh-baal."

I Chronicles 9:40 "And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal: and Merib-baal begat Micah."

I Chronicles 9:41 "And the sons of Micah were, Pithon, and Melech, and Tahrea, and Ahaz."

I Chronicles 9:42 "And Ahaz begat Jarah; and Jarah begat Alemeth, and Azmaveth, and Zimri; and Zimri begat Moza;"

I Chronicles 9:43 "And Mosa begat Binea; and Rephaiah his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son."