1 Chronicleschapter 5
26 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
These were the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. Though he was the firstborn, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, because Reuben defiled his father’s bed. So he is not reckoned according to birthright.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for people who knew from their own history what it is to be carried off by an empire. Its compiler records Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, herding clans who settled east of the Jordan. He sets a legal question at the front, about who held the birthright and who held the rule. Listen for the war won by crying out to God, and for the reason given at the close for the first deportation. The chapter explained to the first hearers why the land east of the river stood empty of Israel.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who knew from the inside what deportation does to a people
- What
- The families of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, their war with the Hagrites and their deportation by Assyria.
- Where
- The grazing plateau east of the Jordan, from the Arnon gorge north to Mount Hermon.
- When
- From the settlement to the Assyrian deportation of about 733 BC.
- Why
- To record the eastern tribes and to state why they were the first Israelites carried into exile.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, herding clans who settled east of the Jordan because the land suited flocks.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
That ground is a rolling plateau, drier than the western hills, with wide open grazing, few natural defences and a permanent desert frontier on its eastern edge. It was good for herds and exposed to raiding.
The war with the Hagrites and their allies is a stock raid on a large scale, and the spoil list shows what wealth looked like there, fifty thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep and two thousand donkeys. Camels mattered because they crossed desert that sheep could not.
The chapter settles a legal point at the front. Reuben lost the birthright, the double share of the estate, and it went to Joseph's sons, while the rule over the family went to Judah. The writer separates the two on purpose, because the whole book runs on Judah's right to rule.
The close is the first Israelite deportation in the Bible. The king is named twice in one verse, Pul and Tiglath-pileser, and they are one man, since Pulu was his throne name in Babylon, a fact the Babylonian king lists confirm. Assyria moved conquered populations on purpose, resettling them at Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan so that a people would lose track of itself.
Significance
These were the first Israelites ever carried away, and the writer states the cause plainly, that they broke faith with the God of their fathers and went after the gods of the peoples around them. The men listening had lived the same sentence a century and a half later.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also explained an empty map. Israel had held that plateau for centuries, and when the returned exiles looked east across the Jordan other people were living there. This chapter told them why.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. 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.
Its subject is met instead in the weeks of Genesis that the corpus joins it to. Under the first verse, where the birthright passes from Reuben, it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 31, and Vayechi is the portion of Jacob's blessing of his sons. Under the second, where Judah prevails, it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 57. Under the eighteenth and nineteenth, the war beyond the Jordan, it carries two more passages of the same work from Vayechi, at 13 and 24. The exile at the end of the chapter is joined to Matot, the portion in which these tribes ask for the land east of the river, through Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Matot 8:1.
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. The chapter opens on a question he asks in his own voice. Reuben was the firstborn, so why did the kingship never come from him? His answer takes the verse in two halves. The birthright went to the sons of Joseph when Reuben defiled his father's bed, while the kingship went to Judah, who was the most fit to reign in any case (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:1:1). He supports the second half from Jacob's blessing, where Judah is a lion's cub (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:2:1). A Christian reader should notice what the reading does. It separates the birthright from the throne, and the tradition holds both as real, one running through Joseph and one through Judah.
Two notes tell a reader how much of this tribe's record is lost. The genealogy here is partial, and Rashi says the main part of Reuben's line stands in the chronicles of the kings of Israel rather than in this book (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:7:1). The list of generations is likewise a selection (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:4:1).
The Assyrian kings of the sixth verse are set in order. Pul came in the days of Menahem, Tiglath-Pileser in the days of Pekah, Shalmaneser in the days of Hoshea, and Sennacherib in the days of Hezekiah. Rashi then reports the Rabbis in Sanhedrin 94a holding that all of these names belong to one man, Sennacherib (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:6:1). The sequence a reader takes from Kings and the reading the Talmud gives stand together in the note.
The place names carry a rule of Jewish practice about pagan names. Nebo and Baal Meon were called after the gods of the peoples who held them, since the heathen named their cities for their deities. When the towns came into Israel's hands the names were changed, which Numbers 32:38 records, and Sibmah kept its name because it had never carried one (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:8:1). The tribes' enemies are read through the family names of Genesis. The Hagarites are the Ishmaelites, called after Hagar their mother, and Jetur and Naphish are sons of Ishmael (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:10:1 and 5:19:1). The help given in the war Rashi reads plainly, that the Lord helped them (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:20:1).
