1 Chronicleschapter 1
54 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was set down for a small community back from Babylon, living in a Persian province and rebuilding its records. Its compiler worked from the lists of Genesis and opened his whole history with the first man. It is a register of names, and it carries almost no story. Listen for the order in which the families come, since each branch outside the promised line is named in full and then set aside. The chapter tells a people with little land where they stand among all the nations of the earth.
Context
- Who
- Returned exiles who had to prove on paper who they were before they could farm a field or serve at an altar
- What
- A register of names running from Adam through Noah's sons and Abraham's sons to the kings and chiefs of Edom.
- Where
- Written in Jerusalem in the Persian province of Yehud, from lists that range over the whole known world.
- When
- Compiled after the return from Babylon, between about 450 and 400 BC or in the 300s BC, from records reaching back to the beginning.
- Why
- To place Israel inside the whole human family before the book narrows to the line of promise.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the compiler rather than to any man inside it. He is a scribe with archives in front of him, and every name he writes already stood in Genesis, the line from Adam, the table of the seventy nations, the sons of Abraham by Keturah, the sons of Ishmael and the chiefs of Edom. He copies his sources and leaves them visible, which is how a careful archivist worked.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The setting is post-exilic Jerusalem, a small province the Persians called Yehud, a few days' walk across. The occasion is a community that had come home and needed its records rebuilt.
In the ancient Near East a family list was a legal document. Land passed by descent, priestly service was restricted by descent, and a clan's right to a village rested on a name in a register. Temple and palace archives kept such lists on scrolls, and copying them forward was ordinary administrative work.
Ezra 2:61 to 63 records families who came home from Babylon, searched for their entry and could not find it, and were kept from the priesthood until a ruling could be made. A missing name meant a lost livelihood.
The Edomite king list at the close follows a form used across the region, a run of rulers with their cities named, the way Mesopotamian and Egyptian scribes kept their own king lists. Eight men reigned in Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.
Significance
A people living in one small province needed to know where it stood in the world, and the register answers by starting at Adam. Israel and the nations come out of the same first family, and the chapter names the nations before it names the tribe.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The closing list carries a quiet warning as well. Edom had kings and cities generations before Israel did, so arriving first and being chosen are two different things.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The annual cycle of synagogue readings passes this book by. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, with no festival reading. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole. Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon rather than among the Former Prophets, so it has no weekly portion of its own and no Haftarah is drawn from it. A congregation never hears this chapter read aloud on a Sabbath.
The material is met in the study of the Torah portions instead, and the corpus shows the joins. Under the first verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 1:7 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Re'eh 1:1. Under the seventh it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 25. A Jewish reader meets these names through Genesis and Deuteronomy rather than through Chronicles.
The place of the book in the Hebrew order is the other thing worth a Christian reader's attention here. The dossier this site carries records that the Leningrad Codex sets Chronicles last, so that the Hebrew Bible closes on the decree of Cyrus. The Aleppo Codex sets it first among the Writings instead. The same section records that the division into two books came from the Greek rather than the Hebrew.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. He opens the book by saying what the whole genealogy is for. It traces the lineage of King David, and of the Levites for the gate sentries, the guards and the singers, and of the priests in their watches. He names Ezra as the writer, working through Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:1:1).
The method of the list is given in the same note as a parable. A king travelling from place to place dropped a pearl, and stood sifting the sand with a sieve until he found it. "Why should I trace the lineage of Shem and Arpachshad and Terach except to find Abraham?" (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:1:1). The nations are entered and dismissed quickly because of it. Rashi puts the rule plainly, that the writer "mentions them only briefly and casts them away until he reaches the main ones". He returns to the same rule twice, at the sons of Noah and at the restart in Shem (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:4:1 and 1:24:1).
Three readings in the chapter turn on honour rather than on information. Timna is traced because she was the daughter of princes and wished to be a concubine to the seed of Abraham, which Rashi reports as Abraham's praise. The sons of Keturah are entered because anything disgraceful the writer can tell of them enhances Isaac's honour (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:32:1). At the sons of Isaac the text reads Israel where a reader expects Jacob. Rashi gives the reason in one clause. "Because of David's honor, he says, Israel, not Jacob" (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:34:1, the American spelling the translation carries).
