37 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
37 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
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title = "1 Chronicles 7:1–40"
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date = "2023-10-24"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/1Chronicles7.1-40)
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So far, the Chronicler has shown us the lineage of five-and-a-half tribes: Judah, Simeon, Reuben, Gad, half of Manasseh, and Levi.
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The other five-and-a-half are shown in chapter seven: Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Ephraim, Asher, and the other half of Manasseh..
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Unique among the genealogies, some of these tribes have an assessment of their military might, in terms of the number of fighting men they could field.
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Issachar in particular had a large army, though it is hard to say if these numbers are a total over the whole time period covered by the source records or just from the height of power, or some other significance.
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Benjamin is given just an overview, but in chapter 8 we will see a more detailed genealogy through King Saul who was from that tribe.
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This is similar to the general genealogy of Judah followed by the detailed descendants of King David we saw earlier.
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The tribe of Naphtali is recorded to only one generation here, without explanation or excuse.
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They did not die out that early, because Numbers 26:50 lists 45,400 as the number of the tribe of Naphtali, which was neither the largest nor smallest at the time of the conquest of Canaan.
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I can only suppose that the historical records were lost or unavailable to the Chronicler when he wrote these things down.
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Manasseh's genealogy includes more names of women than the others.
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One reason might be that the daughters of Zelophehad inherited directly from their father because he had no sons.
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Ephraim's history tells how a number of his sons, or possibly descendants were killed by cattle raiders, but he had another son who was able to continue the line.
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It is also interesting that Ephraim's granddaughter Sheerah is credited with building not just one settlement, but three of them.
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We are also reminded that Joshua, son of Nun, who led the Israelites after Moses's death was also from the tribe of Ephraim.
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Finally, the descendants of Asher are listed.
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The Reformation Study Bible has a note saying that the numbers of fighting men here and in chapter 12 seem too high for what we know of the time period.
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One option is that "thousand" could be read as "chief", but that doesn't fit the round numbers very well.
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Another option is that "thousand" is military jargon for a certain size of unit, like "platoon" or "legion".
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Such a term can mean a group of soldiers of an expected, but inexact, size.
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This could work, but it is also important to remember that archaeology, like all science, is never finished.
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We may make new discoveries that lead us to believe that populations of that time and place were higher than we previously thought, and able to support larger armies.
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* * *
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Every word that You give us is true, even when we are fuzzy in our understanding of some of the details.
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