1 Chronicleschapter 7
40 verses · BSB1 Chronicles book hub →
Speaks with:Numbers 26×8Genesis 46×52 Chronicles 17×2Numbers 27×2Joshua 16×21 Chronicles 21×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The remaining northern tribes are gathered in one sweep (Issachar's mighty men of valor, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Asher), mostly muster rolls of fighting men reckoned by their fathers' houses. Two human moments break the surface. Ephraim's sons are killed by the men of Gath 'because they came down to take away their cattle,' and their father mourns many days while his brethren come to comfort him; a later son is named Beriah 'because it went evil with his house.' And in Ephraim's line, almost in passing, stands Joshua the son of Nun. Grief and greatness alike are kept in the register.
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–5 Issachar's mighty men of valor
- B. 6–12 Benjamin's fighting houses
- C. 13–19 Naphtali and the clans of Manasseh
- D. 20–29 Ephraim's grief and the towns his sons held
- E. 30–40 Asher's choice men, chiefs of the princes
The outline
A.Issachar's mighty men of valorvv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.Benjamin's fighting housesvv. 6 to 12
Read vv. 6 to 12 →C.Naphtali and the clans of Manassehvv. 13 to 19
Read vv. 13 to 19 →D.Ephraim's grief and the towns his sons heldvv. 20 to 29
Read vv. 20 to 29 →E.Asher's choice men, chiefs of the princesvv. 30 to 40
Read vv. 30 to 40 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 7The history
Most of this chapter is not a family tree but a call-up list. The repeated phrase — heads of fathers' houses, mighty men of valor, reckoned by their generations, so many thousand ready for war — is the language of a militia muster. Israel had no standing army in that period; it had clans that could be counted and summoned.
The Ephraim section drops in a raw local story. Men of Ephraim went down to raid cattle at Gath and were killed by the men born in that town, and their father Ephraim mourned many days. The land was contested at close range, and cattle were the thing worth dying over.
Right after it stands a rarity: a woman, Sheerah, credited with building three towns — Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah. Beth-horon sat on the main ascent from the coastal plain into the hills, the invasion road, which means she fortified the pass.
Asher's list closes the chapter on the coast north of Carmel, good farming and olive country, hemmed in by the Phoenician cities and never fully taken.
What it meant to them
Assyria had ended the northern kingdom a hundred and fifty years before the returned exiles heard this. The writer keeps the northern tribes in the register anyway — every name, every muster number.
For a community of perhaps fifty thousand people, the numbers were staggering and the point was pastoral. The family had been vast. Being small now was a chapter, not the end of the book.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.