The rest of his notes are close glosses. Diphath here against Riphath in Genesis he reads as a change of sense, weak at first and filled with disgrace at the end (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:6:1). Magog and Madai are passed over because no heads of nations came from them (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:7:1). The sons of Mizraim are read through Genesis Rabbah 37:5 as peoples of the sea (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:11:1 and 1:12:1). The eleven sons of Canaan with their father make twelve, and Rashi sets the boundaries of the peoples against the twelve tribes of Israel (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:13:1). At Peleg he reads the parting of the earth as a parting of lifespans, nine hundred years falling to four hundred and then halved again (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:19:1). Eber he calls a great prophet, because he named his son for a future event, while the other names in the list were not meant to be expounded (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:23:1). The five sons of Midian are five heads of nations, which is why Numbers names five kings of Midian (Rashi on I Chronicles 1:33:1).
The corpus carries eight further notes on this chapter without an English text, each of them marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on I Chronicles 1:5:1, 1:17:1, 1:20:1, 1:36:1 and 1:38:1, and at Malbim on I Chronicles 1:8:1, 1:28:1 and 1:29:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the three names Adam, Seth and Enosh, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 24:6 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 7:3:2. Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 1:7 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Re'eh 1:1 stand with them. So does a passage of Otzar Midrashim from the Midrashim of Rabbi Akiba on the enlarged letters, at 3. On the second verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:37 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 42:3. On the fourth, the sons of Noah, it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:33 and 4:37.
The table of nations draws the next run. On the seventh verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbah 37:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 25, Midrash Lekach Tov on Genesis 10:3:1 and on Deuteronomy 14:10:1, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 61:15. On the ninth it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vaera 1:1, Shemot Rabbah 47:3 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 1:1:1. On the thirteenth, the sons of Canaan, it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 563:9. On the seventeenth it holds a passage of Midrash Yelamdenu from the selections in Yalkut Talmud Torah, at 47:2. On the nineteenth and the twentieth, Peleg and Joktan, it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 62:4 and 62:5.
Abraham is where the weight falls. On the twenty-fourth verse the corpus holds Ruth Rabbah 8:1 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 8:7:3. On the twenty-seventh, the verse naming Abram as Abraham, it holds Berakhot 13a:4, Bereshit Rabbah 37:3, Esther Rabbah 1:2, Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 3:17, and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) at Berakhot 1:57 and Megillah 1:15.
The house of Esau carries the rest. On the thirty-first verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 9:11. On the thirty-fifth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:10 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber at Vayera 30:1 and Vayishlach 8:2. On the thirty-sixth, where Timna stands, it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 36:12:2 and Tractate Soferim 5:11. On the thirty-eighth it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 1:4, and on the thirty-ninth Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 948:1. On the fortieth it holds Midrash Lekach Tov at Genesis 3:20:1 and Numbers 21:15:1, and on the forty-third Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 130:19. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 1:1:1 to 1:35:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 1:5:1, 1:17:1, 1:20:1, 1:36:1 and 1:38:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 1:8:1, 1:28:1 and 1:29:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/1.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0, and src/components/book/dossier-content/1-chronicles.ts, the manuscripts section on the place of Chronicles in the Hebrew order.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
From Adam to Noah's three sons
1 Chronicles 1:1-4
Adam, Seth, Enosh: No book of Scripture opens more abruptly: one word, Adam, and the whole primeval history compressed into ten names from Adam to Noah. The list is Gen 5's chosen line with Cain's line silently omitted, which announces the Chronicler's method: he traces the thread that leads to David.
1 Chronicles 1:1
“Adam, Sheth, Enosh - That is, Adam was the father of Sheth or Seth. Seth was the father of Enosh, Enosh the father of Kenan, and so on. No notice is taken of Cain and Abel, or of any of the other sons of Adam. One line of patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, is what the historian intended to give; and to have mentioned the posterity of Cain or Abel would have been useless, as Noah was not the immediate descendant of either.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsMatthew 1:1
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared: Kenan, Mahalalel, and Jared stand in Seth's line from Adam to Noah, as in Genesis 5:9 to 20. Genesis gives each man's years, and the Chronicler keeps only the names. Luke 3:37 names Kenan as Cainan.