The last note in the chapter is the sharpest. Israel went after the gods of the peoples whom God had destroyed before them, and Rashi presses the logic the verse leaves unsaid. Those gods had failed to save their own worshippers, so the men who took them up had refused to reason from what they had seen (Rashi on I Chronicles 5:25:1). The exile in the next verse follows that sentence.
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 5:9:1, 5:12:1, 5:15:1, 5:16:1, 5:17:1, 5:22:1, 5:23:1 and 5:24:1, at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 5:21:1, and at Malbim on I Chronicles 5:14:1.
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. The birthright draws the heaviest run. On the first verse it holds Bava Batra 123a at 123:4 and 123:11, Berakhot 7b:8, Bereshit Rabbah 82:11 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 31. On the second, the pre-eminence of Judah, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 84:21, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:10 and 13:14, Aggadat Bereshit 83:1 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 57.
The tribe's own line carries the next run. On the fifth verse it holds a passage of Pesikta Rabbati from Supplement A, at 3:5. On the sixth, the exile by the Assyrian, it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 42, Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 16:30:14, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:6:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:6:14. On the ninth it holds Yevamot 13b:6, and on the tenth Bereshit Rabbah 98:15.
Gad and the eastern settlements carry the middle of the chapter. On the eleventh verse the corpus holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 30:11:1. On the twelfth it holds Pesachim 68a:13, with Ein Yaakov and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) both at Pesakhim 6:3. On the thirteenth it holds Midrash Tehillim 80:1, and on the seventeenth Seder Olam Rabbah 19:2.
The war and the exile carry the rest. On the eighteenth verse it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:4:3 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 13, and on the nineteenth the same work at Vayechi 24. On the twentieth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:25. On the twenty-third it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 130:5, and on the twenty-fourth Bava Batra 123b:4. On the twenty-fifth, the going after other gods, it holds Meilah 18a:14 and 18b:1, with Bamidbar Rabbah 8:5 and 9:28. On the twenty-sixth, the deportation itself, it holds Arakhin 32b:15, Bamidbar Rabbah 22:7, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Matot 8:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 32:17:1. On the thirtieth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:7, and on the thirty-sixth Sifrei Zuta 18:7:2 with Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 754:2. 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 5:1:1 to 5:25:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 5:9:1, 5:12:1, 5:15:1, 5:16:1, 5:17:1, 5:22:1, 5:23:1 and 5:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 5:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 5:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/5.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.
Reuben, the firstborn who lost the birthright
1 Chronicles 5:1-2
because Reuben defiled his father’s bed: Reuben was the firstborn, but Genesis 49:4 had marked him for going up to his father’s bed. His birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, while Judah prevailed and a ruler came from him. Clarke notes that the Syriac and the Chaldee paraphrase read that ruler as the Messiah.
1 Chronicles 5:1
“Not reckoned - This is the second reason, which sheweth both why Reuben's genealogy was not first mentioned; and if another tribe was to be ranked before it, why that was Judah, and not Joseph, because the order of their genealogy was not to be ruled by the birthright, but by an higher privilege, which was given to Judah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 5:1
“His birthright was given ... - In particular, the right of the first-born to a double inheritance Deu 21:17 was conferred on Joseph, both by the expressed will of Jacob Gen 48:22 and in the actual partition of Canaan Josh. 16–17. But though the birthright, as respecting its material privileges, passed to Joseph, its other rights, those of dignity and pre-eminence, fell to Judah; of whom came the chief ruler, an allusion especially to David, though it may reach further, and include a glance at the Messiah, the true “Ruler” of Israel Mic 5:2.”
though Judah prevailed over his: Judah prevailed and the ruler came from him, while the birthright of the firstborn belonged to Joseph, so Reuben's place was given to two brothers. The Chaldee paraphrase that Clarke quotes adds that the priesthood went from Reuben to Aaron. In that reading three brothers shared what Reuben lost.
1 Chronicles 5:2
“And of him came the chief ruler - This is, by both the Syriac and Arabic, understood of Christ: “From Judah the King Messiah shall proceed.” The Chaldee paraphrases the verse thus: “Seeing Judah prevailed over his brethren, so the kingdom was taken from Reuben and given to Judah; and because he was strong, so was his kingdom. Levi also was godly, and did not transgress in the matter of the golden calf; therefore the high priesthood was taken away from the children of Reuben, and on their account from all the first-born, and given to Aaron and his sons.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 5:3-10
The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Reuben's line runs to Beerah, whom Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria carried into exile. One clause sits between the names: During the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites. Wesley and Barnes note gaps in the line, which cannot span the centuries from Saul to Tiglath-pileser as written.
