Chapter Five

1–10. The descendants of Reuben. 11–17. The descendants of Gad. 18–22. The war of the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh with Arabian tribes. 23–24. The half-tribe of Manasseh. 25–26. The captivity of the three trans-Jordanic tribes.

1 Chronicles 5:1. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel—he was the firstborn; but because he defiled the bed of his father, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, son of Israel, so that he is not reckoned as the firstborn; The remark of this verse, that Reuben lost the right of firstborn for defiling the bed of his father, is found in (Gen 49:4), but nowhere is it said that the birthright was transferred to Joseph, though this is implied (Gen 48:5-6), where to his two sons is given an inheritance, so that Joseph, in his two sons, received, as one possessed of the right of the firstborn, a double portion (Deut 21:17).

1 Chronicles 5:2. But Judah prevailed above his brothers, and from him came the ruler; yet the birthright belonged to Joseph. The sons of Joseph were not reckoned as firstborn because they did not possess the elements for such a right of firstborn, namely the right of authority. It is founded on strength, and the strongest in number and influence was Judah (Gen 49:8; Judg 1:2), and from his tribe came the representatives of power—the kings (1 Sam 13:14).

1 Chronicles 5:3. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Reuben are listed in the same order in (Gen 46:9; Exod 6:14; Num 26:5-7).

1 Chronicles 5:4. The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son; his son Gog, his son Shimei, 1 Chronicles 5:5. His son Micah, his son Reaiah, his son Baal, 1 Chronicles 5:6. His son Beera, whom Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, carried away into captivity. He was a chief of the Reubenites. The descendants of Joel—the only line preserved in a known period through several generations. The seven names listed here are encountered in other places of the Old Testament, but nowhere as names of the descendants of Reuben. Similarly, it is unknown from whom Joel descended.

1 Chronicles 5:4. The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son; his son Gog, his son Shimei, The Hebrew word «beno» (his son) standing after the name «Shemaiah,» the Septuagint understood as a proper name Banaia, and therefore inserted between Shemaiah and Gog a new descendant of Reuben.

1 Chronicles 5:6. His son Beera, whom Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, carried away into captivity. He was a chief of the Reubenites. Beera, carried into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser (see below, verse 1 Chr 5:26), was a chief not of the whole tribe, but only of that family from which he descended.

1 Chronicles 5:7. And his brothers, by their families, in their genealogy, were: the head Jeiel, then Zechariah, 1 Chronicles 5:8. And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel. He lived in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon; Although the persons named in these verses are called brothers of Beera, in fact they are his senior relatives. This is evident from the remark about Bela. He descended from Joel in the third generation, while Beera was in the seventh. But why the older line is enumerated after the younger cannot be determined. Aroer—modern Araoer on the stream Arnon (Deut 3:12). Nebo—a mountain in the range of Abarim across from Jericho (Num 32:38). Baal-meon—a place mentioned by Moses together with Nebo (Num 32:38). In the Book of Joshua (Josh 13:15-20) the extent of the territory of the tribe of Reuben in the northern direction appears more extensive, since north of Baal-meon the Reubenites possessed a whole series of cities. The eastern border of the territory of the tribe was adjoined by the wilderness separating Gilead from the Euphrates.

1 Chronicles 5:9. And on the east he lived as far as the entrance to the wilderness that extends from the river Euphrates; for their cattle were very numerous in the land of Gilead. 1 Chronicles 5:10. In the days of Saul they made war on the Hagrites, who fell by their hand; and they settled in their tents throughout all the eastern side of Gilead. According to (1 Chr 5:20), the Hagrites were enemies of all the trans-Jordanic tribes. The similarity of names makes them descendants of Hagar, the concubine of Abraham. This is confirmed by the fact that in (1 Chr 5:20) they are mentioned alongside the undoubted descendants of her son Ishmael (see note on 1 Chr 5:20). In the Syriac and Arabic translations instead of “Hagrites” stands “Arabs, inhabitants of Sakka”; in the LXX—“strangers.” Both readings are identical. The word Sakka is connected with the Hebrew “suka”—“hut.” Bedouin Arabs lived in tents, why they could be strangers to the borders of the Reubenites’ possessions. If one follows the context, then the victors over the Hagrites should be counted not all the Reubenites, but only the generation of Bela. But this is prevented by the fact that about Bela in (1 Chr 5:8) it is said in the singular, while in verse 10 the plural is used.

1 Chronicles 5:11. The sons of Gad lived opposite them in the land of Bashan, as far as Salcah; 1 Chronicles 5:12. Joel was chief in Bashan, and Shaphan second, then Janai and Shaphat. 1 Chronicles 5:13. Their brothers, according to their families, seven in number: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jaakan, Zia, and Eber. 1 Chronicles 5:14. The sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz. 1 Chronicles 5:15. Ahi, the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, was chief of his household. 1 Chronicles 5:16. They dwelt in Gilead, in Bashan, and in its towns, and throughout all the pastures of Sharon, to their limits. 1 Chronicles 5:17. All of them were inscribed in the genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. The genealogy of Gad. The joint dwelling of the tribe of Gad with Reuben on the trans-Jordanic side, their common wars with the Hagrites (1 Chr 5:10), and similar fate (1 Chr 5:26) are the reason why the genealogy of Gad is presented following the genealogy of Reuben.

