1 Chronicleschapter 4
43 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
These who were noted by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. They attacked the Hamites and Meunites there in their dwellings, devoting them to destruction even to this day. Then they settled in their place, because there was pasture for their flocks.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a poor province where people were learning their old trades again. Its compiler finishes the families of Judah and then records the tribe of Simeon. Many clans here are named by their work as well as by their fathers, weavers of linen, potters and craftsmen. Listen for the one short prayer set among the names, and for the notes that tie old family records to a king's reign. For the first hearers it said that God had always kept the names of working families.
Context
- Who
- A returned community rebuilding ordinary trades in a poor province
- What
- The remaining clans of Judah, several named by their trades, followed by the clans, towns and raids of Simeon.
- Where
- The lowland villages and workshops of Judah and the grazing country of Simeon in the far south.
- When
- The names span roughly 1400 to 700 BC, and verse 41 dates Simeon's raids to the days of Hezekiah.
- Why
- To complete Judah's register and to record Simeon's towns and the ground its clans took.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Judah's working families and then to Simeon's clans, and it names them by their trades as often as by their fathers.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The trades are the world the chapter assumes. The clans of linen workers at Beth-ashbea grew and retted flax, combed it and wove cloth fine enough to sell. The potters at Netaim and Gederah worked for the king, since royal estates kept their own potters, and jar handles stamped for the crown have been excavated across Judah.
Jabez's prayer sits inside that world of land and labour. Asking God to enlarge his territory was a request for more ground to work, since a border was a line of stone markers in a field and moving one was theft.
Simeon's section explains the map. Simeon's towns stood inside Judah's territory, and the tribe was gradually absorbed. The two raids at the end are grazing raids, one party pushing east of the valley of Gedor for quiet pasture and finding it held by settled Hamites, and five hundred men going up to Mount Seir to finish a surviving band of Amalekites. Verse 41 dates both to the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, which is how an old family record gets anchored in time.
Significance
The people hearing this were farmers, potters, weavers and stone cutters again. Their fathers had held appointments in Babylon or worked its canals, and now the work was flax and clay, and the register told them that God had always kept the names of working families.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The note that Simeon held those towns until the reign of David taught them something about borders as well. Territory shifts and tribes fade into their neighbours, and the written record is what survives.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Nothing in this chapter is read in the synagogue. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading.
The chapter is met in the study of two portions of Exodus, and the corpus names them. Under the second verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 13:3, which is the portion of the golden calf and of Bezalel's work. Under the ninth, where Jabez is named, it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Tetzaveh 9:1 with Shemot Rabbah 38:5, both of them on the portion of the priestly garments. The names of Judah's families are read in those weeks rather than in a week of their own.
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. Four of his notes here teach a reader how the book itself works. A son is entered whose father was never listed, because the writer reckons only certain generations (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:2:1). Ashhur is traced now although his birth stood two chapters back (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:5:1). Celub, Kenaz and Meonothai appear without introduction, and Rashi says plainly that this is the manner of this Book (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:11:1). The method is set out again at Caleb the son of Jephunneh. The writer traces part of a line, leaves it for another family, and comes back (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:15:1).
That note on Caleb carries a second reading a Christian reader will meet nowhere in his own commentaries. Rashi reports the Sages in Temurah 16a holding that Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Caleb the son of Hezron are one man, and that the second name records what he did. He turned away from the counsel of the spies (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:15:1). The name is read there as a verdict on his life rather than as a father's name.
Jabez is the name a Christian reader is most likely to come looking for, and the classical commentary on him is thinner than he will expect. Rashi's whole note on the ninth verse is about the naming. The mother named him for the sadness of the bearing, and Rashi sets it beside the naming of Ben Oni (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:9:1). On the prayer itself his gloss is four words long, reading the request for a wider border as territory (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:10:1). The weight the tradition puts on this man stands in the rabbinic locators below rather than in the commentary. Avot DeRabbi Natan 35:4 is cited on him here and at 2:55, where the families of the scribes live at a place of the same name.
The trades and the places are glossed briefly. Tehinnah is the leader of a city called Ir Nahash (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:12:1). The Valley of Craftsmen was named after the craftsmen who lived in it (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:14:1). The potters of the twenty-third verse are the sons of Shelah. Rashi reads them as men who made clay for the king's work, for pots for the king's food and for the priests (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:23:1). He explains the order of the whole chapter at the sons of Shelah. The writer traced Perez and Zerah first because David came from them, and only then turned to the rest of the generation (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:21:1).