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech: Jude 14 calls Enoch the seventh from Adam. Genesis 5:24 records that he walked with God and that God took him. This Lamech is Seth's descendant and Noah's father, a different man from Cain's Lamech in Genesis 4:18 to 24.
Shem, Ham, and Japheth: Noah's three sons head the table of nations that fills verses 5 to 23, as they head Genesis 10. Their descendants are then listed in reverse order: Japheth, then Ham, then Shem. The chosen line comes last.
1 Chronicles 1:4
“Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth--The three sons of this patriarch are enumerated, partly because they were the founders of the new world, and partly because the fulfilment of Noah's prophecy (Ge 9:25-27) could not otherwise appear to have been verified.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The nations spread from Japheth, Ham, and Shem
1 Chronicles 1:5-7
The sons of Japheth: The table of nations from Gen 10 begins, condensed and unglossed: Japheth's line, the coastland and northern peoples, Gomer and Magog and Javan among them. Chronicles keeps the human map in front of Israel before narrowing to Israel, so the election it traces sits inside a world it has named.
1 Chronicles 1:5
“The sons of Japheth, Gomer,.... Here begins the genealogy of the sons of Noah after the flood; of the sons of Japheth the elder, in this and the two following verses; next of the sons of Ham, the younger brother, 1Ch 1:8, then of Shem, whose posterity are mentioned last, because from him, in the line of Heber, sprang Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish nation, of whom the Messiah was to come, for whose sake this genealogy is given, 1Ch 1:17. The whole is the same with the account in Gen 10:1.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 1:5
After Tiras, the Targum adds, “And the names of their countries were Africa, and Germany, and Media, and Macedonia, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace.” And in another copy, “Germany, Getia, and Media, and Ephesus, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Gomer: Gomer's sons Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah repeat Genesis 10:3, though the Hebrew of Chronicles spells Riphath as Diphath. Ashkenaz is a kingdom called against Babylon in Jeremiah 51:27. Ezekiel 38:6 names Togarmah with Gomer.
1 Chronicles 1:6
“To this verse the Targum adds, “And the names of their countries were Asia, and Persia, and Barbary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
And the sons of Javan: Javan names the Greeks, and his sons Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites are peoples of the coasts and islands. The Kittites are tied to Cyprus, and Tarshish is the port of Jonah 1:3. Genesis 10:4 spells Rodanites as Dodanim.
1 Chronicles 1:7
“The sons of Javan - “But the sons of Macedon, Alsu, and Tarsus, Ilation, and Dardania, or, according to others, Elisha, Alam, Titsas, Achzavia, and Dardania, Ridom, and Chamen, and Antioch.” So says this Targum, which I shall henceforth designate by the letter T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 1:8-16
The sons of Ham: Here the list breaks for one clause of story: Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth. Everything around it is trimmed to names. The line runs on through Mizraim and Canaan, whose peoples fill the conquest narratives.
1 Chronicles 1:8
“The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim - “Arabia and Egypt.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan: These Cushite names follow Genesis 10:7. Sheba and Dedan appear again at verse 32 as sons of Jokshan, and a Sheba is a son of Joktan at verse 22. The same names stand in three lines of the table.
1 Chronicles 1:9
“Seba, and Havilah - “Sindi and Hindi, and Semadaei, and Libyes and the Zingitae; but the sons of the Mauritanians, Demargad and Mesag.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cush was the father of Nimrod: , and Genesis 10:9 to 12 adds that Nimrod was a mighty hunter whose kingdom began at Babel in Shinar. The Chronicler keeps only his might on the earth. Micah 5:6 calls Assyria the land of Nimrod.
1 Chronicles 1:10
“He began to be mighty upon the earth - “He began to be bold in sin, a murderer of the innocent, and a rebel before the Lord.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Mizraim was the father of: Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt. The sons of Mizraim, the Ludites, the Anamites, the Lehabites, and the Naphtuhites, are peoples, and Pathrusites and Casluhites of verse 12 continue the list. Genesis 10:13 gives the same names.
(from whom the Philistines came): The Philistines came from the Casluhites, as Genesis 10:14 says. Amos 9:7 brings the Philistines from Caphtor, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the Philistines and Caphtorites as brother peoples who came from the Casluhites.
