‘So the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinim, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities, and when the seventh month was come, the children of Israel were in their cities.'
This confirms what was said in Nehemiah 7:6 that all returned to their own cities (which for some would include Jerusalem). The people are listed in terms of previous designations:
· The priests.
· The Levites.
· Some of the people. ‘Some' may have in mind that the remainder were still in exile, or simply that some did not choose to dwell in cities, or that some could not dwell in their cities because they were already fully occupied (e.g. by the Edomites in the south) or more likely that some could not identify which were their own cities e.g. those who were unsure of their ancestry.
· The singers and the gatekeepers and the Nethinim (with the son of Solomon's servants included with the Nethinim, as they were in the totals).
All these, apart from those who chose not to do so, or could not identify their cities, dwelt in their cities. Thus ‘all Israel', as summed up in the previous descriptions, were in their cities. The return was complete. Israel was once more in place in accordance with God's allocation after the conquest. The summary is a cry of triumph. Israel has been restored! And they are back in their old cities.
Then it is stressed that when the next great Feast came following their arrival (the seventh month was a red letter month in the Jewish calendar, containing the Feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles) they were all in their cities. This feast was a celebratory feast, and the point is that when it came they had good reason for celebration.
While the order of those mentioned has been regularised here, with the native Jews first, followed by the Nethinim, the whole summed up as ‘all Israel', the verse pretty well parallels that in Ezra, which confirms that these words were in the original lists. Indeed with Nehemiah 7:6; Nehemiah 7:73 forms an inclusio.
The emendation made by some English translations, placing ‘in Jerusalem' after ‘some of the people' (in accordance with 1 Esdras) is unnecessary. It goes without saying that some would take up residence in Jerusalem if they ‘returned to their own cities', but the emendation was made simply because of a failure to understand the phrase ‘some of the people', so that it was felt that it needed to be explained.