1 Chronicleschapter 7
40 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
And Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle.
It stands in Ephraim's grief and the towns his sons held, verses 20 to 29.
The chapter
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
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 7The history
The chapter belongs to six tribes and to the clan heads who could raise men, so most of it reads as a call-up list.
The repeated wording carries that sense, heads of families, mighty men of valour, recorded in their genealogies, so many thousand fit for battle. Israel in that period had clans that could be counted and summoned rather than a standing army.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The Ephraim section drops in a local story. Men of Ephraim went down to steal livestock at Gath and were killed by the men of that town, and their father mourned for many days. The land was contested at close range and cattle were the thing worth dying over.
Just after it stands a rarity, a woman credited with building three towns. Sheerah built Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah, and Beth-horon sat on the main ascent from the coastal plain into the hills, the road an invading army used, so 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.
What it meant to them
Assyria had ended the northern kingdom a century and a half before the returned exiles heard this, and the writer keeps the northern tribes in the register anyway, every name and every muster number.
For a community of a few tens of thousands the figures were enormous, and the point of them was pastoral. The family had been vast, and being small was a chapter of the story rather than its end.
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
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 7 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. Issachar's mighty men of valorvv. 1-5
the sons of Issachar were: Issachar's list runs four generations deep with a troop count at each stage, closing at eighty seven thousand fighting men reckoned by genealogy. Adam Clarke notes that Issachar, Benjamin and Asher are the only three tribes whose David-era musters survive in this record, a detail Chronicles alone preserves. Gill traces the large numbers to polygamy, the tribe's many wives and sons named outright at verse four.
1 Chronicles 7:1
“Now the sons of Issachar were Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four. The same number is given, Gen 46:13 with a small variation of two of their names, there called Phuvah and Job, from whence so many families sprang, mentioned Num 26:23, where the names are the same as here.”
1 Chronicles 7:2
“Whose number was in the days of David - Whether this was the number returned by Joab and his assistants, when they made that census of the people with which God was so much displeased, we know not. It is worthy of remark that we read here the sum of three tribes, Benjamin, Issachar, and Asher, under the reign of David, which is mentioned nowhere else; and yet we have no account here of the other tribes, probably because the author found no public registers in which such enumeration was recorded.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:3
“The sons of Izrahiah - five - There are, however, only four names in the text. Instead of five, the Syriac and Arabic read four. If five be the true reading, then Izrahiah must be reckoned with his four sons.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:4
“And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war,.... Companies of men of military courage and skill, who could and did go out to war upon occasion: six and thirty thousand men; besides the 22,600 Tolaites, 1Ch 7:2, for they had many wives and sons; having many wives, they had many sons; polygamy was the cause of their large numbers; and that they gave into for the sake of the multiplication of Abraham's seed, according to the divine promise.”
1 Chronicles 7:5
“And their brethren among all the families of Issachar,.... As those of Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, 1Ch 7:1. were men of might; valiant and courageous: reckoned in all, by their genealogies, fourscore and seven thousand; that is, including with these those of Tola and Uzzi before given.”
B. Benjamin's fighting housesvv. 6-12
The sons of Benjamin; Bela: Benjamin's three clans muster to nearly sixty thousand men, a genealogy Barnes reads as later descendants reckoned to their founders rather than a strict father to son list at the time of David's census. Gill takes verse ten's Ehud, among Jediael's grandsons, as the same man who later judged Israel in Judges 3:15, a reading other commentators do not share. Verse twelve's Shuppim, Huppim and Hushim stand outside the three named clans, and the older commentators disagree over which son of Benjamin they belong to.
1 Chronicles 7:6
“The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher and Jediael - In Gen 46:21, ten sons of Benjamin are reckoned; viz., Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Eri, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. In Num 26:38, etc., five sons only of Benjamin are mentioned, Bela, Ashbel, Ahiram, Shupham, and Hupham: and Ard and Naaman are there said to be the sons of Bela; consequently grandsons of Benjamin.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:7
“And the sons of Bela; Ezbon, and Uzzi, and Uzziel, and Jerimoth, and Iri, five,.... These are thought by some to be the grandsons of Bela, because of the different names in 1Ch 8:3, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour; principal men in their tribe and families, and of great courage: and were reckoned by their genealogies twenty and two thousand and thirty and four; who sprung from these men.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:7
“The lists here are remarkably different from those in marginal references Probably the persons here mentioned were not literally “sons,” but were among the later descendants of the founders, being the chief men of the family at the time of David’s census.”