1 Chronicles 1:12
“Casluhim (of whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim--a better rendering is, "and Casluhim, of whom came the Philistim and Caphtorim." They were brethren, the sons of Casluhim, and at first dwelt together, whence their names are used interchangeably. The Caphtorim are described as inhabiting Azzah, or Gaza, the seat of the Philistines.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sidon his firstborn: Sidon is the Phoenician port city on the coast north of Israel. The Hittites and several peoples named in verses 14 to 16 are the nations of the land listed in Deuteronomy 7:1. Canaan is the son Noah cursed in Genesis 9:25.
1 Chronicles 1:13
“Canaan begat Zidon - “Canaan begat Bothniam, his first-born, who built Sidon.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Jebusites, the Amorites: The Jebusites held Jerusalem until David took it in 1 Chronicles 11:4 to 6. The Amorites were the hill peoples Israel fought on both sides of the Jordan, and Sihon and Og were their kings east of it. These names return in Israel's history.
the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites: The Gibeonites who deceived Joshua were Hivites, according to Joshua 9:7. The Arkites and Sinites are commonly placed at towns on the Phoenician coast north of Sidon. They appear only here and in Genesis 10:17.
the Arvadites, the Zemarites: The Arvadites came from Arvad, an island city on the coast north of Sidon. Barnes identifies the Zemarites with Zimira, named with Arvad in the records of Sargon of Assyria. The Hamathites held Hamath, the city at Israel's northern limit.
1 Chronicles 1:16
The Zemarite - See Gen 10:18 note. The inscriptions of the Assyrian monarch, Sargon, (720 B.C.) mention Zimira, which is joined with Arpad (Arvad); and there can be little doubt that it is the city indicated by the term “Zemarite.”
1 Chronicles 1:17-27
The sons of Shem: Shem's line carries a second clause of story, kept from Genesis 10:25: Peleg was named so because in his days the earth was divided. The list then runs from Shem to Abram in ten names, and verse 27 closes the chapter's first movement: and Abram (that is, Abraham).
1 Chronicles 1:17
“The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 1:17
“The great promise of the Messiah (says bishop Patrick) was translated from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Hebrew nation, who were entrusted, above all nations, with that sacred treasure, till the promise was performed and the Messiah had come, and then that nation was made not a people.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Arphaxad was the father of Shelah: Arphaxad, Shelah, and Eber follow Shem as in Genesis 11:10 to 15. Luke 3:36 places a Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah. The name Hebrew is often traced to Eber, the father of Peleg and Joktan.
One was named Peleg: Peleg means division, and the verse ties his name to the earth being divided in his days. Readers have joined this to Babel in Genesis 11:8 to 9, where the people were scattered over the earth. Joktan's sons come first, in verses 20 to 23.
1 Chronicles 1:19
“The name of the one was Peleg - “Because in his days the inhabitants of the earth were divided according to their languages. And the name of his brother was Joktan, because in his days the years of men began to be shortened, on account of their iniquities.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
And Joktan was the father of: Joktan was the father of thirteen sons, from Almodad and Sheleph to Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab in verse 23. Genesis 10:26 to 29 gives the same names. Hazarmaveth is usually placed in southern Arabia.
1 Chronicles 1:20
“Joktan begat Almodad - “He divided and measured the earth by lines. Sheleph; he assigned rivers to be boundaries. Hazarmaveth; he prepared a place of snares to kill by the highways. Jerah; he built inns, and when any person came to eat and drink, he gave him deadly poison, and so took his property.” - T. According to these traditions, the two first were geographers; the third, a public robber; and the fourth, an unprincipled innkeeper, who gave poison to his rich guests, that he might get their property. Such things have been done even in modern times.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah: The Chronicler copies these names from Genesis 10:27 without comment. Genesis 10:30 sets the territory of Joktan's sons from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country. Each branch of Shem is recorded before Abram's.
Obal, Abimael, Sheba: Sheba here is a son of Joktan in Shem's line, while verse 9 names a Sheba among the sons of Cush. The queen who visited Solomon came from an Arabian people of that name. 2 Chronicles 9:1 tells of her visit.
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab: Ophir became the name of a land of gold, and David sets aside gold of Ophir for the temple in 1 Chronicles 29:4. Havilah also appears among the sons of Cush in verse 9. With Jobab, Joktan's branch closes.
