1 Chronicles 7:6

The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three. Benjamin had ten sons, but three only are mentioned first; the latter of these seems to be the same with Ashbel, Genesis 46:21.

The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three. The sons of Benjamin - ten are reckoned, Genesis 46:21, but only five, 1 Chronicles 8:1; Numbers 26:38.

There were ten, , and five of them are named, , but here only three are mentioned, either because these were most eminent for courage or fruitfulness, or because the other families were now extinct.

1 Chronicles 7:6 [The sons] of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three.Ver. 6. The sons of Benjamin.] The genealogies of Dan and Zebulon are left out, for causes unknown; haply, because at their return out of Babylon their genealogies were not found. Dan is also - for their apostasy, likely, and idolatry - not reckoned among the rest that were sealed. That Antichrist should be one of this tribe, is a fiction rightly exploded. We read of Hushim, the sons of Aher, which signifieth Another - and so some render it - by Another, understanding Dan, whom the penman of this book held not worth the naming. The Hebrews, when they would show their detestation of any person or thing, they call it acher; a sow they call dabshar acher, that is, another thing; so leaven at the passover, &c. Elias Thisbit.

VII. THE GREAT CLANS OF , , , WEST , EPHRAIM, AND ASHER. (1–5) The tribe of Issachar, its clans and their military strength. (1) Now the sons of Issachar.—Heb., and to the sons—i.e., “and as for the sons of Issachar, Tola, Puah, &c., four were they.” The Vatic, LXX., has the dative; the Alex, the nominative, which is perhaps a correction. The four names are given Genesis 46:13, where the second is Puwwah, the third lτb; and Numbers 26:23, where also the second name is Puwwah, but the third Iβshϋb (he returns). The Heb. text here is Iβshξb (he makes return); the Hebrew margin, adopted by the Authorised Version, is the same as the text of Numbers 26 (2-6) These verses supply names and facts not found elsewhere. We have here some of the results of the census of David (2 Samuel 24, and below, 1 Chronicles 21). (2) Heads of their father’s house—Rather, chiefs of their father-houses (septs or clans). Of Tola.—Belonging to Tola, that is, to the great clan or sub-tribe so called. In their generations.—According to their registers or birth-rolls.Whose number.—The number of the warriors of all the six groups of the Tolaite branch of Issachar. In the days of David.—See the census (1chron xxi,). (3) Izrahiah . . .—All these names contain a divine element. Izrahiah means “Iah riseth (like the sun)” (comp. Malachi 4:2); Michael, “who like God?” (Comp. Isaiah 40:18; Isaiah 40:25.) Before Ishiah and has fallen out. Five: all of them chief men.—Heb., five chiefs (heads) altogether (all of them). But perhaps the punctuation should be as in the Authorised Version. 1 Chronicles 7:7.) (4) By their generations.—Heb., after or according to their birth-rolls or registers. The census of the Uzzite warriors was taken “according to their birth-rolls and their father-houses” (septs or clans). Bands of soldiers.—Heb., troops of the host of war or of the battle-host.For they had many wives and sons.—They are the clans represented by the hereditary chiefs Izrahiah, Michael, and the rest. (5) And their brethren.—Fellow-tribesmen. Families.—Clans (mishpehτth). The verse states the number of warriors for the whole tribe of Issachar in David’s census at 87,000. Render: “And their kinsmen, of all the clans of Issachar, valiant warriors. Eighty-seven thousand was their census for the whole (tribe).” Reckoned in all by their genealogies.—Heb., hithyahsβm, a difficult word peculiar to the chronicler in the Old Testament, but reappearing in the Rabbinic Hebrew. The present form is a verbal noun with suffix pronoun, and means “their enrolling” or “enrolment,” their census; cp. ἀπογράφεσθαι, (Luke 2:1). As the Tolaites were 22,600, and the sons of Izrahiah 36,000, the other son of Issachar must have amounted to 28,400, to make up the total of 87,000 for the tribe. At the first census of Moses (Num. i 29), the warriors of Issachar were 54,400; at the second (Numbers 26:25) they were 64,300. (Comp. Judges 5:15; Judges 10:1 for the ancient prowess of Issachar.)

Verse 6. The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher and Jediael] In Genesis 46:21, ten sons of Benjamin are reckoned; viz., Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Eri, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. In Numbers 26:38, c., five sons only of Benjamin are mentioned, Bela, Ashbel, Ahiram, Shupham, and Hupham: and Ard and Naaman are there said to be the sons of Bela consequently grandsons of Benjamin. In the beginning of the following chapter, five sons of Benjamin are mentioned, viz., Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah, and Rapha; where also Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, a second Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram, are all represented as grandsons, not sons, of Benjamin: hence we see that in many cases grandsons are called sons, and both are often confounded in the genealogical tables. To attempt to reconcile such discrepancies would be a task as endless as it would be useless. The rabbins say that Ezra, who wrote this book, did not know whether some of these were sons or grandsons; and they intimate also that the tables from which he copied were often defective, and here we must leave all such matters.

6–12 (cp. ch. 1 Chronicles 8:1-40). The Genealogy of Benjamin 6. The sons of Benjamin] The Heb. word for the sons of being just like the beginning of the word Benjamin has fallen out through an error of transcription. The names of these are also given in 1 Chronicles 8:1-5; Genesis 46:21; Numbers 26:38-41. There are variations of reading and probably also variations of tradition in the different lists; e.g. here the sons of Benjamin are reckoned to be three in number, but in 1 Chronicles 8:2 to be five. Bela, and Becher, and Jediael] These three names come from Genesis 46:21, Jediael (“Known to God”) being substituted for the heathen-sounding Ashbel (= Ishbaal, “Man of Baal”). The Chronicler in this case conforms literally to the principle laid down in Hosea 2:17. (See note on Eshbaal, 1 Chronicles 8:33.) In 1 Chronicles 8:1 on the contrary the three names Bela, Ashbel, Aharah (= Ahiram) are taken from Numbers 26:38 without misgiving.

Three - In Genesis, ten “sons” of Benjamin are mentioned; in Numbers, five (marginal references). Neither list, however, contains Jediael who was perhaps a later chieftain.