The First Book of the Chronicles
1 Chronicles 7
Chapter VII · Vol. II, pp. 815–817
1 The sons of Issachar, 6 of Benjamin, 13 of Naphtali, 14 of Manasseh. 20 The sons of Ephraim who were slain by the men of Gath. 23 Beriah is born. 28 Ephraim's habitations. 30 The sons of Asher.
2 And the sons of Tola; Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jahmai, and Jibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their father's house, to wit, of Tola: they were valiant men of might in their generations; cwhose number was, in the days of David, two and twenty thousand and six hundred.1
c 2 Sa.24.1-9. ch.21.1-5; 27.23,24.
1 B.C. 1017.
3 And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah: and the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five:2 all of them chief men.
2 That is, the sons of Uzzi were five. The sons of Izrahiah being counted to their grandfather, for some legal reason, as Ephraim and Manasseh were counted to their grandfather Jacob, and not to their father Joseph.—C.
4 And with them, by their dgenerations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and thirty thousand men: for they had many wives and sons.3
d ch.12.32.
3 Heb. they multiplied wives and children, ver.5.
5 And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all, by their genealogies, efourscore and seven thousand.
e This was the whole number of their fighting men, ch.21.5. 2 Sa.24.9.
6 The sons of fBenjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three.4
f Ge.46.21. Nu.26.38-41. ch.8.1.
4 We learn from Ge. 46. 21 that Benjamin had ten sons, and in ch. 8. 1 five are enumerated. This apparent discrepancy is accounted for by observing how in ch. 1. 1 the name of Abel is omitted, as he had no family. The extinction, first of five, and finally of seven branches of Benjamin's family, is an event not unlikely in the scenes of turmoil in which the country had been so long involved.—C.
7 And the sons of Bela;5 Ezbon, and Uzzi, and Uzziel, and Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour, and were reckoned by their genealogies twenty and two thousand and thirty and four.
5 B.C. 1680.
8 And the sons of Becher; Zemira,6 and Joash, and Eliezer, and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth. All these are the sons of Becher.
6 B.C. 1017.
9 And the number of them, after their genealogy by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour, was twenty thousand and two hundred.
10 The sons also of Jediael; Bilhan: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud,g and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar.
A.M. 2987. B.C. 1017.
g Ju.3.15; v.
11 All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, hwere seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle.
h They amounted to 59,434, exclusive of those mentioned ver.12, who perhaps were not numbered, ch.27.24.
12 Shuppimi also, and Huppim, the children of jIr, and Hushim, the sons of kAher.7
i Or, Shupham, Muppim, Nu.26.39. Ge.46.21.
j Or, Iri, ver.7.
k Or, Ahiram, Nu.26.38.
7 The omission of the genealogy of Dan in this its proper place, can be accounted for by a reference to Jos.18.30,31, from which it appears that they continued not only in schismatical separation from the church of God, but in a state of uninterrupted idolatry till the days of the captivity.—C.
13 The lsons of Naphtali; Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.
l Ge.46.24. Nu.26.48-50.
14 Them sons of Manasseh; Ashriel, whom she bare;8 (but his concubine the Aramitess bare Machir the father of Gilead:
m Nu.26.28-34;27.1.
8 This passage is undoubtedly obscure. Greenfield proposes the following change in the translation—'The sons of Manasseh were Ashriel, whom his Syrian concubine bare to him; and Machir the father of Gilead, whom his wife bare to him. Machir took for a wife Maachah, sister to Huppim,' &c.—C.
15 And nMachir took to wife9 the sister of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister's name was Maachah;) and the name of the second was Zelophehad:1 and oZelophehad had daughters.
n Hezron, a grandson of Judah, married his daughter, and their child was reckoned to the tribe of Manasseh, ch.2.21-23.
9 B.C. 1480.
1 Zelophehad was not literally the son, but the descendant of Manasseh in the third generation. Zelophehad was the son of Hepher, Nu.26.33, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, Nu.26.29. This, with the apparent want of connection with the genealogy, has induced some expositors to reject it as a fragment unaccountably interpolated. Such a criticism is both rash and unwarranted. The narrative was a legal conveyance of family property, and were we acquainted with all the family history, the cause of its insertion would no doubt appear, and the obscurity of the whole passage be dissipated.—C.
o Nu.27.1-11; 36.1-12. Jos.17.3,4.
16 And Maachah the wife of Machir bare a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.
17 And the sons of Ulam; pBedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.
p Perhaps the judge mentioned 1 Sa.12.11.
18 And his sister Hammoleketh bare Ishod, and Abiezer, and Mahalah.
20 Andr the sons of Ephraim; Shuthelah,2 and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son,
r Nu.26.35.