1 Chronicles 1:23
“And Ophir - “Whence gold is brought.” And Havilah; “whence pearls are brought.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The line narrows down to Abraham
So from Shem came Arphaxad: After the side branch of Joktan, the Chronicler returns to Shem and runs the chosen line straight through, following Genesis 11:10 to 26. Verses 24 to 27 give ten names from Shem to Abram. Adam to Noah was also ten.
Eber, Peleg, Reu: Here Peleg carries the line, and his brother Joktan's descendants are left behind in verses 20 to 23. Genesis 11:16 to 21 gives the ages of Eber, Peleg, and Reu. The Chronicler drops every age and keeps the names.
Serug, Nahor, Terah: Nahor here is Abram's grandfather, and Terah also had a son named Nahor, Abram's brother, in Genesis 11:26. Joshua 24:2 says Terah lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods. Abram was called out of that household.
Abram (that is, Abraham): Abram and Abraham are two names of one man. Abraham, father of many nations, is the name given in Genesis 17:5. The Chronicler uses Abraham for the sons of Abraham in verses 28 to 34.
1 Chronicles 1:28-34
The sons of Abraham: Ishmael's twelve sons and Keturah's sons are listed first and finished. Then the line the book follows is taken up last: Abraham was the father of Isaac. Genesis set the same order with its toledoth, listing Esau's line before Jacob's.
1 Chronicles 1:28
“Isaac and Ishmael - Isaac, though younger than Ishmael, is placed first, as the legitimate heir, since Sarah alone was Abraham’s true wife (compare the 1Ch 1:36 note).”
These are their genealogies: The genealogies of Ishmael and of the sons of Keturah come first, and the sons of Isaac, Esau and Israel, come last. Barnes notes that the line of Shem was held back after Japheth and Ham in the same way. Genesis 25:12 opens Ishmael's genealogy with this heading.
1 Chronicles 1:29
“These are their generations - As Shem was reserved until after Japheth and Ham 1Ch 1:5-16, because in him the genealogy was to be continued (Gen 10:2 note), so Isaac is now reserved until the other lines of descent from Abraham have been completed. The same principle gives the descendants of Esau a prior place to those of Jacob 1 Chr. 1:35-51; 1Ch 2:1.”
Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, and Tema repeat Genesis 25:13 to 15. Kedar and Tema were later known as desert peoples, in Psalm 120:5 and Job 6:19. Barnes takes Hadad as the Syrian name and Hadar as a slip between two Hebrew letters that look alike.
1 Chronicles 1:30
“Hadad here and in 1Ch 1:50 is the well-known Syrian name, of which Hadar (margin) is an accidental corruption, consequent on the close resemblance between “d” (daleth) and “r” (resh) in Hebrew, the final letters of the two names.”
These were the sons of Ishmael: The twelve names of verses 30 and 31 answer God's promise in Genesis 17:20 that Ishmael would father twelve princes. Jetur and Naphish return in 1 Chronicles 5:19 as enemies of the tribes east of the Jordan. Ishmael's line is complete in two verses.
The sons born to Keturah: Genesis 25:1 calls Keturah Abraham's wife, and here she is his concubine, which Clarke explains as a wife of the second rank. Midian is the ancestor of the Midianites, among whom Moses lived after he fled Egypt in Exodus 2:15. Genesis 25:3 also names Dedan's sons, omitted here.
1 Chronicles 1:32
“Keturah, Abraham’s concubine - Abraham’s pilegesh, or wife of the second rank; she was neither whore, harlot, nor concubine, in our sense of these words.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Midian: The five sons of Midian repeat Genesis 25:4. Midian's descendants later oppressed Israel for seven years until Gideon routed them in Judges 6 to 8. Verse 46 records an Edomite king who defeated Midian in Moab.
1 Chronicles 1:33
“The great promise of the Messiah was transmitted from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Jewish nation, who were intrusted above all nations with that sacred treasure, 'till the promise was performed, and the Messiah was come: and then that nation was made not a people.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Abraham was the father of Isaac: Esau is named first as the elder twin, and his line is finished in verses 35 to 54. The Chronicler calls Jacob by the name Israel, given in Genesis 32:28. Chapter 2 opens with his sons.