The chapter turns to Simeon at the twenty-fourth verse, and Rashi's longest note here is the one with a bearing on Jewish life. Simeon is traced before Reuben because Simeon lived inside Judah's territory (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:24:1). The reason is Jacob's word over Simeon and Levi, that they would be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. Rashi reads the scattering through Genesis Rabbah in the recension called Shittah Hadashah, where the dividing means stationing scribes in Israel in the synagogues. He then proves the arrangement from Joshua 19:9 and reads the exchange between Judah and Simeon in Judges 1:3 as a reference to the lot already given (Rashi on I Chronicles 4:27:1). A curse in Genesis is read there as the origin of a teaching office.
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on I Chronicles 4:1:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:13:1, 4:17:1 and 4:19:1, at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 4:8:1, 4:20:1 and 4:25:1, and at Malbim on I Chronicles 4:16:1.
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 second verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 40:4 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 13:3. On the third it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5 and Aggadat Bereshit 53:3. On the fifth and the seventh, the two wives of Ashhur, it holds Sotah 12a at 12:5 and 12:7, Shemot Rabbah 1:17, Sifrei Bamidbar 78:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:37. On the eighth it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 164:9.
Jabez draws the heaviest run in the chapter. On the ninth verse the corpus holds Shemot Rabbah 38:5, Midrash Tanchuma, Tetzaveh 9:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 34:7:2. On the tenth, the prayer itself, it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 35:4, Ein Yaakov, Temurah 2:5, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:33 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 18:27:1. Seven locators on two verses is the weight this tradition gives the man.
The rest follow the families. On the fifteenth verse, Caleb, the corpus holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 2:5:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 2:10:26. On the eighteenth, the daughter of Pharaoh, it holds Megillah 13a:3, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:1, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 2:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 2:2. On the nineteenth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:3:4, and on the twentieth Tractate Soferim 7:4.
The house of Shelah and the potters carry the close. On the twenty-first verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbah 61:4, Ruth Rabbah 2:1 and 2:2, and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 2:1:1. On the twenty-second it holds Bava Batra 91b at 91:7 and 91:9, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 5:39 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 5:41. On the twenty-third it holds Bava Batra 91b:11, Bereshit Rabbah 8:7 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:26. On the thirty-eighth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 1:3:9. On the forty-second, the Simeonites who took Mount Seir, it holds Bava Batra 123b:4, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 8:22 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 1:15:3. 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 4:2:1 to 4:27:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 4:1:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:13:1, 4:17:1 and 4:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 4:8:1, 4:20:1 and 4:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 4:16:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/4.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Judah's lesser-known families
1 Chronicles 4:1-4
The descendants of Judah: This is a second register of Judah's line through Hur, distinct from the roster already given in chapter two. The commentators read it as drawn from a separate public document. The line closes at Ephratah, the ancestor of Bethlehem, keeping David's town in view before the chapter turns to Jabez.
1 Chronicles 4:1
“The sons of Judah - A genealogy of this tribe has already been given in the second chapter. It is here introduced again, with some variations. Probably there were different copies in the public registers; and the writer of this book, finding that this second one contained some remarkable particulars, thought proper to insert it in this place: and no reader will regret the insertion, when he carefully considers the matter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Reaiah son of Shobal: Gill identifies Reaiah with Haroeh of 2:52, the two names carrying the same meaning. The Zorathites lived at Zorah, as 2:53 shows. This verse carries Shobal's line another two generations.
1 Chronicles 4:2
“And Reaiah the son of Shobal begat Jahath,.... Reaiah is the same with Haroeh, 1Ch 2:52 the names are of the same signification: and Jahath begat Ahumai, and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites; who inhabited Zoreah, as the Targum, at least part of it; see 1Ch 2:53.”
These were the sons of Etam: Etam is a town near Bethlehem, fortified by Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 11:6, so the sons of Etam may be its founding clans. Jezreel here is a man or clan of Judah. Hazzelelponi is one of the few sisters named in these lists.
1 Chronicles 4:3
“These were of the father of Etam - “And these are the rabbins (doctors) living at Etam, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:3
“Read, “These are the sons of the father (i. e. chief) of Etam” 2Ch 11:6, a city of Judah, not far from Bethlehem.”