1 Chronicles 7:8
“And the sons of Becher,.... Another son of Benjamin, 1Ch 7:6, Zemira, and Joash, and Eliezer and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth; the two last of these, according to Kimchi, gave names to two cities in Benjamin, built by them; Anathoth, the native place of Jeremiah the prophet, and Alameth, the same with Bahurim, 2Sa 16:5. all these are the sons of Becher; before named.”
1 Chronicles 7:9
“And the number of them,.... Of the posterity of the sons of Becher: after their genealogy by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour; as they increased in succeeding ages, and at the time of David: was twenty thousand and two hundred.”
1 Chronicles 7:10
“The sons also of Jediael,.... The third son of Benjamin before mentioned, 1Ch 7:6. Bilhan, including his posterity, as follows: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin; called so after his great grandfather: and Ehud; who was the second judge in Israel, Jdg 3:15. and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar; of whom we nowhere else read.”
1 Chronicles 7:11
“All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle. Which, with the above sums put together, make of the tribe of Benjamin, besides what follow, 59,430; who, if numbered by Joab, the account was not given in by him, 1Ch 21:6.”
1 Chronicles 7:12
“Shuppim also, and Huppim, the children of Ir,....”
C. Naphtali and the clans of Manassehvv. 13-19
The sons of Naphtali; Jahziel: Naphtali's whole entry is four sons and nothing more, the same four names Genesis 46:24 gives with one spelling changed, and Henry notes no later generations follow because the tribe's genealogies were lost by the Chronicler's day. Manasseh's entry by contrast is the chapter's most tangled, naming a concubine, a sister who reigns as Hammoleketh, and the daughters of Zelophehad without sons, the same family Numbers 27 and 36 already made a test case for inheritance through women. Women stand at the center of Manasseh's line here in a genealogy chapter that otherwise counts almost none, and Maachah's line through Machir the father of Gilead carries the tribe's name into the land east of Jordan.
1 Chronicles 7:13
“The first fathers only of that tribe are named, the very same that we shall find, Gen. xlvi. 24 , only that Shillem there is Shallum here. None of their descendents are named, perhaps because their genealogies were lost.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 7:14
“The sons of Manasseh; Ashriel, whom she bare,.... The wife of Manasseh, as distinguished from his concubine in the next clause; though the Targum reads, in connection with that,"whom his Aramitess (or Syrian) concubine bare;'' and then adds: who also bare Machir the father of Gilead; so that Ashriel and Machir were brethren; from which Ashriel sprung the family of the Ashrielites, Num 26:29 as from Machir the Machirites, Num 26:29.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:14
“The sons of Manasseh--or descendants; for Ashriel was a grandson, and Zelophehad was a generation farther removed in descent (Nu 26:33). The text, as it stands, is so confused and complicated that it is exceedingly difficult to trace the genealogical thread, and a great variety of conjectures have been made with a view to clear away the obscurity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 7:15
“And Machir took to wife the sister of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister's name was Maachah,.... He married into the tribe of Benjamin, a sister of the persons mentioned, 1Ch 7:12 whose name was Maachah: and the name of the second was Zelophehad; the second son of Manasseh, or of his posterity mentioned; for he was not his immediate son; for he was the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, Num 27:1. and Zelophehad had daughters; but no sons, the names of his daughters are given, Num 26:33.”
1 Chronicles 7:16
“And Maachah the wife of Machir bare a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh,.... He had both these sons by her: and his sons were Ulam and Rakem, that is, either the sons of Peresh or Sheresh, the nearest, as Kimchi observes.”