Esau's house and the kings who ruled Edom
1 Chronicles 1:35-42
The sons of Esau: Esau's line and Seir's run together as Edom, the brother nation whose whole later history with Israel stands behind a quiet list of names. The same sorting rule holds: Esau before Israel, the passed-over line completed and closed so that chapter 2 can open with the sons of Israel.
1 Chronicles 1:35
“The sons of Esau,.... The firstborn of Isaac; his posterity are named in this and the two following verses, as in Gen 36:1 only it should be observed, that Timna, 1Ch 1:36 is not the name of a man, but was the concubine of Eliphaz, the eldest son of Esau, and the mother of Amalek, Gen 36:12, and so in the Arabic version it is read,"and Timna, which was the concubine of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, bare him Amalek;''and so the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 1:35
“Some slight differences there are between some of the names here, and as we had them in Gen. xxxvi. , whence this whole account is taken. Three of four names that were written with a Vau there are written with a Jod here, probably the pronunciation being altered, as is usual in other languages.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The sons of Eliphaz: Genesis 36:12 makes Timna the concubine of Eliphaz and the mother of Amalek. Barnes suggests the Chronicler is listing tribes descended from Eliphaz, among them the people of a place named Timna. Amalek attacked Israel at Rephidim in Exodus 17:8.
1 Chronicles 1:36
Timna - In Gen 36:11, Eliphaz has no son Timna; but he has a concubine of the name, who is the mother of Amalek, and conjectured to be Lotan’s sister 1Ch 1:39. The best explanation is, that the writer has in his mind rather the tribes descended from Eliphaz than his actual children, and as there was a place, Timna, inhabited by his “dukes” (1Ch 1:51; compare Gen. 35:40), he puts the race which lived there among his “sons.”
The sons of Reuel: Reuel was Esau's son by Basemath, according to Genesis 36:4. His four sons match Genesis 36:13. The same four appear as chiefs of Edom in Genesis 36:17, and the name Reuel is also borne by Moses' father-in-law in Exodus 2:18.
The sons of Seir: Seir's sons are the Horites, the people of the land before Esau's descendants took it. Deuteronomy 2:12 records that Esau's sons destroyed the Horites and settled in their place. Genesis 36:20 gives this same list.
1 Chronicles 1:38
“And the sons of Seir,.... This man and his posterity were not of the race of Esau, but are mentioned because they were a family into which Esau, and a son of his, married, and whose possessions he and his obtained. The account from hence, to the end of 1Ch 1:42 is the same with Gen 36:20, with some little variation of names.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 1:38
“Seir - One of another nation, prince of the Horims; whose genealogy is here described, because of that affinity which was contracted between his and Esau's posterity; and those who were not united and incorporated with them, were destroyed by them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Timna was Lotan’s sister: Genesis 36:22 names Lotan's second son Hemam. Some readers take this Timna as the concubine of Eliphaz in Genesis 36:12, which would join Esau's line to the older people of the land.
The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah: The sons of Shobal and Zibeon repeat Genesis 36:23 to 24. Genesis 36:24 remembers this Anah for finding hot springs in the wilderness while he pastured his father's donkeys. The name Anah occurs twice among the Horites.
The son of Anah: Dishon: Genesis 36:25 also names Anah's daughter Oholibamah, who became Esau's wife in Genesis 36:2. The Chronicler omits her. Barnes notes that the Hebrew reads Hamran for the Hemdan of Genesis 36:26, one letter apart, the same kind of slip as at verse 30.
1 Chronicles 1:41
“Amram (rather Hamran), and Hemdan (margin), differ in the original by the same letter only which marks the difference in 1Ch 1:30.”
The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran: These names close the Horite list of Genesis 36:27 to 28. Uz is also a son of Aram at verse 17, and Lamentations 4:21 places Edom in the land of Uz. Job's homeland bears the same name in Job 1:1.
1 Chronicles 1:43-54
before any king reigned: The chapter's last movement repeats Genesis 36:31: these kings reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Edom's kings form a closed list, each one reigning in the place of a king who died. These were the chiefs of Edom closes the chapter.
1 Chronicles 1:43
“The slight differences favor the view, that the writer of Chronicles has here, as elsewhere, abridged from Genesis (see the marginal references).”
Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah: Bozrah later became Edom's leading city, named in the judgments of Isaiah 34:6 and Amos 1:12. Some older readers identified this Jobab with Job. Clarke rejects the link, as the two names are spelled differently in Hebrew.
1 Chronicles 1:44
“Bela was dead - “Being killed by Phineas, in the wilderness.” - T. Jobab the son of Zerah - Supposed by some to be the same as Job, whose book forms a part of the canon of Scripture. But in their names there is no similarity; Job being written איוב aiyob; Jobab, יובב yobab. See the notes on Job, and the parallel place in Genesis.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Husham from the land of the Temanites: Teman bears the name of Eliphaz's son in verse 36 and became a region of Edom known for wisdom, as Jeremiah 49:7 implies. Job's friend Eliphaz is called the Temanite in Job 2:11. Husham is otherwise unknown.
who defeated Midian in the country: This is the only king in the list given a deed, taken from Genesis 36:35. Midian and Moab both bordered Edom, and the battle is recorded nowhere else. Each king comes from a different city.
1 Chronicles 1:46
“Smote Midian - Nothing is known of this war.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Samlah from Masrekah reigned: No king of Edom in this list is the son of the king before him. Each king who reigned comes from a different city: Bela from Dinhabah, Jobab from Bozrah, Samlah from Masrekah. Genesis 36:36 gives the same entry.
Shaul from Rehoboth on the Euphrates: Shaul is the same Hebrew name as Saul, Israel's first king, and a son of Simeon bears it in 1 Chronicles 4:24. The Hebrew reads Rehoboth on the River, which usually means the Euphrates. Some place this Rehoboth inside Edom.
1 Chronicles 1:48
“By the river - “Shaul of Plathiutha, a great city, built on the banks of the Euphrates.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Baal-hanan son of Achbor: Baal-hanan means Baal is gracious. Another Baal-hanan kept David's olive trees in 1 Chronicles 27:28. Like the kings before him, this son of Achbor reigned in the place of a king who died, as Genesis 36:38 records.
his wife’s name was Mehetabel: Genesis 36:39 names this king Hadar, and his city Pau. He is the only king in the list whose wife is named. Clarke gives the last name in the verse, the father or mother of Matred, the sense golden waters.
1 Chronicles 1:50
“Daughter of Mezahab - This word מי זהב mey zahab, is literally the golden waters; or What is gold? The Targumist paraphrases thus: “Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, was so earnest and diligent in business that she became immensely rich; but when she was converted, she said, What is this silver, and What is this gold? That is, They are of no real worth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Now the chiefs of Edom were: Genesis 36:39 leaves the last king's death unrecorded, and the Chronicler adds it. The chiefs that follow repeat Genesis 36:40 to 43, which names them by their clans and places. Timna now appears as a chief.
1 Chronicles 1:51
“Hadad died - “And his kingdom ended; for his land was subdued by the children of Esau, and the dukes of Edom ruled in the land of Gebala.” - T. For various particulars in this chapter, see Genesis 10 (note) and Genesis 36 (note), and the parallel places.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon: Oholibamah is also the name of Esau's wife in Genesis 36:2. Here it names a chief or a clan of Edom. Genesis 36:40 lists these chiefs by their families and localities, so several names may be places.
Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar: Kenaz and Teman repeat the names of Eliphaz's sons in verse 36. The same names now stand for clans of Edom. Mibzar is the Hebrew word for a fortress, and Genesis 36:42 lists the three chiefs in the same order.
These were the chiefs of Edom: Genesis 36:43 closes the same list, adding that Esau was the father of the Edomites. Wesley reads the roll of kings and chiefs as men who each had their day until their place knew them no more. Chapter 2 turns to Israel.