1 Chronicles 5:3
“The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, were, Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. As in Gen 46:9.”
The descendants of Joel: Joel's link to the four sons of Reuben in verse 3 is left unstated, and the text carries that as a gap. Barnes reckons that the line from Joel down to the exile under Tiglath-pileser reaches back no further than Rehoboam's reign. Generations have dropped out of the list.
1 Chronicles 5:4
“The sons of Joel - The line of succession here given must be broken by one great gap or several smaller ones, since nine generations before Tiglath-pileser would carry us back no further than the reign of Rehoboam.”
Shemaiah his son, Gog his: One man in this Reubenite line bears the name Baal, which means lord, and Saul's son Esh-baal in 1 Chronicles 8:33 carries the same element. Such names were given in Israelite families. This Reubenite Gog appears only here.
Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pileser: Tiglath-pileser took Gilead in the days of Pekah king of Israel and carried its people to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29). Clarke reads Beerah as the last prince of Reuben, with whom the tribe's own line of chiefs ended. The Targum, he notes, makes him Baruch the prophet.
1 Chronicles 5:6
“Beerah his son - After their separation from the house of David the ten tribes continued to have princes of the tribes; and this continued till the time that Tiglath-pileser carried them captives into Assyria. At that time Beerah was their prince or chief; and with him this species of dominion or precedency terminated. According to the Targum, Beerah was the same as Baruch the prophet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Beerah was a leader of: Beerah held the tribe's leadership at the time of the deportation. Verse 17 dates the genealogies to the reigns of Jotham and Jeroboam, so the Chronicler draws on tribal registers of the eighth century before Christ.
1 Chronicles 5:7
“And his brethren by their families,.... Either the brethren of Beerah, or the rest of the posterity of Reuben: (when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned;) either in the times of Jotham and Jeroboam, 1Ch 5:17 or at the time of their captivity, as in the preceding verse: were the chief, Jehiel, and Zechariah; these were the principals or heads of their families.”
They settled in Aroer and: Aroer stood on the Arnon River, and Nebo was both a town and a mountain in that country, as Clarke notes. Gill adds that Numbers 32:34 lists Aroer among the towns Gad rebuilt. Numbers 32:38 gives Nebo and Baal-meon to Reuben.
1 Chronicles 5:8
“And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel,.... The pedigree of Bela, another principal man in the tribe of Reuben, is traced up to Joel the father of Shema; the same with Shemaiah, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, 1Ch 5:4 who dwelt in Aroer; which belonged to the tribe of Gad, and was rebuilt by them, Num 32:34 wherefore Kimchi observes, it may be interpreted, either from Aroer, or on the border of it, Bela dwelt: even unto Nebo, and Baalmeon; of which See Gill on Num 32:38.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:8
“Who dwelt in Aroer - This town was situated on the river Arnon; and Nebo was both a city and a mountain in the same country. They both lay on the other side of Jordan.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
They also settled in the: The desert here is the great Syrian Desert, which Barnes describes as running from the Euphrates to Reuben's eastern border. Wesley reads the Euphrates as marking how far that desert reached. Reuben's settlements stopped at its edge.
1 Chronicles 5:9
“He inhabited - i. e. Reuben. Eastward the Reubenites inhabited as far as the commencement of the great Syrian Desert, which extended all the way from the river Euphrates to their borders.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:9
“Euphrates - From Jordan and the wilderness beyond it unto Euphrates. Or, of the wilderness, which lies towards or reacheth to the river Euphrates, namely, the great wilderness of Kedemoth, Deut. ii, 26, which was extended far and wide towards Euphrates: for that was the eastern border of Reuben's possession, and not Euphrates, to which their habitation never reached.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
they waged war against the: The Hagrites were tent-dwelling herders of the eastern desert, as Clarke describes them, and Reuben took their camps and grazing land. Psalm 83:6 names them among Israel's enemies beside the Ishmaelites and Moab. Verses 18 to 22 tell this war in full.
