1 Chronicles 7:19
Ver. 19. And the sons of Shemida,.... Another son of Gilead's sister, unless the same with Ishod; from him sprung the family of the Shemidaites, Nu 26:30
were, Ahian, and Shechem, and Likhi, and Aniam; from Shechem came the family of the Shethemites, as from Likhi, if he is the same with Helek, as probably he may be, was the family of the Helekites, Nu 26:30. 1 Chronicles 7:20Ver. 20. And the sons of Ephraim,.... A son of Joseph, and father of a tribe of this name, whose genealogy through five generations follows: Shuthelah, Bered, Tahath, Eladah, Tahath; the second. 1 Chronicles 7:21Ver. 21. And Zabad his son,.... Not the son of Tahath the second last mentioned, but the son of Ephraim, a second son of his:and Shuthelah; his son, the son of Zabad, called after his uncle's name, 1Ch 7:20and Ezer, and Elead; two other sons of Zabad:whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew: that is, Zabad and his three sons; these the men of Gath slew, who were Philistines that dwelt there, and were originally of Egypt, and were born in that land, but had removed into Palestine, which had its name from them, of which Gath was one of its cities; and this bordering upon the land of Goshen, or being near it, where the Israelites dwelt, they made inroads upon them, and plundered them:because they came down to take away their cattle; and the sons, the grandsons of Ephraim, resisted them, and so were slain: and that the aggressors were not the Ephraimites, who went out of Egypt before their time, and fell upon the men of Gath, born in the land of the Philistines, in order to dispossess them of their land and substance, and were slain by them, which is the sense of the Targum and other writers, both Jewish and Christian; but the men of Gath, as is clear from this circumstance, that theycame down, as men did when they went from Palestine to Egypt, not when they went from Egypt to Palestine, then they "went up"; which would have been the phrase used, if this had been an expedition of the Ephraimites into Palestine; besides, it is not reasonable to think, that the Ephraimites, addicted to husbandry and cattle, and not used to war, should engage in such an enterprise; but rather the men of Gath, or the Philistines, who were a warlike people, and given to spoil and plunder; this, according to a learned chronologer {l}, was seventy four years after Jacob went down to Egypt, and one hundred and forty years before the children of Israel came from thence.{l} Nic. Abrami Pharus, l. 9. c. 21. p. 242. 1 Chronicles 7:22Ver. 22. And Ephraim their father mourned many days,.... For the loss of his son and grandchildren for the above fact was done while the Israelites were in Egypt, and Ephraim the patriarch yet alive; nor is there any need to suppose another Ephraim, different from him:and his brethren came to comfort him; some of the heads of the other tribes of Israel, particularly Manasseh, with some of his family. 1 Chronicles 7:23Ver. 23. And when he went in to his wife,.... After his grief and sorrow in part at least had subsided:she conceived and bare a son; which in some measure made up for the loss he had sustained:and he called his name Beriah; which signifies being "in evil" or calamity, he being born in an evil time:because it went evil with his house; or evil was in his house, as Noldius {m}, in his family; a great calamity had befallen it.{m} Ebr. Concord. Part. No. 750. p. 165. 1 Chronicles 7:24Ver. 24. And his daughter was Sherah,.... That is, the daughter of Beriah; not an immediate daughter, but a descendant of his, otherwise she could not have reached the times of Joshua, as she did by what follows:who built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper; which were cities on the border of the tribe of Ephraim; which the Israelites having taken from the Canaanites, and destroyed, she rebuilt, see Jos 16:3and Uzzensherah; which was called after her own name, and to distinguish it from another place called Uzzen; though of neither of them do we read elsewhere. 1 Chronicles 7:25Ver. 25-27. And Rephah was his son,.... The son of Beriah, whose genealogy from him is traced down to Joshua in this and the two following verses, and stands thus: after Rephah, Resheph, Telah, Tahan, Laadan, Ammihud, Elishama, who was prince of the tribe of Ephraim in the wilderness, Nu 1:10, then Non or Nun, whose son was Jehoshua or Joshua. 