1 Chronicles 1:54
“All these and all theirs had their day; many of them made a mighty noise in the world; until their day came to fall, and their place knew them no more. The paths of death are trodden paths. How soon are we to tread them?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy, the table of the nations condensed into one register, as Keil classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The line of ten, run twice | The chapter carries two columns of ten names in the rhythm Genesis uses, Adam to Noah at verses 1 to 4 and Shem to Abram at verses 17 to 27. The first column is the chosen line of Genesis 5 copied forward with Cain's branch left out, which is how Keil reads it, and the second closes the whole first movement in four words of the Berean text, Abram (that is, Abraham).Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 1:1-27. | 1 Chronicles 1:1, 1 Chronicles 1:4, 1 Chronicles 1:17, 1 Chronicles 1:27 |
| The passed-over branch first, the chosen branch last | The chapter sorts every family the same way twice over. Ishmael's twelve and Keturah's sons stand complete at verses 28 to 33 and Isaac follows at verse 34, then Esau and Seir fill verses 35 to 42 and the sons of Israel open chapter 2. Keil and Bennett both read the order as the Chronicler's own rule, each branch honoured with its names and then closed, the same pattern Genesis set with Esau's list standing before Jacob's.W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles, The Expositor's Bible, on 1 Chronicles 1:28-34. | 1 Chronicles 1:28, 1 Chronicles 1:34, 1 Chronicles 1:35, 1 Chronicles 1:42 |
| Peleg, the name that carries its own reason | Fifty-four verses of names keep two clauses of story, and this is the second of them. Verse 19 of the Berean text reads that one son was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, so the name states the event it was given for and the chapter leaves the riddle standing exactly as Genesis 10:25 left it. The first flash stands at verse 10, where Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth.Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 1:17-27. | 1 Chronicles 1:10, 1 Chronicles 1:19 |
| Eight kings of Edom, each with his city | Verses 43 to 51 give eight kings of Edom in succession with the city of each named beside him, the form Mesopotamian and Egyptian scribes used for their own king lists, and verse 43 dates the whole list before any king reigned over the Israelites. The book's dossier sets the Sumerian King List and the Assyrian King List beside the Chronicler's work and reads ancient genealogies as arguing a claim, which is why they select, compress and arrange.Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 1:43-54. | 1 Chronicles 1:43, 1 Chronicles 1:51, 1 Chronicles 1:54 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book guide reads 1 Chronicles as two shapes on one ribbon, nine chapters of genealogy shaped as a funnel and twenty chapters of narrative shaped as an ascent. Chapter 1 is the whole of the first band, which the guide titles Origins: Adam to Israel's Family, running from 1:1 to 1:54. The guide marks it one of the book's six keystone chapters, with 9, 17, 22, 28 and 29.
The historical value
The dossier sets two Mesopotamian king lists beside this chapter, the Sumerian King List in copies from about 1800 BC and the Assyrian King List in copies from about 1000 to 700 BC. Long runs of names standing before or in place of narrative were how an ancient scribe established that a present house stood in unbroken succession from the beginning of things. The dossier's verdict is that ancient genealogies argued a claim rather than filing an exhaustive record, which is why they select, compress and arrange, and that where the Sumerian list opens with kingship lowered from heaven to legitimate a throne, the Chronicler's list traces a covenant.
The debated concept
The dossier carries the disagreement between the Chronicler's lists and the other lists of Scripture as one of its six standing questions, and three positions hold it. Keil and Delitzsch read the differences as levirate marriage or adoption inside one family. Williamson reads one list as tracing physical descent and another as tracing the succession of a house, since son of regularly means descendant. Knoppers reads the Chronicler as collecting independent traditions and preserving them side by side. The chapter states no verdict and the page states none.
A second question is put by the shape of the chapter rather than by its content. The dossier asks why nine chapters of names come before anything happens, and answers from Ezra 2:61 to 63, where priests who could not produce their register were put from the priesthood. For the first readers the register was the most immediately useful part of the book.
The New Testament and the later record
The guide names 1:1 to 3:24 as the fullest genealogical spine of the messianic line in the Old Testament and sets it against Matthew 1:2 to 11 and Luke 3:23 to 38. Luke's genealogy runs back past Abraham to Adam, which is the frame this chapter opens with, and Matthew's runs forward from Abraham through Judah and David. The door for that comparison stands at the genealogy of Jesus.
Keep studying
Studies7
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Gary Knoppers, 1 Chronicles 1-9, Anchor Bible, 2003, on 1 Chronicles 1:1-54; H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible Commentary, 1982, on 1 Chronicles 1:1-9:34; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, in the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 1:1 and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles, The Expositor's Bible, on 1 Chronicles 1:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).