1 CHRONICLES - CHAPTER 5
The Tribe of Reuben – 1 Chronicles 5:1-10
v1 Reuben was Israel’s first son by birth. But he had sex with one of his father’s wives. So, he lost the benefits of the first son. Israel gave these benefits to the sons of Joseph. Joseph was a son of Israel. Therefore, Reuben could not be in the list as the first among the sons of Israel. v2 Judah became stronger than his brothers, and a leader came from his family. But Joseph’s sons received the benefits that belonged to the oldest son.
v3 Reuben was Israel’s first son. Reuben’s sons were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. v4 These were the descendants of Joel. Shemaiah was Joel’s son. Gog was Shemaiah’s son. Shimei was Gog’s son. v5 Micah was Shimei’s son. Reaiah was Micah’s son. Baal was Reaiah’s son. v6 Beerah was Baal’s son. Beerah was a leader of the tribe of Reuben. Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria made him a prisoner and took him away.
v7-8 The family records show Beerah’s relatives by their clans. Jeiel was the first, then Zechariah and Bela. (Bela was the son of Azaz. Azaz was the son of Shema, and Shema was the son of Joel.) They lived in the area from Aroer all the way to Nebo and Baal Meon. v9 To the east, they lived in the country up to the edge of the desert. The desert is to the west of the Euphrates river. They went this far because they had too many animals for the area called Gilead. v10 When Saul was king, Bela’s people fought a war against the Hagrite people. They defeated these people. Then they lived in the tents that had belonged to the Hagrites in all the area east of Gilead.
Commentary
VERSES 1-2
When the Israelites came back from exile most of them were from the tribe of Judah. But there were some people from other tribes among them. So, the writer shows the ancestors of all the Israelites who had come back.
The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh lived to the east of the Jordan river. This chapter gives to us the lists of their families. Reuben was the first son to be born to Israel (that is, Jacob) by his wife Leah. There were special benefits for the oldest son. The oldest son would get twice as much as the other sons on the death of their father. And he would become the leader of the family. But Reuben lost those benefits because of his actions. He had sex with Bilhah who was a wife of his father (Genesis 35:22).
The benefits that should have been Reuben’s went to Joseph’s sons instead. Joseph was the first son of Rachel. She was Israel’s favourite wife. Joseph had two sons: Ephraim and Manasseh. Each of these sons received the benefits of a tribe. Joseph became the leader instead of Reuben. And later Joshua came from the tribe of Ephraim. But Israel prophesied that the leader would come from Judah (Genesis 49:10).
The tribe of Judah became the strongest of the tribes. The leader of Israel would come from the tribe of Judah. David came from that tribe. The family into which Jesus was born were from the tribe of Judah. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David. The angel called the Lord Jesus ‘the lion of the tribe of Judah’ – Revelation 5:5.
VERSES 3-10
The LORD gave the name ‘Israel’ to Jacob. In the Books of Chronicles, the writer always calls him Israel (except in 1 Chronicles chapter 16). He had 12 sons, the first of which was Reuben. Reuben had 4 sons. There is an interval of some time here as Joel was not the son of one of those 4 sons.
In 733 BC, King Tiglath-Pileser attacked the tribe of Reuben. Beerah was the leader of the tribe. Tiglath-Pileser took Beerah as an exile to the country called Assyria. The army of Assyria took the whole area of the tribes to the east of the river Jordan.
Aroer was a town on the river Arnon. Nebo was the name of both a city and a mountain in the same country. These places were on the east side of the river Jordan. The tribes of Reuben and Gad lived there. But by 850 BC, these areas were part of Moab and not Israel (see Jeremiah 48:21-25).
The Hagrites were descendants of Hagar. Hagar was a maid of Sarah. Sarah gave her to Abraham and they had a son called Ishmael. The Hagrites came from his family. The Hagrites were a rich and large clan. They lived in the area called the Syrian Desert with the river Euphrates as their western border. In the time of King Saul (1043-1011 BC), the tribe of Reuben defeated the Hagrites.