1 Chronicles 5:11. The sons of Gad lived opposite them in the land of Bashan, as far as Salcah; The tribe of Gad lived in the middle of Gilead, which constituted the southern part of the possessions of Og of Bashan (Deut 3:12-13), north of Reuben. Salcah lies six to seven hours’ journey from Bosra and thirty hours’ journey east of the Jordan. Regarding the territory of the tribe of Gad, see (Josh 13:24-28).

1 Chronicles 5:12. Joel was chief in Bashan, and Shaphan second, then Janai and Shaphat. It remains completely incomprehensible why the immediate descendants of Gad (Gen 46:16) are not enumerated, and in what relation to them stand the persons of this verse. Only one thing is certain: that both they and those mentioned below lived either in the beginning of the VII century before Christ under Jeroboam II, or half a century later—under Jotham of Judah (1 Chr 5:17).

1 Chronicles 5:16. They dwelt in Gilead, in Bashan, and in its towns, and throughout all the pastures of Sharon, to their limits. According to (Deut 3:12), the tribe of Gad lived not in all of Gilead, but only in one half of it; the other was given to the half-tribe of Manasseh (Deut 3:13). As for Bashan, according to (Josh 13:30), it was entirely given to the descendants of Manasseh, which brings the evidence of this verse into contradiction with this testimony. To remove it, it is commonly asserted that the settling of Gadites in part of Bashan falls on a later time. As shepherds, they could occupy places that proved surplus for the Manassites. “Sharon,” of course, is not the Plain of Sharon lying on the Mediterranean Sea between Caesarea and Joppa, since there is nowhere any indication, not only of a permanent settlement here of the descendants of Gad, but even of a temporary sojourn as nomads, but a place of the same name on the trans-Jordanic side. Some identify it with Sirion (Deut 3:9).

1 Chronicles 5:17. All of them were inscribed in the genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. To what period of the reign of Jeroboam and Jotham the enumeration of the Gadites relates, history does not indicate. The first is attributed to the time after the victory over the Syrians (2 Kgs 14:25); the second to the time after the defeat of the Ammonites (2 Chr 27:5).

1 Chronicles 5:18. The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had warriors, men bearing shield and sword, drawing the bow, and trained for battle—forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty, ready to march to war. The remark about the warlike character of the descendants of Reuben, Manasseh, and Gad is confirmed by (1 Chr 12:8), and the number able to wage war (44,760) coincides with the number shown in (Josh 4:12-13) (about 40,000), and is much less than that noted in the Book of Numbers: 46,500—Reubenites, 45,650—Gadites, and 32,200—Manassites (Num 1:21; cf. Num 26:7). But this disagreement can be reconciled by the consideration that at the time of Moses all those able to wage war were listed absolutely, as the conquest of Canaan required, whereas in the Book of Joshua and 1 Chronicles only the most brave and warlike were mentioned.

1 Chronicles 5:19. And they made war on the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab. Jetur and Naphish—two nations descended from Ishmael (1 Chr 1:31; Gen 25:15). Judging from (1 Chr 5:10), the war with these tribes falls on the time of the reign of Saul. In his history no mention is made of this event, because he did not take part in it. But, judging from the fact that Saul defeated the Moabites and Ammonites neighboring on Gilead (1 Sam 14:47), one can assume that the victories of the two and a half tribes over the wandering Arabian tribes also fall on this same time.

1 Chronicles 5:21. And they took their livestock: fifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys, and one hundred thousand people, 1 Chronicles 5:22. For there were slain many, since the war was of God. And they dwelt in their stead until the captivity. The enormous amount of booty reminds one of the victory over the Midianites (Num 31:11) and is explained by the multitude of the slain. In the places they occupied, the two and a half tribes lived “until the captivity,” that is, until their deportation by Tiglath-Pileser (1 Chr 5:26).

1 Chronicles 5:23. The sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon; they were very numerous. According to the testimony of (Josh 13:30), the half-tribe of Manasseh received the whole of Bashan in its inheritance; in this verse the northern boundary of its possessions is indicated. They extended to Baal-hermon, or, according to (Josh 13:5), Baal-gad, which was located at Mount Hermon, Senir, which name, according to (Ezek 27:8), denotes one part of Hermon, and according to (Deut 3:9) is the Amorite name for all of Hermon. The extent of the territory occupied by the half-tribe of Manasseh (see Josh 13:30-31) corresponds to its numerousness: “they were very numerous.” Indeed, at the second census in the time of Moses in the tribe of Manasseh there were 52,700 men able to wage war.

1 Chronicles 5:24. And these were the heads of their families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers’ houses. The names of the descendants of Manasseh do not appear anywhere else.

1 Chronicles 5:25. But they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them, 1 Chronicles 5:26. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away—namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh—into exile to Halah, Habor, Ara, and to the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day. The account of the deportation of the trans-Jordanic tribes into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser is a reproduction of the narrative (2 Kgs 15:29) about the conquest by these kings of Gilead, which ended in the resettlement of its inhabitants in Assyria. As is evident from the same (2 Kgs 15-16), this event falls on the time of the reign of Ahaz of Judah and Pekah of Israel: to protect against the invasion of the latter in alliance with Rezin upon Judah, the first invited Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kgs 16:7). Besides him, our verse mentions, in agreement with (2 Kgs 15:19), also Pul, king of Assyria, a contemporary of Menahem. From the viewpoint of the Books of Kings and 1 Chronicles, these are two different kings. But in the Assyrian Canon of the Eponyms, which presents a list of Assyrian kings of this period, Pul does not appear, and Assyrologists recognize as beyond doubt the fact that under these names lies one and the same person. Regarding the places of settlement of the captives, see note on (2 Kgs 17:6).