Penuel was the father of Gedor: Gedor is a town of Judah, listed in Joshua 15:58. Hushah was the home of Sibbecai the Hushathite, one of David's mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11:29. The verse closes with Hur, father of Bethlehem, tying this register to 2:50 to 51.
1 Chronicles 4:5-8
Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives: , Helah and Naarah. The list traces both households. Koz, a son of Helah, is named in verse 8, just before the account of Jabez in verse 9.
1 Chronicles 4:5
“And Ashur the father of Tekoa,.... A son of Hezron by Abiah, 1Ch 2:24. had two wives, Helah and Naarah; as Lamech had, polygamy not being reckoned unlawful in those times.”
Naarah bore to him Ahuzzam: Naarah's four sons are listed before Helah's, though verse 5 names Helah first. The names mark families of Tekoa, the town Ashhur founded or ruled in 2:24. Nothing else is recorded of them.
1 Chronicles 4:6
“And Naarah bare him Ahuzam, and Hepher, and Temeni, and Haahashtari,.... Of whom we have no account elsewhere: these were the sons of Naarah; the second wife of Ashur.”
The sons of Helah were Zereth: Helah's sons complete Ashhur's household in verses 7 and 8. The pattern of two wives with their sons listed apart repeats what the Chronicler did with Caleb in 2:18 to 19 and Jerahmeel in 2:26. These sons are known only here.
1 Chronicles 4:7
“And the sons of Helah,.... The other wife: were Zereth, and Zoar, and Ethnan: nowhere else mentioned.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:7
“And Ethnan - After this word we should, with the Targum, read Coz, whose posterity is mentioned in the next verse. Coz was probably the same as Kenaz.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Koz, who was the father of Anub: Koz is named with his sons and with the clans of Aharhel son of Harum. Neither Aharhel nor Harum appears elsewhere in Scripture. The next verse turns to Jabez, whose family is left unnamed.
1 Chronicles 4:8
“The son of Harum - Jabez should be mentioned at the end of this verse, else he is as a consequent without an antecedent.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The prayer of Jabez, more honorable than his brothers
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers: The list stops for two verses: Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him for the pain. His prayer asks four things: blessing, enlarged territory, God's hand with him, and protection from harm. Spurgeon preached this text under the title The Prayer of Jabez.
1 Chronicles 4:9
It is remarkable that Jabez should be introduced without description, or patronymic, as if a well-known personage. We can only suppose that he was known to those for whom Chronicles was written, either by tradition, or by writings which have perished. In 1Ch 4:10 Jabez alludes to his name, “sorrowful” (margin): “Grant that the grief implied in my name may not come upon me!”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:9
“To whom he prayed, not to any of the gods of the Gentiles; no, he called on the God of Israel, the living and true God, who alone can hear and answer prayer, and in prayer had an eye to him as the God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people, the God with whom Jacob wrestled and prevailed and was thence called Israel. What was the nature of his prayer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jabez called out to the God: Jabez asks for four things. His last words, free from pain, echo his name, which sounds like the Hebrew word for pain in verse 9. Wesley reads the enlarged territory as land still held by the Canaanites, and the text records that God granted the request.
1 Chronicles 4:10
WE know very little about Jabez, except that he was more honorable than his brethren, and that he was called Jabez because his mother bare him with sorrow. It will sometimes happen that where there is the most sorrow in the antecedents, there will be the most pleasure in the sequel. As the furious storm gives place to the clear sunshine, so the night of weeping precedes the morning of joy. Sorrow the harbinger; gladness the prince it ushers in. Cowper says:— “The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:10
“Called - When he was undertaking some great and dangerous service. Enlarge - Drive out these Canaanites, whom thou hast commanded us to root out. Grieve - That it may not oppress and overcome me: more is understood than is expressed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Craftsmen, linen workers, and the king's potters
1 Chronicles 4:11-20
Chelub the brother of Shuhah: This unit gathers several branches of Judah's families, among them the people of Ge-harashim, which was given this name because its people were craftsmen. Verse 18 records a marriage told nowhere else, of an Egyptian princess in Judah's genealogy: These were the children of Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah.
1 Chronicles 4:11
“It has been conjectured from the strangeness of all the names in this list, that we have here a fragment of Canaanite record, connected with the family of the “Shua,” whose daughter Judah took to wife 1Ch 2:3; Gen 38:2, and whose family thus became related to the tribe of Judah.”
