1 Chronicleschapter 5
26 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
It stands in Reuben, the firstborn who lost the birthright, verses 1 to 10.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The tribes east of the Jordan. Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh. The Chronicler pauses over Reuben's forfeited birthright, given to Joseph's sons, while noting that the ruler came out of Judah. Then a battle report that doubles as a sermon: against the Hagrites they prevailed because 'they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him.' The same tribes are last seen going the other way. They trespassed against the God of their fathers and went after the gods of the peoples of the land, and God stirred up the kings of Assyria to carry them away. Trust and trespass, with the exile between them.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 5The history
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.
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 5 falls in Genealogies from Adam to Saul (chapters 1–9). The longest single genealogical block in Scripture; the Davidic-line focus; the Levitical emphasis; the post-exilic returnee list (ch. 9).
After it: David's reign: temple-framed, chapters 10–29.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Reuben, the firstborn who lost the birthright
1. (vv. 1-2)
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.”
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
he defiled his father’s bed: Reuben was Israel's firstborn, but Genesis 49:4 already marked him unstable as water for defiling his father's bed, and Chronicles states the consequence in genealogical terms: his birthright passed to Joseph's sons while Judah took the standing of chief ruler. Clarke notes that the Syriac, the Arabic and the Chaldee paraphrase all read the chief ruler as pointing toward the Messiah out of Judah, though the Chronicler himself draws only the immediate line to David's house. The tribal order of the whole book, Judah named first in chapter 2 though not the firstborn, rests on these two verses.
2. (vv. 3-10)
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.”
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.”
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
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.”
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
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
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
Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: The list runs Reuben's line down to Beerah, prince of the Reubenites when Tiglath-pileser of Assyria carried him captive, so the genealogy itself reaches forward to the exile the chapter names again at its close. Between the names sits one clause of history: in the days of Saul the tribe warred against the Hagarites and took their land east of Jordan, in Gilead, where their herds had already multiplied. Wesley and Barnes both note gaps in the line, since nine generations from Joel to Beerah cannot span the centuries from Saul to Tiglath-pileser without the omissions ancient genealogies regularly keep.
B. Gad's households settled in Bashanvv. 11-17
dwelt over against them: Gad settled across from Reuben in Bashan, the tableland running to Salchah, and verse 17 says the line was reckoned twice over, once under Jotham king of Judah and once under Jeroboam king of Israel. Barnes reads the double dating as a sign that Judah still exercised some claim over the tribes east of Jordan in that period, even after the kingdom split. Gad's towns reached into the suburbs of Sharon, a name shared with the coastal plain near Joppa but here marking a district of Bashan itself.
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.”
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
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
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.”
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.”
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
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.”
C. The war cry God answered against the Hagritesvv. 18-22
able to bear buckler and sword: Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh mustered forty and four thousand seven hundred and threescore men able to bear the buckler, the sword and the bow, and threw that strength against the Hagarites and their allies Jetur, Nephish and Nodab. Verse 20 gives the victory its true cause: they cried to God in the battle and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him, and verse 22 restates it plainly, the war was of God. Wesley draws the lesson direct, an army may expect to prosper in any undertaking only when it takes God along, and Henry reads the answered cry as proof that believing prayer is the prayer that prevails.
1 Chronicles 5:18
“The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh,....”
1 more voice on this verse
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
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.”
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
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
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
D. Half-Manasseh's greatness and the exile that ended it
1. (vv. 23-24)
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.
1 Chronicles 5:24
“And these were the heads of the house of their fathers,....”
they increased from Bashan: Half the tribe of Manasseh held the ground from Bashan north to Mount Hermon under its several names, Baal-hermon and Senir, and the chapter names seven heads of households as mighty men of valor and famous men. Gill reads the growth from Bashan as expansion within the territory Moses already assigned the half tribe, not a fresh conquest. The list stays short because the tribe's own story in this book is short, two verses of standing before the transgression that closes the chapter.
2. (vv. 25-26)
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
“They lay upon the borders, and conversed most with the neighbouring nations, by which means they learned their idolatrous usages and transmitted the infection to the other tribes; for this God had a controversy with them. He was a husband to them, and no marvel that his jealousy burnt like fire when they went a whoring after other gods.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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
went a whoring after the gods: The chapter that opened with the tribes crying to God in battle and being entreated closes with their transgression: they went whoring after the gods of the peoples God had destroyed before them, worshipping the idols of the very nations whose land they had taken. The Lord stirred the spirit of Pul and of Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, and Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh became the first of Israel's tribes carried into exile, settled by the river Gozan unto this day. Henry reads the tribes that chose the best land east of Jordan, most exposed and most mixed with the nations around them, as for that same reason the first tribes lost.
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.