The Tribe of Gad – 1 Chronicles 5:11-22
v11 The people from Gad’s tribe lived near the tribe of Reuben. They lived in the area called Bashan all the way to Salecah. v12 Joel was the main leader and Shapham was second to him. Janai and Shaphat were leaders in Bashan. v13 Their 7 relatives in their clans were Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber. v14 Abihail was their ancestor. Abihail was Huri’s son. Huri was Jaroah’s son. Jaroah was Gilead’s son. Gilead was Michael’s son. Michael was Jeshishai’s son. Jeshishai was Jahdo’s son, and Jahdo was the son of Buz. v15 Ahi was Abdiel’s son, and Abdiel was Guni’s son. Ahi was the leader of their clan. v16 The tribe of Gad lived in Gilead, Bashan and the small towns round it. They lived on the land in the plain called Sharon, all the way to the borders. v17 All these names were in the records of Gad’s family. They wrote the records when Jotham was king of Judah. That was when Jeroboam was king of Israel.
v18 The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh had a large army. They had 44 760 skilled soldiers. The soldiers carried shields, swords and bows. v19 They started a war against the Hagrites and the people in Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab. v20 The army of Manasseh, Reuben, and Gad trusted in God. They prayed to God while they fought. And God helped them. They defeated the Hagrites and those that were with them. v21 Then they took all the animals from their enemies. They took 50 000 camels, 250 000 sheep and 2000 donkeys. Also they took 100 000 people as prisoners. v22 Many of their enemies died in battle because this was God’s war. Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh lived in the Hagrites’ territory until the exile.
Commentary
VERSES 11-17
The tribe of Gad lived in the area called Bashan. They lived in Gilead, Bashan and the small towns near there. Their area included the plain called Sharon. The land in Bashan had good soil in which to plant crops. The plain called Sharon was a large flat area to the east of the river Jordan.
There were three areas called Sharon. One was near Caesarea and Joppa, which were on the west coast. The second one was between Mount Tabor and the sea called Galilee. This third one had boundaries next to Gilead and Bashan.
These records of the family of Gad are from the time of Jotham and Jeroboam. Jotham was king in Judah from 750 to 731 BC. Jeroboam II (the second) was king in Israel from 793 to 753 BC. There were two counts of the people. The first count was during the rule of Jeroboam. And the second count was during the rule of Jotham.
VERSES 18-22
The two and a half tribes that lived on the east side of the river Jordan had a large army. This probably refers to the time of Joshua. These two and a half tribes fought against the local people and took their land. They trusted God to help them in battle. They prayed to God for success. The LORD helped them because this was his plan for them.
The Half-Tribe of Manasseh to the East of the River – 1 Chronicles 5:23-26
v23 There were many people in the half-tribe of Manasseh. They lived in the area called Bashan all the way to Baal Hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon. v24 These men were the leaders of their clans: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel. They were brave soldiers, famous men, and heads of their clans.
v25 But the clans sinned against the God of their ancestors. They turned away from God. And they worshipped the gods of the people whom God had defeated in front of them. v26 So, Israel’s God caused Pul, king of Assyria, to attack their territory. (Pul also had the name Tiglath-Pileser.) He took the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and near the Gozan river. They are still there today.
Commentary
VERSES 23-26
Moses gave the places called Gilead and Bashan beyond the river Jordan to the half-tribe of Manasseh. They lived there and their land reached Mount Hermon. Baal Hermon, Senir and Mount Hermon are the names of three parts of the Mount Hermon range of mountains.
The tribes of Israel beyond the river Jordan were not loyal to God. He had helped them to defeat the people who had lived there before them.
They turned from the LORD their God to serve the false gods of those people. Because of this, God sent Pul to fight against them. So, the army of Assyria took these tribes into exile. There they remained and they were still there at the time of the writer of the Chronicles. Pul was the private name of King Tiglath-Pileser the third.
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