These were the men of Recah: Beth-rapha means house of Rapha, and Ir-nahash means city of Nahash, so these fathers may be founders of towns. Recah is named only here. The group in verses 11 and 12 is joined to no earlier line.
1 Chronicles 4:12
“And Eshton begat Bethrapha,.... Or the family of Rapha: and Paseah, and Tehinnah the father of Irnahash; or the city of Nahash; Tehinnah seems to have been the prince or governor of a city, so called: these are the men of Rechah; these sons of Eshton dwelt in a place called Rechah; the Targum, without any reason, says, these are the men of the great sanhedrim.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:12
“These are the men of Rechah - “These are the men of the great Sanhedrin.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Kenaz: Othniel is the first judge of Israel, as Gill notes, who delivered Israel from the king of Aram-naharaim in Judges 3:8 to 11. Joshua 15:17 calls him the son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother. Hathath carries his line on.
1 Chronicles 4:13
“And the sons of Kenaz,.... Who was either the son of Chelub, or of Eshton: Othniel, and Seraiah; the first of these is he who is mentioned, Jos 15:17 and was the first judge in Israel: and the son of Othniel, Hathath; and the next mentioned.”
because its people were craftsmen: Ge-harashim means the valley of craftsmen, and Gill notes it appears as a settlement in Nehemiah 11:35. This Joab is an early man of Kenaz's family, long before David's commander. The place kept the trade in its name.
Caleb son of Jephunneh: is the Caleb who spied out Canaan and followed the LORD fully in Numbers 13:6 and 14:24. Gill notes that Joshua 14:6 calls him the Kenizzite, tying him to Kenaz and Othniel of verse 13. Iru, Elah, and Naam are known only here.
1 Chronicles 4:15
“And the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh,.... Jephunneh is not the same with Hezron, as the Targum, but another son of Kenaz, hence called the Kenezite, Jos 14:6 and brother of Othniel; and Caleb his son is the same that was sent one of the spies of the land of Canaan by Moses, see Num 13:6. his sons were Iru, Elah, and Naam; of whom we nowhere else read: and the sons of Elah, even Kenaz; another Kenaz, or rather it should be read Uknaz; so Jarchi and Kimchi.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:15
“Caleb the son of Jephunneh - We have already met with this eminent person in Num 13:6, Num 13:30; Num 14:24, and elsewhere; and seen his courageous piety and inflexible integrity. The Targum says here, “They called him Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, because he had purged his soul from the counsel of the spies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Jehallelel: Jehallelel appears with no stated link to the families before him. Ziph shares its name with the town whose people betrayed David to Saul in 1 Samuel 23:19. The names seem to mark clans of Judah's southern hill country.
1 Chronicles 4:16
“And the sons of Jehaleleel,.... Who probably was the son of Uknaz: Ziph, and Ziphah, Tiria, and Asareel; there were two cities in the tribe of Judah of the name of Ziph, Jos 15:24, which might be called from these men, or from Ziph in 1Ch 2:42.”
The sons of Ezrah: Ezrah's four sons open a difficult passage. Barnes judges that the original text of verses 17 and 18 cannot be restored with certainty. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown move part of verse 18 so that Bithiah, Pharaoh's daughter and Mered's wife, gave birth to Miriam.
1 Chronicles 4:17
“She bare Miriam - Rather, “she conceived.” The mother is not mentioned, and it seems impossible to restore the original text with any certainty.”
Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see here the marriage of an Egyptian princess to a man of Caleb's family, with the second wife called the Judean. Clarke reports a Targum that read these names as titles of Moses. Soco and Zanoah are towns of Judah.
1 Chronicles 4:18
“And his wife Jehudijah - The Targum considers the names in this verse as epithets of Moses: “And his wife Jehuditha educated Moses after she had drawn him out of the water: and she called his name Jered, because he caused the manna to descend upon Israel; and Prince Gedor, because he restored the desolations of Israel; Heber also, because he joined Israel to their heavenly Father; and Prince Socho, because he overshadowed Israel with his righteousness, and Jekuthiel, because the Israelites waited on the God of heaven in his time, forty years in the desert; and prince Zanoah, because…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:18
“Jehudijah--"the Jewess," to distinguish her from his other wife, who was an Egyptian. This passage records a very interesting fact--the marriage of an Egyptian princess to a descendant of Caleb.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Keilah the Garmite: Keilah is the town David rescued from the Philistines in 1 Samuel 23:1 to 5. The LORD told him its people would hand him over to Saul, in 1 Samuel 23:12. David later sent plunder to Eshtemoa in 1 Samuel 30:28.
