9:2 the Nethinims. See note on Nehemiah 11:21. These “first inhabitants” apparently were the Israelites, including men from Ephraim and Manasseh (see I Chronicles 8:3) as well as Judah and Benjamin, who first returned from Babylon to restore Jerusalem and the temple. With the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, many from the ten rebelling tribes migrated south and west to Judah in order to be near the temple. Some of their descendants went with the exiles to Babylon and some returned after the exile.