1 Chronicles 5:10
“And they dwelt in their tents - The Hagarites were tribes of Nomade, or Scenite, Arabs; people who lived in tents, without any fixed dwellings, and whose property consisted in cattle. The descendants of Reuben extirpated these Hagarites, seized on their property and their tents, and dwelt in their place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Gad's households settled in Bashan
1 Chronicles 5:11-17
The descendants of Gad lived next to the Reubenites: Gad settled in Bashan, and verse 17 says the line was reckoned during the reigns of Jotham king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel. Barnes reads the double dating as a sign that Judah still held some claim over the tribes east of the Jordan after the kingdom split.
1 Chronicles 5:11
From this passage and from the subsequent account of the Manassites 1Ch 5:23-24, the Gadites extended themselves to the north at the expense of their brethren, gradually occupying a considerable portion of the tract originally allotted to the “half tribe.”
Joel was the chief, Shapham: This Joel heads the clans of Gad and is a different man from the Reubenite Joel of verse 4. Gad's sons in Genesis 46:16 and his clans in Numbers 26:15 to 18 carry other names. These chiefs belong to the later monarchy.
1 Chronicles 5:12
“Joel the chief - “Joel, prince of the Sanhedrin; and Shapham, master of the college; and Jaanai and Shaphat, judges in Mathnan.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Their kinsmen by families were: Clarke notes that the Syriac and Arabic versions lack this whole verse. The Hebrew text names the seven kinsmen and gives their total. They are the relatives of the four chiefs of verse 12, grouped by family.
1 Chronicles 5:13
“And their brethren - This verse is wanting both in the Syriac and in the Arabic.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
These were the sons of: The line runs backward from Abihail through seven fathers to Buz, the earliest name in this Gadite family. The Gilead in this chain is a Gadite man. He is a different person from Gilead the grandson of Manasseh in Numbers 26:29.
1 Chronicles 5:14
“These are the children of Abihail the son of Huri,.... That is, the seven before mentioned; they were the posterity of Abihail, whose pedigree is traced from his father Huri to Buz, the intermediate progenitors being Jaroah, Gilead, Michael, Jeshishai, Jahdo.”
Ahi son of Abdiel, the: Ahi son of Abdiel was head of the family of the Gadite kinsmen named in verses 13 and 14. A head of a family led his father's house, and Numbers 1:2 to 4 counted the tribes by such families. His genealogy runs back to Guni.
1 Chronicles 5:15
“Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, chief of the house of their fathers. Which Ahi was a principal man in the families the seven above men belonged to; besides them, or those three, were everyone of them heads of families.”
They lived in Gilead, in: Bashan was the land north of Gilead, known for its cattle in Amos 4:1 and its oaks in Isaiah 2:13. Clarke counts three places named Sharon, and the pasturelands of Sharon here lay in Bashan. The Gadites lived in its towns.
1 Chronicles 5:16
“The suburbs of Sharon - There were three places of this name: that mentioned here was a district in the country of Bashan beyond Jordan, (see Jos 12:18); there was another that lay between Caesarea of Palestine and Joppa; and there was a third between Mount Tabor and the Sea of Tiberias. See Calmet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
All of them were reckoned: Jeroboam here is Jeroboam son of Joash, who ruled Israel at its height in the eighth century (2 Kings 14:23 to 29). Jotham ruled Judah a little later (2 Kings 15:32 to 38). Barnes reads two separate registrations, one under each king.
1 Chronicles 5:17
“The writer refers here to two registrations, one made under the authority of Jeroboam II when he was king and Israel flourishing, the other made under the authority of Jotham, king of Judah, during the troublous time which followed on the great invasion of Tiglath-pileser. There is nothing surprising in a king of Judah having exercised a species of lordship over the trans-Jordanic territory at this period.”
The war cry God answered against the Hagrites
1 Chronicles 5:18-22
Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 warriors. Verse 20 gives the cause of the victory: because they cried out to God in battle, they were helped against their enemies. Because they put their trust in God, He answered their prayers; the battle belonged to God.
1 Chronicles 5:18
“These, who were skilled in archery, were invaded in the time of Joshua by a confederate army of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, who, probably incensed by the frequent raids of those marauding neighbors, took reprisals in men and cattle, dispossessed almost all of the original inhabitants, and colonized the district themselves.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They waged war against the: Jetur and Naphish are sons of Ishmael in Genesis 25:15, so the Hagrites' allies were Ishmaelite tribes, as Gill notes. Barnes traces Jetur to the Ituraeans, the people of Iturea in Luke 3:1. Gill matches Nodab with Kedemah of Genesis 25:15.