1 Chronicles 4:19
“His wife Hodiah - Not as in the margin, but rather, “the sons of the wife of Hodiah.” Hodiah is elsewhere always a man’s name Neh 8:7; Neh 9:5; Neh 10:10, Neh 10:13, Neh 10:18.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:19
“And the sons of his wife Hodiah,.... Another wife of Mered.”
The sons of Shimon: Shimon and Ishi head two more short lists with no stated link to the families before them. Amnon here shares the name of David's firstborn in 3:1. Ben-zoheth means son of Zoheth.
1 Chronicles 4:20
“And the sons of Shimon,.... Perhaps another son of Mered by his last wife, or the same with Shammai, 1Ch 4:17 were Amnon, and Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon; nowhere else mentioned: and the sons of Ishi: who it may be was the brother of Shimon or Tilon: were Zoheth, and Benzoheth; of whom we know no more than their names.”
1 Chronicles 4:21-23
The sons of Shelah son of Judah: Shelah's line is remembered by trade: the clans of the linen workers at Beth-ashbea, and Joash and Saraph, who ruled in Moab. Verse 22 marks them as old. Verse 23 adds the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah, ordinary trades set down beside the roster of a tribe's princes.
1 Chronicles 4:21
“Their knowledge of the art of linen manufacture had been, most probably, acquired in Egypt, where the duty of bringing up families to the occupations of their forefathers was a compulsory obligation, whereas in Israel, as in many parts of Asia to this day, it was optional, though common.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:21
“This Laadah is said to be the father of those that wrought fine linen, as before the flood Jubal is said to be the father of musicians and Jabal of shepherds, &c. His posterity inhabited the city of Mareshah, the manufacture or staple commodity of which place was linen-cloth, with which their kings and priests were clothed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
(These names are from ancient records.): The parenthesis marks these names as drawn from old records. Joash and Saraph ruled in Moab, and Clarke reports a Targum that made them Mahlon and Chilion, sons of Naomi in Ruth 1:2 to 4. The linen workers of Beth-ashbea were known by their trade.
1 Chronicles 4:22
“And Joash, and Saraph - “And the prophets and scribes which sprang from the seed of Joshua, and the Gibeonites, whose office it was to serve in the house of the sanctuary, because they had lied to the princes of Israel; also Joash, who is the same as Mahlon; and Saraph, who is the same as Chilion, who took wives of the daughters of Moab and Boaz, the chief of the wise men of the college of Bethlehem, and of those who existed in former days.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
These were the potters who lived: Barnes reads Netaim and Gederah as places, with Gederah a town of the lowland in Joshua 15:36. He takes the king's service as work on royal estates, which 1 Chronicles 27:25 to 31 lists under David. Spurgeon draws from the verse that all honest labour is honourable.
1 Chronicles 4:23
“Among plants and hedges - Rather, “in Netaim and Gederah” Jos 15:36. With the king - Or, probably, “on the king’s property.” Both David and several of the later kings had large territorial possessions in various parts of Judaea 1Ch 27:25, 1Ch 27:31; 2Ch 26:10; 2Ch 27:4; 2Ch 32:28-29.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:23
“ALL labor is honorable. No man ever needs to be ashamed of an honest calling. Whether a potter or a gardener, or whatever else his occupation may be, the workman need never blush at the craft or toil by which he earns his honest wage. "In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread," belongs to us all. The sluggard may well be ashamed of his sloth, but not the diligent man of his industry. It is quite certain that the Word of God does not disparage the most humble calling.”
Simeon's towns and the hunt for pasture
1 Chronicles 4:24-27
The descendants of Simeon: Shimei had sixteen sons, but his brothers did not have many children, so their clan did not become as numerous as the sons of Judah. Wesley ties the decline to Jacob's words over Simeon in Genesis 49:7: I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
1 Chronicles 4:24
“The sons of Simeon - This genealogy is very different from that given in Gen 46:10, and Num 26:12. This may be occasioned by the same person having several names, one list taking one name, another list some other, and so on: to reconcile is impossible; to attempt it, useless.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Shaul: Simeon's line is followed through Shaul, the son named last in verse 24. Genesis 46:10 calls Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. Mibsam and Mishma share their names with two sons of Ishmael in 1:29.