1 Chronicles 7:17
“And the sons of Ulam: Bedan,.... See 1Sa 12:11. these were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh; that is, were of his posterity, or belonged to his family; for Ulam and Rakem were sons of a brother of Gilead, 1Ch 7:16.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:17
These were the sons of Gilead - i. e. these descendants of Machir were reckoned to the family of Gilead. The name “Gilead” prevailed above all others in the line of Manasseh, the term “Gileadite” almost taking the place of “Manassite.”
1 Chronicles 7:18
“And his sister Hammoleketh,.... The sister of Gilead so named; though the Targum renders it "that reigned"; and so Kimchi, that reigned in some part of Gilead; and the Vulgate Latin version translates it, "a queen bare Ishod, and Abiezer, and Mahalah"; Abiezer is the same with Jeezer, from whom a family sprung of that name, Num 26:30, of which Gideon was, Jdg 6:11.”
1 Chronicles 7:19
“And the sons of Shemida,.... Another son of Gilead's sister, unless the same with Ishod; from him sprung the family of the Shemidaites, Num 26:30. were, Ahian, and Shechem, and Likhi, and Aniam; from Shechem came the family of the Shethemites, as from Likhi, if he is the same with Helek, as probably he may be, was the family of the Helekites, Num 26:30.”
D. Ephraim's grief and the towns his sons held
1. (vv. 20-27)
1 Chronicles 7:20
“The sons of Ephraim - The genealogy is difficult. It is perhaps best to consider Ezer and Elead 1Ch 7:21 as not sons of Zabad and brothers of the second Shuthelah, but natural sons of Ephraim. The passage would then run thusly: “And the sons of Ephraim, Shuthelah (and Bered was his son, and Tahath his son and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son, and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son) and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath slew” (i. e. the settled inhabitants, as contrasted with the nomadic Hebrews, Amalekites, etc.).”
1 Chronicles 7:21
“But a different view of the incident is brought out, if, instead of "because," we render the Hebrew particle "when" they came down to take their cattle, for the tenor of the context leads rather to the conclusion that "the men of Gath" were the aggressors, who, making a sudden foray on the Ephraimite flocks, killed the shepherds including several of the sons of Ephraim.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:21
“Slew - This history is not recorded else where in scripture, but it is in the ancient Hebrew writers. The Philistines (one of whose cities Gath was) and the Egyptians were next neighbours; and in those ancient times it was usual for such to make inroads one into another's country, and to carry thence what prey they could take.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:22
“And Ephraim their father mourned many days,.... For the loss of his son and grandchildren for the above fact was done while the Israelites were in Egypt, and Ephraim the patriarch yet alive; nor is there any need to suppose another Ephraim, different from him: and his brethren came to comfort him; some of the heads of the other tribes of Israel, particularly Manasseh, with some of his family.”
1 Chronicles 7:23
“And when he went in to his wife,.... After his grief and sorrow in part at least had subsided: she conceived and bare a son; which in some measure made up for the loss he had sustained: and he called his name Beriah; which signifies being "in evil" or calamity, he being born in an evil time: because it went evil with his house; or evil was in his house, as Noldius (m), in his family; a great calamity had befallen it. (m) Ebr. Concord. Part. No. 750. p. 165.”
1 Chronicles 7:24
“And his daughter was Sherah,.... That is, the daughter of Beriah; not an immediate daughter, but a descendant of his, otherwise she could not have reached the times of Joshua, as she did by what follows: who built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper; which were cities on the border of the tribe of Ephraim; which the Israelites having taken from the Canaanites, and destroyed, she rebuilt, see Jos 16:3. and Uzzensherah; which was called after her own name, and to distinguish it from another place called Uzzen; though of neither of them do we read elsewhere.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:24
His daughter was Sherah - That is, remnant; “called so,” says the Targum, “because she was the remnant that escaped from the slaughter mentioned above.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:25
“And Rephah was his son,.... The son of Beriah, whose genealogy from him is traced down to Joshua in this and the two following verses, and stands thus: after Rephah, Resheph, Telah, Tahan, Laadan, Ammihud, Elishama, who was prince of the tribe of Ephraim in the wilderness, Num 1:10, then Non or Nun, whose son was Jehoshua or Joshua.”