1 Chronicles 5:19
“And they made war with the Hagarites,.... Before mentioned, 1Ch 5:19. with Jetur, and Nephish: with the posterity of these men, who were sons of Ishmael, Gen 25:15 and so was Nodab; perhaps the same with Kedemah, mentioned along with the other two there; so Hillerus (z) thinks. (z) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 554.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:19
“Jetur no doubt gave his name to the important tribe of the Ituraeans who inhabited the region southwest of the Damascene plain, between Gaulonitis (Jaulan) and the Ledjah. This tribe was noted for its thievish habits, and was regarded as savage and warlike.”
because they cried out to: Crying out to God and trusting Him wins battle after battle in Chronicles. Judah under Abijah cried out and prevailed in 2 Chronicles 13:14 to 18, and Asa prayed before his battle in 2 Chronicles 14:11 to 12. Henry reads this victory as the prevailing power of believing prayer.
1 Chronicles 5:20
“In distress, God expects we should cry to him; he distrains upon us for this tribute, this rent. In our spiritual conflicts, we must look up to heaven for strength; and it is the believing prayer that will be the prevailing prayer. We are told what success they had: God was entreated of them, though need drove them to him; so ready is he to hear and answer prayer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
They seized the livestock of: The spoil is counted in the animals of desert herders: camels, sheep and donkeys. Clarke reads the war as ending the Hagrites as a people and ties it to the idolatry named in verse 25. The captives were taken alive.
1 Chronicles 5:21
“They took away their cattle - This was a war of extermination as to the political state of the people, which nothing could justify but an especial direction of God; and this he could never give against any, unless the cup of their iniquity had been full. The Hagarites were full of idolatry: see 1Ch 5:25.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
because the battle belonged to: The battle belonged to God, and David says the same before Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:47. Clarke notes that the Targum calls the war one from the Word of the Lord. They lost the land in the exile of verse 26.
1 Chronicles 5:22
For there fell down many slain - The hundred thousand men mentioned above were probably made slaves, and were not slain. The Targum says, one hundred thousand souls of men. The war was of God - The Targum says, the war was מן מימרא דיי min meymera dayai, “from the Word of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:22
“Was of God - Undertaken in his fear, and carried on in a dependence on him. Then we may expect to prosper in any enterprize, and then only, when we take God along with us.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Half-Manasseh's greatness and the exile that ended it
1 Chronicles 5:23-24
They settled in the land from Bashan to Baal-hermon: Half the tribe of Manasseh held the ground from Bashan to Baal-hermon, and verse 24 names seven heads of their families. Gill reads the growth from Bashan as expansion within the territory Moses had assigned the half-tribe. The tribe's story in this book runs two verses before the unfaithfulness.
1 Chronicles 5:23
“And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land,.... Not in the land of the Hagarites, but in the land of Gilead and Bashan beyond Jordan, given them by Moses.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:23
“Baal-Hermon,” “Senir” Deu 3:9, and “Mount Hermon,” are here not so much three names of the one great snow-clad eminence in which the Anti-Lebanon terminates toward the south, as three parts of the mountain - perhaps the “three summits” in which it terminates.
These were the heads of: Numbers 32:39 to 42 tells how Machir, Jair and Nobah of Manasseh took Gilead and the towns of Bashan. These seven heads belong to a much later generation of that settlement. Their fathers are left unnamed.
1 Chronicles 5:25-26
But they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers: The tribes who cried out to God end the chapter in sin. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, who took the three tribes into exile. They were brought to the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day.
1 Chronicles 5:25
“The gods of the people of the land - We see the reason why God delivered the Hagarites into the hands of these tribes; they were abominable idolaters, and therefore God destroyed them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:25
“Seventh-commandment sins especially leave an indelible stain upon men's names and families, a reproach which time will not wipe away. Reuben's seed, to the last, bear the disgrace of Reuben's sin. Yet, though that tribe was degraded, it was not discarded or disinherited.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
stirred up the spirit of: 2 Kings names Pul at 15:19 and Tiglath-pileser at 15:29, and the Chronicler joins the two names as one king. Halah, Habor and the river of Gozan reappear in 2 Kings 17:6 as places of Israel's later exile. The same God stirs up Cyrus in 2 Chronicles 36:22.