The sons of Mishma: Mishma's three sons lead to Shimei, whose large family is the subject of the next verse. Hammuel is named only here. The list narrows from Shaul to the one household in Simeon that grew.
1 Chronicles 4:26
“And the sons of Mishma,.... These were Hamuel, Zacchur, and Shimei.”
had sixteen sons and six daughters: Shimei's sixteen sons stand out in a small tribe: Simeon fell from 59,300 men in Numbers 1:23 to 22,200 in Numbers 26:14, as Clarke notes. Wesley ties this to Jacob's words over Simeon in Genesis 49:5 to 7. Judah grew more.
1 Chronicles 4:27
“Neither did all their family multiply - In Num 1:23 the number of all the families of Simeon was fifty-nine thousand three hundred; and that of Judah was, Num 1:27, not less than seventy-four thousand six hundred. When the next census was made, Num. 26, the tribe of Judah amounted to seventy-six thousand five hundred, an increase of one thousand nine hundred; while the tribe of Simeon amounted only to twenty-two thousand two hundred, a decrease of thirty-seven thousand one hundred. It was at that time the smallest tribe in Israel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 4:27
“Of Judah - The tribe of Simeon did not increase proportionably to the tribe of Judah in which they dwelt; as appears by those two catalogues, Num. i, 22; xxvi, 14, which is to be ascribed to God's curse upon them, delivered by the mouth of holy Jacob, Gen. xlix, 5-7, and signified by Moses's neglect of them when he blessed all the other tribes.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 4:28-33
They lived in Beersheba: Simeon's inheritance is listed as cities, matching Joshua 19, where the tribe's portion lay within Judah's allotment because Judah's share was too large. The note, These were their cities until the reign of David, marks the date of the Chronicler's source. Some of the towns changed hands in David's lifetime.
1 Chronicles 4:28
“And they dwelt at Beersheba,.... posterity of Simeon; and this and the other places of their habitation are mentioned in the same order, and with very little variation of names to the end of 1Ch 4:31, as in Jos 19:2 and here, at 1Ch 4:31 it is added: these were their cities unto the reign of David; when, according to Kimchi, and other Jewish writers, he expelled them from thence, and restored them to the tribe of Judah.”
Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad: Joshua 19:3 to 4 gives these towns as Balah, Ezem, and Eltolad. They lay in the Negev, among the towns first given to Judah in Joshua 15:29 to 30. Simeon's land sat inside Judah's, as Joshua 19:1 says.
Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag: Hormah takes its name from the destruction Israel vowed on the Canaanite towns there in Numbers 21:3. Achish of Gath later gave Ziklag to David, and 1 Samuel 27:6 says it belonged to the kings of Judah from then on. Joshua 19:4 to 5 lists all three.
cities until the reign of David: Wesley explains the limit by Ziklag, which the Philistines held in David's time and gave to him, after which it was joined to Judah. Beth-marcaboth means house of chariots. Joshua 19:5 to 6 lists the same towns with small differences of name.
1 Chronicles 4:31
“For it is evident concerning Ziklag, one of them, that it was in the Philistines hands in David's time, and by them given to him, and by him annexed to the tribe of Judah, 1 Sam. xxvii, 6.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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1 Chronicles 4:31
“When those of this tribe that revolted from the house of David were carried captive with the rest into Assyria those that adhered to Judah were remarkably owned of God and prospered in their endeavours to enlarge their coasts. It was in the days of Hezekiah that a generation of Simeonites, whose tribe had long crouched and truckled, was animated to make these bold efforts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
And their villages were Etam: Gill notes that Joshua 19:7 counts four towns here, and he takes Tochen as added later. Kimchi, as Gill reports, took these as all that remained to Simeon under David. Ashan appears again among the priests' towns in 1 Chronicles 6:59.
they kept a genealogical record: The Simeonites kept their own register, the source of the leaders named in verses 34 to 37. Baal is likely Baalath-beer of Joshua 19:8, the southern limit of their villages. Verse 41 dates the men of this register to Hezekiah.
1 Chronicles 4:33
“And all their villages that were round about the same cities, unto Baal,.... The same with Baalathbeer, Jos 19:8. these were their habitations, and their genealogy; as before described, until the times of David.”
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1 Chronicles 4:33
“And their genealogy - Rather, “and their register was according thereto” - they were registered, i. e. according to the places where they dwelt.”
