The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 78

CHAPTER 'V. the registration did not prooeed In this instancfil (probably pnrtly for the very renson ,ors. 1-10.-THE Soxs OF REUllEN. The of the ambiguity) by the order of birthright, tribe of Reuben is now taken third in but everything yielded to the specie.I cnll for order by the compiler, though Reuben precedence on the po.rt of Judah (ver. 2). we.s the first of all the sons of Israel. Ver. 3.-The four sons of Reuben here The distinct st.a tements of vers. 1 and 2, given are first enumerated in Gen. xlvi. 9; respecting the degradation of Reuben and then in Exod. vi. 14; o.nd again in Numb. his loss of the rights of primogeniture, xxvi. 5-7, where o.re also found the corre- are not to be undcr,;tood, however, as men- sponding chief families of the tribe, the tioned in any way to account for his st.and- total of their fighting numbers amounting to ing third here. That Judah takes in any 43,730, compared with 46,500 at the time of genealogy the first place needs no other the Sinai census (Nnmb. ii. 11), a diminution apology than that cont.ained in this passage, due to the plague for the idolatry of Baal- "Judah prevailed above his brethren, and peor (Numb. xxv. 9). of him came the chief ruler" ( i.e. David, Vere. 4-6.-From which of the four sons and in him "David's greater Son and of Reuben the line came in which .Joel Lord"). And that Simeon is taken immedi- would appear, we do not know. Junius ately after Judah was natural enough, both and Tremellius say Hanoch, others Carmi, because the second place belonged to him, while the Syriac Version has Ce.rmi vice aud because his tribe, in journeying, in Joel. H is to be remarked that in Numb. settlement, e.nd in acknowledged friendship, xxvi. 8-10 a line of descent through Pallu was so nearly related to that of Judah. It is is given, but reaching only to the second as an important historical fact, a lesson and generation. :Beerah in the present liet will stern memento of crime, that the tale of be only ninth at furthest from Reuben, so Reuben is here as elsewhere told. Indeed, that it is evident that it is a very fragmentary in the remarkably exalting language applied genealogy, whether the hiatus be only one, to Reuben (Gen. xlix. 3) by the dying father viz. between Reuben's son (whichever it in those "blessings" of his sons which may be in question) and Joel, or whether were so marvellously living with prophecy, both there and elsewhere also. Of none of that "blessing" seemed weighted with hard the eight persons beginning with Joel and reality, and may really carry this meaning: ending with Beerah is anything else known, " 0 Reuben I though thou art my firstborn, unless either Bhemaiah or Bhi.mei may be though my might and the beginning of my identical with the Sberna of Yer. 8, in which strength, though the excellency of dignity case it might be also that the Joel of ver. 8 and the excellency of power," yet, because is identical with that of ver. 4. In this of thy boiling lust (Gen. xxxv. 22) "thou passage and eh. viii. 30 :Baal appears as the she.It not excel." In that endowing charter name of a man. In this passage, o.nd in of the patriarch's death-bed, the birthright ver. 26 and 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, we have of Reuben is not in so many words given to a different form in each part of the word, Joseph and his sons, but what is given to of the Tiglath-pileser of 2 Kings xv. 29; Joseph is so abundant above the lot of all xvi. 7. 1'hese slight differences in the the others, that we find no difficulty in ac- position of the radicals, with the introduction cepting the formal statement of the fact or omission of the N, make as me.ny o.s four here first found in this passage. The large different readings in the Hebrew. Tiglath- measure of promise meted to Jndah (Geu. pileeer, the second Assyrian king who came xlix. 8--12) rests, no doubt, upon the into conflict with the Ieraelitee, reigned title al.ready referred to. 'l'here would seem about n.o. 747-727. Gesonius thinks tho.t to be also a righteous moral reason in Joseph the former half of the word is the same as after all becoming heir to the birthriglit, JJiglath, i.q. Tigris ; and that the latter, a inasmuch as he was the eldest child of her root occurring also in the name Nabo-pola- who was Israel's real love, and who, but for saris, is from an Assyrian verb meaning "to deception and sharp practice, would have guard." He translates the word as "Lord been his first wife. How he remembered of the Tigris." 1'he Assyrian reproduction her, e.nd with what determined practical of the name is Tigulti-pal-tsira (Smith's consPq uence, the affecting passage, Gen. • Bible Dictionary'), or Tukulti-pal-zara xlviii. 1-7, 16, 21, 22, sufficiently reveals; (' Speaker's Commentary,' in loc.). 'l'he Ce.p- yet comp. Deut. xxL 15-17. The meaning ti vity is spoken of furtlier in the lasi verse of the last clause of ver. 1 ie evidently that, of this chapter and in 2 Kings xv. 27-31. though thus Reuben wae the natural first- The Septuagint reads vers. 4 and 5 differ- l,orn, and Joseph had really the birthright, ently: "The sons of Joel, Semei and Banma ou. v. 1-26.) THE FIRST BOOK OF '!'HE CHRONICLES. 6'.J