Armenia in comments -- Book: 1 Chronicles (t1Chron) Ա Մնացորդաց
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t1Chron 7:14 Families of the half-tribe of Manasseh. - The families of Manasseh which dwelt in Gilead and Bashan have already been mentioned in Ch1 5:23, Ch1 5:14. Our verses deal with the families of this tribe which received their inheritance in Canaan, on this side Jordan. These were, according to Num 26:30, Num 26:34, and Jos 17:2, six families, of which, however, only two are here spoken of - Ashriel, Ch1 7:14, and Shemidah, Ch1 7:19; or perhaps three, if Abiezer, Ch1 7:18, be the same person as Jeezer (Num 26:30), who is called Abiezer in Jos 17:2. The statements of Ch1 7:14, Ch1 7:15 are very obscure. At the head of the register of the Manassites stands Ashriel, who, according to Num 26:31, belonged to the sons of Gilead the son of Manasseh and the grandson of Joseph (cf. Gen 50:23), and founded one of the six families of the cis-Jordanic Manassites. But the words which follow are obscure; the words are וגו ילרה אשׁר, "whom his Aramaic concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead." But since Ashriel, according to this, was the great-grandson of Manasseh, while Machir was his son, the relative clause can refer only to Manasseh, to whom his concubine bore Machir. Movers and Berth. would therefore erase אשׂריאל, as a gloss arising out of a doubling of the following יל אשר. By this expedient the difficultly as to the connection of the relative clause is certainly got rid of, but the obscurities of the following verse (Ch1 7:15) are not thereby removed. The analogy of the other registers in our chapter requires, rather, that immediately after מנשּׁה בּני there should stand the name of a descendant, - a fact which speaks strongly in favour of the authenticity of אשׂריאל. It is therefore a much more probable suggestion, that after the name אשׂריאל, some additional clause, such as בּן־מנשּׁה, has been dropped, or regarded as superfluous by a copyist, and so omitted. To such an omitted מנשׁה בן, the relative sentence, which gives more details as to the descent of Ashriel, would be attacked in a simple and natural manner, since it was known from Num 26:30. that Ashriel was descended from Manasseh through Gilead.
Ch1 7:15-17
Ch1 7:15 is literally, "And Machir took a wife to Huppim and Shuppim, and the name of his sister was Maachah, and the name of the second Zelophehad." According to Ch1 7:16, on the contrary, Maachah is the wife of Machir, and we should consequently expect to find in Ch1 7:15 only the simple statement, "And Machir took a wife whose name was Maachah." From the words מעכה אחתו מעכה sdrow eh ולשׁפים לחפים no meaning which harmonizes with the context can be obtained. Since ל אשּׁה לקח signifies "to take a wife for one" (cf. Jdg 14:2), we can only suppose that by the names Huppim and Shuppim Machir's sons are meant, to whom he, as their father, gave wives. But we cannot suppose that the sons of Machir are referred to, for the birth of the sons is first mentioned in Ch1 7:16. But we have found the names חפם and שׁפם spoken of as descendants of Benjamin; and Bertheau consequently conjectures that these names have been brought thence into our verse by some gloss, and that the beginning of our verse originally stood thus: המלכת אחתו ושׁם מעכם ושׁמה אשׁה לקח ומכיר לקח אשׁה ושׁם, "And Machir took a wife whose name is Maachah, and the name of his sister if Hammoleketh" (the last according to Ch1 7:18). By this means we certainly bring some meaning into the words; but we cannot venture to maintain that this conjecture corresponds to the original text, but rather incline to doubt it. For, in the first place, the following words, "And the name of the second (is) Zelophehad," do not suit the proposed reading. Berth. must here alter השּׁני into אהיו (the name of his brother). But even after this alteration, the mention of the brother of Machir is not suitable to the context; and moreover Zelophehad was not a true brother, but only a nephew of Machir, the son of his brother Hepher; cf. Num 26:33; Num 27:1. And besides this, according to the concluding formula, "These are the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh" (Ch1 7:17), we should expect to find in Ch1 7:15, Ch1 7:16, not merely sons or descendants of Machir, but rather descendants of Gilead. We therefore hold the statement of Ch1 7:15, "And the name of the second if Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had (only) daughters," to be correct and beyond criticism, and the first part of Ch1 7:15 to be corrupt and defective; and conjecture that a son of Gilead's was mentioned in it, to whose name the words, "And the name of the second," etc., belonged. This son who was mentioned in the text, which has been handed down to us only in a defective state, was probably the Ashriel mentioned in Ch1 7:14, a son of Gilead, whose descent from Machir was given more in detail in the corrupt and consequently meaningless first half of Ch1 7:15. In Ch1 7:15, Ch1 7:17, other descendants of Machir by his wife Maachah are enumerated, which favours the probable conjecture that the wife whom Machir took, according to Ch1 7:15, was different from Maachah, that Machir had two wives, and that in Ch1 7:15 originally the sons of the first were enumerated, and in Ch1 7:16, Ch1 7:17, the sons of the second. Peresh and Shelesh are mentioned only here. בּנין, "his sons" (that is, the sons of the last-named, Shelesh), were Ulam and Rakem, names which are also met with only here. The name בּדן is found in our Masoretic text, Sa1 12:11, as the name of a judge, but probably בּרק should be read instead.
