The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 29

EXPOSITION. where it branches into three great-grandsons CHAPTER II. (vers. 3-9). 3. 'fhe line of .Judah pursuer! The interest of this chapter owes some- through thoso three branches to a point thing to the several unsatisfied questions manifestly significant in one, aud presum- which it suggests, to difficult and knotty ably so in the others (vers. 10-55). points which nevertheless do not altogether Vers. ], 2.-1. 'fADLE OF ISRAEL'S TWELVE counsel despair, and to occasional. signifi- SONS. The twelve sons of Iorael, not in the cant indications of sources drawn upon by order of age (cf. Gen. xxix. 31-xxx. 2-l; the compiler, certainly quite additional to xxxv. 16-19), nor exac.tly in the order of the contents of the existing books of the children of wives as against those of hand- Old Testament. maids (Gen. xxv. 23-26), nor in that of We know something of what we have to the a):(ed father's dying blessing- (Gen. xlix.), expect when the nrrme of Israel, or .Jacob, is nor in that of Exod. i. 2-4. It is the place annollllced in the first verse, with bis twelve of Dan which disturbs the fittest order, and sons-those '' patriarchs," some of whom Keil suggests that his place in this text is (certainly not as many as eleven, for Reuben accounted for by Rachel's desire that her was absent, and, with scarcely a doubt, handmaid's child should be accountt-d her Benjamin), "moved with envy, sold iuto own; but surely this was not exceptional, Egypt Joseph," the twelfth (Acts vii. 9). but applied to all or most of such cases, and We here enter, in fact, upon the genealogies should have been far rather tuken into con- and tables and enumeratiollB of collateral sideration in any of the other lists tho.u iu lines of" all Israel," to which the whole of this. However accounted for, the order is- the following seven chapters are devoted firBt, the six sons of the first wife Leah ; (eh. ix. 1). This second chapter leads off secondly, the elder son of Ro.chel's handmuirl with the most important line of descent of Bilhah; thirdly. the two sons of th" loved the twelve-that of Judah. And the con- wife Rachel ; fourthly, the other son of tents of this chapter do not exhaust the one Rachel's handmaid Bilheh; laBtly, tht1 two line, which, on the contrary, stretches as sons of Zilpah, handmaid of Leah. As far as to eh. iv. 23. Within these limits this order corresponds with nothing in our there are j11Bt that amount of repetition Old Testament, it may serve as one sli~ht (eh. ii. 3; iv. 1, etc.) and appearance of indication that the compiler of Chronicles conf11Bion which betoken the recourse of the wus not dependent on these recnrds alone. compiler to various records and sources of in- The Hebrew text and tho Septuagint accord formation-tbemBel ,·es sometimes but frag- CXHctly with the Autl,orized Version here. mentary, and probably to mere memory and Vere. 3-9.-2. THE LINE 01!' JUDAH, TO the tradition that depends upon it. ms THREE GREAT-GRANDSONS. The line The contents of this chapter are best of Judah is, with a well-known object, the mastered by noticing that they consist of: first to be taken up, o.!Lhough J wlnh stands 1. The table of Israel's twelve sons (vcrs. folll'th of Israel's sons. Ju,la'h bas five l, 2). 2. 'fhe line of Judah to tile stag-o sons : three, Er, Ouan, llhelah, by a Canaau-  'l'I-IE FITIST IlOOK OF 'l'HE CHRONICLES. 1()