1 Chronicles 7:27
“In this also the breach made on Ephraim's family was further repaired; and perhaps the resentment of this injury formerly done by the Canaanites to the Ephraimites might make him more vigorous in the war. Some men of note of that tribe are here named.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the sons of Ephraim; Shuthelah: Ephraim's genealogy carries the chapter's one full narrative scene: Ezer and Elead killed raiding cattle from the men of Gath, and their father Ephraim mourning many days before naming the son born after, Beriah, because it went evil with his house, a family tragedy recorded nowhere else in Scripture. Wesley notes the ancient Hebrew writers preserved the same event outside the biblical text, while Jamieson Fausset and Brown read the Gittites as the aggressors rather than Ephraim's sons. The line then runs unbroken to Nun and Jehoshua, so Joshua's own ancestry stands inside this list, and his sister Sherah earns a rare mention for building both Beth-horons and a city named for herself.
2. (vv. 28-29)
1 Chronicles 7:28
“And their possessions and habitations,....”
1 Chronicles 7:29
“And by the borders of the children of Manasseh,.... Of the half tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan: near to them the Ephraimites dwelt, even near to Bethshean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns; of all which places see Jos 17:11, in these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel; the Ephraimites, in those mentioned in 1Ch 7:28, and the Manassites, in those that are here mentioned; who were both the children or posterity of Joseph, the beloved son of Israel.”
their possessions and habitations were: The land list fixes Ephraim's towns from Bethel to Gezer and Shechem, then Manasseh's along Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo and Dor, closing with the note that the children of Joseph the son of Israel held them all. Gill and Keil both read the two half-lists as answering to the fuller borders already drawn in Joshua 17, the settlement record standing behind the shorter roll call here.
E. Asher's choice men, chiefs of the princesvv. 30-40
The sons of Asher; Imnah: Asher's genealogy runs three generations after Beriah, closing with a war-ready count of twenty six thousand men, choice and mighty men of valour and chief among their princes. Gill points out that two tribes get no entry anywhere in this chapter, Dan and Zebulun, and Henry connects Dan's absence to the calf Jeroboam later set up in the Danite colony at Laish, a reading he offers rather than the text itself stating a cause. The chapter that opened with Issachar's numbers ends in a bare list of Asherite names, the compression the Chronicler applies to every tribe outside the line that carries the throne and the temple.
1 Chronicles 7:30
“Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. Why they only should be omitted we can assign no reason; only it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan that idolatry began in that colony of the Danites which fixed in Laish, and called Dan, and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 7:32
“And Shua their sister - It is very rarely that women are found in the Jewish genealogies, and they are never inserted but for especial reasons.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 7:34
“And the sons of Shamer,.... Or Shomer, the brother of Japhlet, 1Ch 7:32. Ahi, and Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram; of whom nothing is known but their names.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:34
Shamer; Ahi, and Rohgah - Translate as: “The sons of Shamer 1Ch 7:32, his brother, Rohgah, etc.”
1 Chronicles 7:35
“And the sons of his brother Helem,.... Or Helem his brother, that is, the brother of Shomer, who, according to Hillerus (n), is Hotham, 1Ch 7:32. Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Aram; nowhere else mentioned. (n) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 551.”
1 Chronicles 7:36
“And the sons of Zophah,.... The eldest of the sons of Helem: Suah, and Harnepher, and Shual, and Beri, and Imrah, Bezer; and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera; in all eleven.”
1 Chronicles 7:38
“And the sons of Jether,.... The same with Ithran, the last of Zophah's sons but one, 1Ch 7:37, Jephunneh, and Pispah, and Ara; not Jephunneh the father of Caleb; he was not of the tribe of Asher, but of Judah.”
1 Chronicles 7:39
“And the sons of Ulla,.... Who either was the son of Ara, last mentioned, or another son of Jether: Arah, and Haniel, and Rezia; here ends the genealogy of Asher; the last of the tribes; Dan and Zebulun not being reckoned at all.”
1 Chronicles 7:40
“All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father's house,....”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 7:40
“The children of Asher - The rabbins say that the daughters of Asher were very beautiful, and were all matched with kings or priests. Several things relative to the subjects in this chapter may be found explained in the parallel places marked in the margin.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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 →
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; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.