1 Chronicles 4:34-43
Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah son of Amaziah: The leaders named here took their growing families to the entrance of Gedor in search of pasture. In the days of Hezekiah they destroyed the Hamites who had lived there. Five hundred went on to Mount Seir and struck down the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped.
1 Chronicles 4:34
“And Meshobab, and Jamlech,.... These, with those that follow to the end of 1Ch 4:37 were famous men in the tribe of Simeon, of rank and dignity, and eminent for courage and valour, as the latter part of the chapter testifies, though they are nowhere else taken notice of. Jamlech, as Fabritius (k) observes, is not very different from Jamblichus, the name of a famous Platonic philosopher. (k) Bibliothec. Gr. l. 4. c. 28. p. 294.”
Jehu son of Joshibiah: Jehu's ancestry is traced back three generations through Joshibiah, Seraiah, and Asiel. Such pedigrees gave a leader his standing among the clans. These men led Simeon in Hezekiah's reign, according to verse 41.
Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah: These seven names bring the Simeonite leaders of verses 34 to 37 to twelve, and Ziza in verse 37 makes thirteen. Jaakobah is a form of the name Jacob. Verse 38 calls these men the leaders of their clans.
Ziza son of Shiphi: Ziza's line is traced back five generations to Shemaiah, the longest pedigree in the list. The thirteenth leader closes the register. The next verse says what these leaders did as their families grew.
Their families increased greatly: Barnes takes these leaders as the registered chiefs of the towns in verses 28 to 31, in Hezekiah's time. Their growth answers the smallness of the tribe noted in verse 27. More people needed more pasture.
1 Chronicles 4:38
“These mentioned by their names were princes - The registered chiefs of the cities in the first list 1Ch 4:28-31, in the time of Hezekiah 1Ch 4:41.”
search of pasture for their flocks: Gill takes this Gedor as a place farther than the Gedor of verse 18, and suggests the Gedaris that Strabo names with Ashdod and Ashkelon. The move was in search of grazing land. Simeon's clans lived as herdsmen.
1 Chronicles 4:39
“And they went to the entrance of Gedor,.... There was a city of this name in the tribe of Judah, 1Ch 4:18 but this seems to be further off, and perhaps is the same with Gedaris, mentioned by Strabo (l) along with Azotus and Askelon, cities that belonged to the Philistines; since it was inhabited by the posterity of Ham, of whom the Philistines were, as in the following verse: even unto the east side of the valley; which was near to Gedor, and a suitable place: to seek pasture for their flocks; their sheep and goats. (l) Geograph. l.”
There they found rich, good pasture: The land's earlier people are called Hamites, descendants of Ham. Gill takes them either as Canaanites never driven out or as Philistines, a people traced to Egypt. Genesis 10:6 counts both Canaan and Mizraim among the sons of Ham.
1 Chronicles 4:40
“And they found fat pasture and good,.... In or near the valley of Gedor: and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; there was room enough for them and their flocks, and they had no enemies on either side to disturb them: for they of Ham had dwelt there of old; either the Canaanites who descended from Canaan the son of Ham, and had never been expelled from thence; or the Philistines, who were a colony of the Egyptians, the posterity of Ham; and these inhabitants being of this cursed race, the Simeonites scrupled not to dispossess them.”
came in the days of Hezekiah: The raid is dated to Hezekiah's reign, and the Meunites appear again as enemies of Judah under Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:7. Devoting them to destruction is the language of the conquest under Joshua. The Simeonites settled in their place.
1 Chronicles 4:41
“The habitations - Rather, “the Mehunim” (compare 2Ch 36:7), called also “Maonites” (see Jdg 10:12 note).”
five hundred of these Simeonites led: Mount Seir is the hill country of Edom, south and east of the Dead Sea. Gill notes a rabbinic claim that the four captains came from Manasseh, and he rejects it since they led Simeonites. The sons of Ishi are otherwise unknown.
1 Chronicles 4:42
“And some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men went to Mount Seir,.... In the land of Edom: having for their captains Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi; these four captains are said, by the ancient Rabbins, to be of the tribe of Manasseh, as Kimchi observes; see 1Ch 5:24 but as the five hundred they were at the head of were of the sons of Simeon, the captains, no doubt, were of the same race.”
the remnant of the Amalekites: Saul had struck the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15:7, and David again in 1 Samuel 30:17, where four hundred young men escaped. Here Simeon destroys the survivors in Seir. Barnes takes the words to this day from the Chronicler's older record.