1 Chronicles 5:26
“Tilgath-pilneser - Many MSS. have תגלת Tiglath instead of תלגת Tilgath. The Syriac, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee, have the same reading as in 2Ki 15:29, etc. Brought them unto Halah - See the notes on 2Ki 17:6 (note), and 2Ki 18:11 (note), for many particulars of these wars, and consequent captivity. It is a pity that some method were not found out to harmonize the books of Kings with the books of Chronicles, that the variations might be seen at one view.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 5:26
“These tribes were first placed, and they were first displaced. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. But those who are governed more by sense than by reason or faith in their choices may expect to fare accordingly.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy with a war record and an exile note, covering the tribes east of the Jordan, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The birthright divided in two verses | Verses 1 and 2 state the tribal order of the whole book in a single pair of sentences. Reuben was the firstborn, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph because he defiled his father's bed, and though Judah prevailed over his brothers and a ruler came from him, the birthright belonged to Joseph. Adam Clarke notes that the Syriac, the Arabic and the Chaldee paraphrase all read the ruler as pointing toward the Messiah out of Judah. The Chronicler draws only the line to David's house.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 5:1-2. | 1 Chronicles 5:1, 1 Chronicles 5:2 |
| The muster and the spoil, counted | The chapter states its numbers the way a war record does. Verse 18 gives 44,760 warriors who carried the shield and sword, drew the bow and were trained for battle. Verse 21 gives the spoil as 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys and 100,000 captives. The figures are the chapter's own and they belong to the class of numbers the dossier treats as one of its standing questions.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Chronicles 5:18-22. | 1 Chronicles 5:18, 1 Chronicles 5:21 |
| They cried out, and then they went after other gods | The chapter sets two answers side by side in eight verses. At verse 20 they cried out to God in battle and were helped, because they put their trust in God he answered their prayers, and verse 22 states the cause plainly, the battle belonged to God. At verses 25 and 26 the same tribes were unfaithful and prostituted themselves with the gods of the peoples of the land, and God stirred up Pul king of Assyria to carry them off. Matthew Henry reads the tribes who chose the most exposed land as the first tribes lost.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Chronicles 5:25-26. | 1 Chronicles 5:20, 1 Chronicles 5:22, 1 Chronicles 5:25, 1 Chronicles 5:26 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The book guide runs its band Simeon and the Transjordan Tribes from 4:24 to 5:26, so this chapter carries most of it. The guide's body line reads that the section closes with a grim anticipation, the Transjordan tribes carried into Assyrian exile centuries before the book's own moment.
The historical value
Verse 26 names one king twice over, Pul king of Assyria and Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and the Berean text carries the identification inside the verse. It names the places of settlement as well, Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, which is how an Assyrian deportation worked, a population moved and resettled at a distance from its land.
Verse 17 dates the reckoning to two reigns at once, Jotham of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel, which puts the source document in the eighth century. Verse 10 dates an earlier war to the days of Saul. The chapter is unusually well anchored for a genealogy.
The debated concept
The numbers of verses 18 and 21 belong to the question the dossier states as whether the numbers in Chronicles are too large. Three positions are held. Keil and Delitzsch read copying damage in the Hebrew numeral notation, noting that numbers were the most fragile element in ancient copying. John Wenham reads the Hebrew eleph as a unit or clan rather than always a literal thousand. A third reading takes the totals as the ancient historian's ordinary way of stating magnitude. The page states no verdict.
The gaps in the line are a second question. Nine generations stand between Joel and Beerah, and the span from Saul to Tiglath-pileser is longer than nine generations will carry. Wesley and Barnes both read the list as keeping the omissions ancient genealogies regularly keep, which is the same practice the dossier describes in its comparison with the Mesopotamian king lists.
The divine connection
Verse 20 states a cause rather than a result, that they were helped because they put their trust in God, and verse 22 repeats it, the battle belonged to God. Wesley draws the lesson directly, that an army may expect to prosper only when it takes God along. The chapter then puts the same tribes on the other side of that sentence five verses later, and the exile it records is the first of Israel's deportations.
Keep studying
Studies8
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
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 5:11-17; H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible Commentary, 1982, on 1 Chronicles 4:24-5:26 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Chronicles 5:3-10.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.