1 Chronicles 5:4

5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.

The sons of Joel,.... Who was either the son of Carmi last mentioned, or rather of Hanoch, Reuben's firstborn, since the descendants of him were the princes of the tribe: his posterity in succession were, Shemaiah, Cog, Shimei, Micah, Reaia, Baal, Beerah; of whom we know no more than their names, and by these the descent is carried down to the captivity by Tiglathpileser, as follows.

Verses 4-6. - From which of the four sons of Reuben the line came in which Joel would appear, we do not know. Juntas and Tremellius say Hanoch, others Carmi, while the Syriac Version has Carrot vice Joel. It is to be remarked that in Numbers 26:8-10 a line of descent through Pallu is given, but reaching only to the second generation, Beerah in the present list will be only ninth at furthest from Reuben, so that it is evident that it is a very fragmentary genealogy, whether the hiatus be only one, viz. between Reuben's son (whichever it may be in question) and Joel, or whether both there and elsewhere also. Of none of the eight persons beginning with Joel and ending with Beerah is anything else known, unless either Shemaiah or Shimei may be identical with the Shema of ver. 8, in which case it might be also that the Joel of ver. 8 is identical with that of ver. 4. In this passage and 1 Chronicles 8:30 Baal appears as the name of a man. In this passage, and in ver. 26 and 2 Chronicles 28:20 , we have a different form in each part of the word, of the Tiglath-pileser of 2 Kings 15:29 ; 2 Kings 16:7 . These slight differences in the position of the radicals, with the introduction or omission of the א , make as many as four different readings in the Hebrew. Tiglath-pileser, the second Assyrian king who came into conflict with the Israelites, reigned about B.C. 747-727 . Gesenius thinks that the former half of the word is the same as Diglath , i.q.

Tigris; and that the latter, a root occurring also in the name Nabo-pola-saris , is from an Assyrian verb meaning "to guard." He translates the word as "Lord of the Tigris." The Assyrian reproduction of the name is Tigulti-pal-tsira (Smith's 'Bible Dictionary'), or Tukulti-pal-zara ('Speaker's Commentary,' in loc .). The Captivity is spoken of further in the last verse of this chapter and in 2 Kings 15:27-31 . The Septuagint reads vers. 4 and 5 differently: "The sons of Joel, Semei and Banaea his son; and the sons of Gog the son of Semei ," etc., and this in all three editions - Vatican, Alexandrine, and Aldine. 1 Chronicles 5:4

(4-6) The sons of Joel. —The connection of this leading house with one of the four sons just mentioned, is implied but not stated. The line of Joel is traced through seven generations to Beerah, who was transported to Assyria by Tiglath Pileser. II., 734 B.C., in the reign of Pekah, king of Israel. Supposing there are no gaps in the series, Joel flourished 280 years (7 x 40) before that date; that is, about 1014 B.C., under David and Solomon. (4) The LXX. read: “Sons of Joel Shemaiah, and Banaia (Benaiah) his son; and sons of Gog, son of Shemaiah, his son Micah,” &c.

CHAPTER 5 1Ch 5:1-10. The Line of Reuben. 1. Now the sons of Reuben—In proceeding to give this genealogy, the sacred historian states, in a parenthesis (1Ch 5:1, 2), the reason why it was not placed first, as Reuben was the oldest son of Jacob. The birthright, which by a foul crime he had forfeited, implied not only dominion, but a double portion (De 21:17); and both of these were transferred to Joseph, whose two sons having been adopted as the children of Jacob (Ge 48:5), received each an allotted portion, as forming two distinct tribes in Israel. Joseph then was entitled to the precedency; and yet, as his posterity was not mentioned first, the sacred historian judged it necessary to explain that "the genealogy was not to be reckoned after the birthright," but with a reference to a superior honor and privilege that had been conferred on Judah—not the man, but the tribe, whereby it was invested with the pre-eminence over all the other tribes, and out of it was to spring David with his royal lineage, and especially the great Messiah (Heb 7:14). These were the two reasons why, in the order of enumeration, the genealogy of Judah is introduced before that of Reuben.

18-22. Hagarites—or, "Hagarenes," originally synonymous with "Ishmaelites," but afterwards applied to a particular tribe of the Arabs (compare Ps 83:6). Jetur—His descendants were called Itureans, and the country Auranitis, from Hauran, its chief city. 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. Divine Providence favoured, in a remarkable manner, the Hebrew army in this just war.

From one of these sons descended Joel, whose family is traced down through seven generations, to the time of the Assyrian deportation of the Israelites. But we are neither informed here, nor can we ascertain from any information elsewhere given in the Old Testament, from which of the four sons Joel was descended. For although many of the names in 1 Chronicles 5:4-6 frequently occur, yet they are nowhere met with in connection with the family whose members are here registered. The last-named, Beerah, was לראוּבני נשׂיא, a prince of the Reubenites, not a prince of the tribe of Reuben, but a prince of a family of the Reubenites. This is expressed by ל being used instead of the stat. constr.; cf. Ew. 292, a. In reference to the leading away of the trans-Jordanic tribes into captivity by Tiglath-pilneser, cf. on 2 Kings 15:29 . The name of this king as it appears in the Chronicles is always Tiglath-pilneser, but its meaning has not yet been certainly ascertained. According to Oppert's interpretation, it equals תּגלת־פּלּא־סחר, i.e., "worship of the son of the Zodiac" (i.e., the Assyrian Hercules); vid., Delitzsch on Isaiah, Introd.