The First Book of the Chronicles
1 Chronicles 5
Chapter V · Vol. II, pp. 811–812
1 The line of Reuben (who lost his birthright) unto the captivity. 9 Their habitation and conquest of the Hagarites. 11 The chief men and habitations of Gad. 18 The number and conquests of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 23 The habitations and chief men of that half-tribe. 25 Their captivity because of their sins.
1 Now the sons of Reuben, the afirst-born of Israel, (for he was the first-born; but, forasmuch as he bdefiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel:1 and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
B.C. 1710.
a Ge.29.32; 49.3,4. Ex.6.14. Nu.26.5.
b Ge.35.22; 49.4; 48.15,22. 1 Co.5.1. Pr.14.34.
A.M. 2294. B.C. 1710.
1 By the law of God, De. 21. 17, the first-born was entitled to a double portion of a father's possessions. This right was transferred to Joseph, who inherited two shares of the land in Ephraim and Manasseh. Judah had but one share, but from him descended David and Messiah—the one the type, the other the real ruler.—C.
2 For cJudah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief druler; but the birthright was Joseph's;)
4 The sons of Joel; Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
5 Micah his son, Reaia his son, Baal his son,
6 Beerah his son, whom fTilgath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites.
f Or, Tiglath-pileser, 2 Ki.15.29; 16.7.
7 And his brethren by their families, (when the ggenealogy of their generations was reckoned,) were the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,2
g ver.17.
2 B.C. 740.
8 And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema,h the son of Joel, who dwelt in iAroer, even unto Nebo and Baal-meon:
h Or, Shemaiah, ver.4.
i Jos.13.15,23. Nu.32.37,38. De.3.12,16,17. Je.48.19-24. Eze.25.9.
9 And eastward he inhabited unto the entering in of the wilderness from the river Euphrates; because their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.
10 And in the days of Saul3 they made war with the kHagarites,4 who fell by their hand: and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east5 land of Gilead.
3 B.C. 1060.
k Ge.21.9. ver.19,20.
4 Ishmaelites, descendants of Hagar.—C.
5 Heb. upon all the face of the east.
11 And the children of Gad dwelt over against them, lin the land of Bashan, unto Salcah:6
l Jos.13.11,24-28. De.3.10,12,16,17. Nu.32.34-36.
6 Salcah was a strong city, situated on the top and sides of a conical hill, at the southern extremity of the mountain range of Bashan. It was 12 miles east of Bozrah. It is now deserted, though many of its old stone houses are still perfect. Its citadel or castle, whose remains crown the summit of the hill, must have been one of the strongest in Palestine.—P.
12 Joel the chief, and Shapham the next, and Jaanai, and Shaphat in Bashan.
13 And their brethren, of the house of their fathers, were, Michael, and Meshullam, and Sheba, and Jorai, and Jachan, and Zia, and Heber, seven.
14 These are the children of Abihail the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz;
15 Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, chief of the house of their fathers.
16 And they dwelt in Gilead in Bashan, and in her towns, and in all the suburbs of mSharon,7 upon their borders.8
m ch.27.29. Is.35.2; 33.9; 65.10. Ca.2.1, not Ac.9.37. Several places had this name.
7 The site of Sharon or Saron (Ac.9.35) cannot be precisely ascertained. According to Eusebius the whole district of country between Joppa and Cæsarea was called Sharon; and its richness and fertility are noticed by most travellers. Another district lying between Mount Tabor and the Sea of Galilee was also distinguished by the same name; and a third, on the east of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, seems to be that described in the text. C.——The celebrated plain of Sharon extended along the coast of the Mediterranean, from the base of Carmel on the north to Joppa on the south, where it joined the plain of Philistia. It was, and still is, famous for its pastures. Eusebius and Jerome speak of two Sharons, one lying between Tabor and Tiberias; but the sacred writers mention only one of these. The Sharon referred to in this verse is not the plain of western Palestine. Its exact situation is not known; but it seems probable it was the pastoral plateau extending eastward from the mountains of Gilead to the walls of Bozrah and Salcah on the borders of Bashan.—P.
8 Heb. their goings forth.
17 All these were reckoned by genealogies in the days of nJotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.
n 2 Ki.15.5,32; 14.16,28.
18 The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men,9 men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skilful in war, were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore, that went out to the war.
9 Heb. sons of valour.
19 And they made war with the Hagarites,1 with oJetur, and Nephish, and Nodab.
1 Perhaps about 800.
o Ge.25.14,15. ch.1.31.
20 And they were phelped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them: for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them; because they put their trust in him.
p ver.22. Ps.46.1. Ex.17.11. 1 Ki.22.32. 2 Ch.14.11. Ro.8.31. He.13.5,6.
21 And they took 2away qtheir cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of rmen an hundred thousand.
22 For there fell down many slain, because the war was sof God.3 And they dwelt in their steads until tthe captivity.
s 2 Ch.32.8. Ro.8.31. Ex.14.25. Pr.21.30.
3 The war was a judgment from God upon an idolatrous and wicked people. A war (as such) comes from men's 'lusts that war in their members,' Ja.4.1; but war, as a judgment and punishment, comes from God, who gives the invading nation up to their own evil desires, and the invaded to the retribution of the idolatries they have practised, the injustice they have done, and the cruelties they have committed.—C.
t 2 Ki.17.6, or 15.29; ver.26.
23 And the children of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan uunto Baal-hermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon.4
u De.3.8,9; 4.48. Jos.11.17; 12.5; 13.29-31. Ps.42.6; 89.11; 133.3.
4 It therefore appears from this verse that the country occupied by the tribes of Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab lay along the northern and north-western border of Bashan, and extended to the mountain range of Hermon. Jetur was unquestionably the Iturea of the Greeks, mentioned in Lu.3.1 and now bearing its ancient name in the Arabic form Jedûr?. It is a region of rocks and rich pasture land, lying close along the eastern base of Hermon, and extending on the north to Damascus.—P.
24 And these were the heads of the house of their fathers, even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valour, xfamous men, and heads of the house of their fathers.
x Heb. men of names, Ge.6.4. ch.4.38.
25 And they ytransgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
y De.31.16,29; 32.15-21. Ju.2.12,17,19. 2 Ki.17.7-17. Ho.iv.-xiii. Eze.xvi.xx.xxxiii.
26 And the God of Israel zstirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria,5 and he carried them away, (even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,) and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river aGozan, unto this day.
Notes
Reflections.—Behold how sin degrades men and thrusts them down from their excellency! And one false step often leaves an indelible stain upon their memory. But God does not utterly cast off those who fall foully at first, and are severely punished in the flesh. Behold how he divides the honours which had been sinfully forfeited, that no flesh may glory in his presence!—how he casts out the enemy from before his people by little and little, and gives them residence and substance as they have need of it! Behold these Gadites in their pride; and see how God in his wisdom, to mark them not utterly cast off, takes up their names just before their removal into a long captivity! But what mighty things the people of God can do when they take him along with them! With ease they tread down their enemies, and gather their spoils when they go forth crying to and trusting in him. But sin is pregnant with the greatest mischief to the temporal as well as the eternal interests of professors. God sometimes serves his own purposes by the ambition of the most proud, tyrannical, and murderous princes. And the most lasting destruction follows those who are cut off in their sins. They who are governed more by sense than by faith in the choice of their settlement, find often, when it is too late. that they have made a very disadvantageous one. Their first settlement issues in their being first wretched and miserable.