1 Chronicles 4:43
“Unto this day - These words are probably taken from the record which the writer of Chronicles had before him, and do not imply that the Simeonites remained undisturbed in their conquests until after the return from the captivity. So 1Ch 4:41.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy, a second register of Judah's working families followed by the roll of Simeon, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The register stops for a prayer | Verses 9 and 10 break forty-three verses of names for one man. Jabez is called more honorable than his brothers, his mother named him for the pain of his birth, and he asks God for blessing, for enlarged territory, for God's hand with him and for keeping from harm. The Berean text closes the matter in one clause, And God granted the request of Jabez. Matthew Henry reads the prayer at the plain sense of its four petitions, and Charles Spurgeon preached the two verses under the title The Prayer of Jabez.Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 994, The Prayer of Jabez. | 1 Chronicles 4:9, 1 Chronicles 4:10 |
| Families named by their trade | Three entries record a household by the work it did. Verse 14 names Ge-harashim, given that name because its people were craftsmen. Verse 22 names the clans of the linen workers at Beth-ashbea. Verse 23 names the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah in the service of the king. Spurgeon took the last of those three as a sermon text on the honour of any labour done for the true King, and the roll of the royal tribe ends on it.Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1400, With the King for His Work!. | 1 Chronicles 4:14, 1 Chronicles 4:22, 1 Chronicles 4:23 |
| Judah registered a second time | Verses 1 to 4 run Judah again through Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur and Shobal, ground chapter 2 already covered from another side. Adam Clarke and John Gill both read this as a distinct public document carrying details the first roll omitted, which is why the two lists overlap without matching. The line closes at Ephrathah, the ancestor of Bethlehem, keeping David's town in view before the chapter turns to Jabez.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 4:1-4. | 1 Chronicles 4:1, 1 Chronicles 4:4, 1 Chronicles 4:5 |
| Two expansions, one east and one south | The chapter ends with Simeon's clans going out twice for pasture. At verses 39 to 41 they journey to the entrance of Gedor and take rich, good pasture in a spacious, peaceful and quiet land in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. At verses 42 and 43 five hundred men go to Mount Seir and strike down the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped. The two raids are told in the same form and set side by side, and the second is the last blow this book records against Amalek.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Chronicles 4:34-43. | 1 Chronicles 4:39, 1 Chronicles 4:41, 1 Chronicles 4:42, 1 Chronicles 4:43 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book guide runs its Judah band from 2:1 to 4:23, so this chapter carries the last of it, and its Simeon band runs from 4:24 to 5:26, so this chapter opens that as well. The chapter is the seam between the two.
The historical value
Verse 18 records a marriage otherwise unrecorded in Scripture, Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh named as the wife of Mered and the mother of three children in Judah's line. Verse 41 dates a Simeonite expansion to the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, which is the one fixed reign the chapter names and places the raid in the late eighth century.
Verse 31 closes the list of Simeon's cities with the note that these were their cities until the reign of David, which marks the date of the source the Chronicler was copying. Joshua 19 records the same arrangement from the other end, Simeon's portion lying inside Judah's larger allotment.
The debated concept
Simeon's decline is the question the chapter raises and does not settle. Verse 27 records that Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters while his brothers did not have many children, so the clan as a whole did not become as numerous as the sons of Judah. Part of the commentary tradition traces the decline to Jacob's own words over Simeon in Genesis 49:7, that he would be divided and scattered in Israel. John Wesley and Adam Clarke report that reading, and the chapter itself gives the fact without giving the cause.
The roster of Simeon at verses 24 to 27 also differs from the lists in Genesis 46 and Numbers 26. The commentators generally account for it by families carrying more than one name across generations, which is the same class of difference the dossier treats under the question of why the genealogies disagree with other lists.
The prayer, at its plain sense
The four petitions of verse 10 are blessing, enlarged territory, God's hand with him, and keeping from harm, and the answer is recorded in one clause. Matthew Henry reads the prayer as one man's request and one answer, and Spurgeon preached it as a model of plain asking. The text records no promise made to anyone else and no method, which is the reading this page carries.
Keep studying
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
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 4:1-4; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 4:11-20; Gary Knoppers, 1 Chronicles 1-9, Anchor Bible, 2003, on 1 Chronicles 4:1-43 and H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible Commentary, 1982, on 1 Chronicles 2:3-4:23.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; Charles Spurgeon; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.