1 Chronicles 7:26Ver. 26. See Gill on "1Ch 7:25" 1 Chronicles 7:27Ver. 27. See Gill on "1Ch 7:25" 1 Chronicles 7:28Ver. 28. And their possessions and habitations,.... That is, of the sons of Ephraim, when come into the land of Canaan:were Bethel, and the towns thereof; the villages belonging to it, which was formerly called Luz, and was the border of Ephraim, Jos 16:7and eastward Naaran: the same with Naarath, Jos 16:7and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; of which seeJos 16:3,and Shechem also, and the towns thereof; which was a city of refuge in Mount Ephraim, Jos 20:7unto Gaza, and the towns thereof; not Gaza, a city of the Philistines, for the tribe of Ephraim did not reach so far; the Targum calls it Aiah; it may be read Adaza, as in the margin of our Bibles. 1 Chronicles 7:29Ver. 29. And by the borders of the children of Manasseh,.... Of the half tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan: near to them the Ephraimites dwelt, even near toBethshean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns; of all which places see Jos 17:11,in these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel; the Ephraimites, in those mentioned in 1Ch 7:28, and the Manassites, in those that are here mentioned; who were both the children or posterity of Joseph, the beloved son of Israel. 1 Chronicles 7:30Ver. 30,31. The son of Asher,.... Which, and his two grandsons born before Jacob went down to Egypt, are here reckoned as in Ge 46:17 only it is here added Malchiel his second grandson,who is the father of Birzavith; which Jarchi interprets, prince of a city of this name, which signifies pure oil; which it might have from the abundance of olives about it, Asher being a tribe which abounded with them, see De 33:24 though some of the Rabbins take it to be the name of a man, whose daughters, they say, as Jarchi observes, were very beautiful, having much oil to anoint with, and were married to kings and priests anointed with oil. 1 Chronicles 7:31Ver. 31. See Gill on "1Ch 7:30". 1 Chronicles 7:32Ver. 32. And Heber,.... The other grandson of Asher; and son of Beriah;begat Japhlet, and Shomer, and Hotham, and Shuah their sister; a place on the borders of Ephraim is called the coast of Japhleti; but whether from this Japhlet is uncertain. 1 Chronicles 7:33Ver. 33. And the sons of Japhlet; Pasach, and Bimhal, and Ashvath; these are the children of Japhlet. Of whom we read not elsewhere, 1 Chronicles 7:34Ver. 34. And the sons of Shamer,.... Or Shomer, the brother of Japhlet, 1Ch 7:32.Ahi, and Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram; of whom nothing is known but their names. 1 Chronicles 7:35Ver. 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, 1Ch 7:32.Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Aram; nowhere else mentioned.{n} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 551. 1 Chronicles 7:36Ver. 36,37. And the sons of Zophah,.... The eldest of the sons of Helem:Suah, and Harnepher, and Shual, and Beri, and Imrah, Bezer; and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera; in all eleven. 1 Chronicles 7:37Ver. 37. See Gill on "1Ch 7:36". 1 Chronicles 7:38Ver. 38. And the sons of Jether,.... The same with Ithran, the last of Zophah's sons but one, 1Ch 7:37,Jephunneh, and Pispah, and Ara; not Jephunneh the father of Caleb; he was not of the tribe of Asher, but of Judah. 1 Chronicles 7:39Ver. 39. And the sons of Ulla,.... Who either was the son of Ara, last mentioned, or another son of Jether:Arah, and Haniel, and Rezia; here ends the genealogy of Asher; the last of the tribes; Dan and Zebulun not being reckoned at all. 1 Chronicles 7:40Ver. 40. All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father's house,.... Principal men in their tribe, and respective families:choice and mighty men of valour; these were some selected from others, being eminent for their courage and valour:chief of the princes; or chief princes; the Vulgate Latin version is, dukes of dukes, they were heads of their fathers' families:[and] the number throughout the genealogy that were apt to war, and to battle, [was] twenty and six thousand [men]; that is, in the days of David, 1Ch 7:4, this was the number, not of their chief men, nor of all the people in the tribe, but of their militia.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.