Ch1 7:18
A third branch of the descendants of Gilead were descended from Machir's sister Hammoleketh, a name which the Vulgate has taken in an appellative sense. Of her sons, Ishod, i.e., "man of splendour," is not elsewhere mentioned. The name Abiezer occurs, Jos 17:2, as that of the head of one of the families of Manasseh. In Num 26:30, however, he is called Jeezer, which is probably the original reading, and consequently our Abiezer is different from that in Jos 17:2. Another circumstance which speaks strongly against the identification of the two men is, that the family descended from Jeezer holds the first place among the families of Manasseh, which is not at all consonant with the position of the son of Machir's sister here mentioned. Of the family of Abiezer came the judge Gideon, Jdg 11:15. A daughter of Zelophehad is called Mahlah in Num 26:33; Num 27:1, but she is not the person here mentioned.
Ch1 7:19
The sons of Shemida, the founder of the fourth family of the Manassites, Num 26:32. His four sons are nowhere else referred to, for שׁכם, the founder of a family of the Manassites (Num 26:31 and Jos 17:2), is to be distinguished from the Shechem of our verse; nor is there any greater reason to identify Likhi with Helek, Num 26:30 (Berth.), than there is for connecting אניעם with נעם, the daughter of Zelophehad, Num 26:33; Jos 17:3. 1 Chronicles 7:20
t1Chron 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 Chronicles 7:15 t1Chron 7:34
And the sons of Shamer,.... Or Shomer, the brother of Japhlet, Ch1 7:32. Ahi, and Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram; of whom nothing is known but their names. 1 Chronicles 7:35 t1Chron 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, Ch1 7:32. Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Aram; nowhere else mentioned. (n) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 551. 1 Chronicles 7:36
t1Chron 7:1 We have here a short view given us,
I. Of the tribe of Issachar, whom Jacob had compared to a strong ass, couching between two burdens (Gen 49:14), an industrious tribe, that minded their country business very closely and rejoiced in their tents, Deu 33:18. And here it appears, 1. That they were a numerous tribe; for they had many wives. So fruitful their country was that they saw no danger of over-stocking the pasture, and so ingenious the people were that they could find work for all hands. Let no people complain of their numbers, provided they suffer none to be idle. 2. That they were a valiant tribe, men of might (Ch1 7:2, Ch1 7:5), chief men, Ch1 7:3. Those that were inured to labour and business were of all men the fittest to serve their country when there was occasion, The number of the respective families, as taken in the days of David, is here set down, amounting in the whole to above 145,000 men fit for war. The account, some think, was taken when Joab numbered the people, 2 Sa. 24. But I rather think it refers to some other computation that was made, perhaps among themselves, because it is said (Ch1 27:24) that that account was not inserted in the chronicles of king David, it having offended God.
II. Of the tribe of Benjamin. Some account is here given of this tribe, but much larger in the next chapter. The militia of this tribe scarcely reached to 60,000; but they are said to be mighty men of valour, Ch1 7:7, Ch1 7:9, Ch1 7:11. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf, Gen 49:27. It was the honour of this tribe that it produced Saul the first king, and more its honour that it adhered to the rightful kings of the house of David when the other tribes revolted. Here is mention (Ch1 7:12) of Hushim the sons of Aher. The sons of Dan are said to be Hushim (Gen 46:23), and therefore some read Aher appellatively, Hushim - the sons of another (that is, another of Jacob's sons) or the sons of a stranger, which Israelites should not be, but such the Danites were when they set up Micah's graven and molten image among them.
III. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Ch1 7:13. The first fathers only of that tribe are named, the very same that we shall find, Gen 46:24, only that Shillem there is Shallum here. None of their descendents are named, perhaps because their genealogies were lost.
IV. Of the tribe of Manasseh, that part of it which was seated within Jordan; for of the other part we had some account before, Ch1 5:23, etc. Of this tribe observe, 1. That one of them married an Aramitess, that is, a Syrian, Ch1 7:14. This was during their bondage in Egypt, so early did they begin to mingle with the nations. 2. That, though the father married a Syrian, Machir, the son of that marriage, perhaps seeing the inconvenience of it in his father's house, took to wife a daughter of Benjamin, Ch1 7:15. It is good for the children to take warning by their father's mistakes and not stumble at the same stone. 3. Here is mention of Bedan (Ch1 7:17), who perhaps is the same with that Bedan who is mentioned as one of Israel's deliverers, Sa1 12:11. Jair perhaps, who was of Manasseh (Jdg 10:3), was the man. 1 Chronicles 7:20