2 B.C. 1670.
21 And Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they scame down to take away their cattle.3
s The Philistines came down to Goshen to rob the Hebrews of their cattle. Judah and Ephraim, who were intended to have the largest tribes, have most of their children at first cut off. Compare Ge.38.1-10.
3 Expositors are divided as to whether the Ephraimites made the inroad upon the Philistines, or the Philistines upon the Ephraimites. But it being evident from ver.22 that the murder took place in the life of Ephraim, it must have been in Egypt; for the phrase came down would never characterize the going up from the level of the Nile to the mountains of Philistia; but is the constant geographical description of the descent from the higher to the lower country. See Ge.43.4. The word translated because must therefore be rendered when. C.——The land of Goshen, in which the Israelites dwelt, extended northwards, almost, if not altogether, to the borders of Philistia. The Israelites were semi-nomads. They had their head-quarters in Goshen; but their shepherds were accustomed to lead their flocks far over the pasture-land that lies between Palestine and Egypt. Probably the sons of Ephraim had approached too near the territory of the Philistines—the latter attacked and killed them.—P.
22 And Ephraim their father tmourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.
t Ge.37.34,35. Job 2.11.
23 And when he went in to his wife, she conceived, and bare a son, and he ucalled his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house.
24 (And his daughter was Sherah, who built Beth-horonx the nether, and the upper, and Uzzen-sherah.)
x Jos.16.3,5; 18.13,14; 21.22; 10.10. 1 Sa.13.17. 1 Ki.9.18. 2 Ch.8.5, i.e. her posterity built these cities.
25 And Rephah was his son, also Resheph; and Telah his son, and Tahan his son,
26 Laadan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,
27 Nony his son, Jehoshua his son.z
y Or, Nun, Nu.13.8,16. Ex.17.9,10,13.
z B.C. 1560.
28 And their possessions and habitations were, Beth-el and the towns thereof, and eastward aNaaran, and westward Gezer with the towns4 thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof,5 unto aGaza and the towns thereof:6
a Naarath, Jos.16.5-9. Ju.1.29.
A.M. 2444. B.C. 1560.
4 Heb. daughters.
5 B.C. 1444.
a Not Gaza of the Philistines, Ju.16.1.
6 Naaran stood in the Jordan valley north of Jericho. Gezer lay on the northern border of Benjamin, between Beth-horon-the-nether and the sea, and consequently in the plain of Sharon. Gaza cannot, of course, be the celebrated capital of Philistia, for it stood far beyond the border of Ephraim. This is another place of the same name, situated, apparently, in the region of Shechem.—P.
29 And by the borders of the children of bManasseh, Beth-shean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns. cIn these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel.
b Jos.17.7,11.
c Jos. xvi. xvii.; 21.21,25. Ju.1.22-29.
30 Thed sons of Asher; Imnah,7 and Isuah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Serah their sister.
d Ge.46.17. Nu.26.44-46.
7 B.C. 1720.
31 And the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzavith.
33 And the sons of Japhlet; Pasach, and Bimhal, and Ashvath: these are the children of Japhlet.
35 And the sons of his brother Helem; Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Amal.
36 The sons of Zophah; Suah, and Harnepher, and Shual, and Beri, and Imrah,
39 And the sons of Ulla; Arah, and Haniel, and Rezia.
40 All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father's house, choice and mighty men of valour, chief of the princes. And the hnumber, throughout the genealogy of them that were apt to the war and to battle, was twenty and six thousand men.
h 2 Sa.24.1-9. ch.21.1-5; 27.23,24.
Notes
[Ver. 24. At what time, or under what circumstances, does not appear; but, as she could not be alive at the exodus, she must have previously removed from Egypt, unless, as in some other instances, some generations are passed over, and by some legal technicality in reference to inheritance, a distant descendant be ranked as the immediate daughter. C.]
Reflections.—How God multiplies a people amidst hard country labour as he did that of Issachar! He can multiply families after they had been almost utterly extirpated, as were the Benjamites, Ju. xx. How early the Hebrews, even in Egypt, began to contract marriages with the heathen! We go astray from the womb, speaking lies. The families and nations for which God intends peculiar honour often meet with singular breaches and discouragements in their way to it. Providence often seems to contradict promises: but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. We are nowhere safe from danger; nor are good causes always successful. Children are certain cares and griefs to parents, but uncertain pleasures. They who live long only live to see their sorrows multiplied, and to bury the choicest of their worldly comforts. To soothe the griefs of the afflicted is to act a kind and brotherly part. But what a mercy is it when God compensates the breaches which he hath made in families! And virtuous women are an honour and blessing to families as well as mighty and illustrious men.