View 1st Chronicles 7 in the note window.
The prosperity of Issachar, ver. 1 - 5.
Of Benjamin, ver. 6 - 12.
Of Naphtali, ver. 13.
Of Manasseh, ver. 14 - 19.
Of Ephraim, ver. 20 - 29.
Of Asher, ver. 30 - 40.
6: Three - They were ten, (Ge 46:25), and five of them are
named in(1Ch 8:1), but here only three are mentioned, either because
these were most eminent; or because the other families are now extinct.
7: Heads - Each of them head of that family to which he belonged.
For it may seem by comparing this with (1Ch 8:3), &c. that these were
not the immediate sons of Belah, but his Grand - children descended each
from a several father.
14: She - His wife; his concubine is here opposed to her.
15: Second - Of the second son or grandson of Machir; for so
Zelophehad was. Had daughters - Only daughters, and no sons.
17: These - Ashriel and Zelophehad, named (1Ch 14,15),
the relative being here referred to the remoter antecedent;
as is frequent in the Hebrew.
18: His - Gilead's sister. Mahalah - Understand,
and Shemida, out of the next verse.
21: Slew - This history is not recorded else where in scripture, but
it is in the ancient Hebrew writers. The Philistines (one of whose
cities Gath was) and the Egyptians were next neighbours; and in
those ancient times it was usual for such to make inroads one into
another's country, and to carry thence what prey they could take.
And as the Philistines had probably made such inroads formerly into
Egypt, and particularly into the land of Goshen, which was the
utmost part of Egypt bordering upon the Philistines land; so the
Israelites might requite them in the like kind: and particularly the
children of Ephraim, to their own loss. And this seems to have happened
a little before the Egyptian persecution, and before the reign of that
new king mentioned (Ex 1:8).
And this clause, that were born in that land, may be added emphatically,
as the motive which made them more resolute in their fight with the
Ephraimites, because they fought in, and for their own land, wherein
all their wealth and concerns lay.
23: Bare a son - Thus the breach was in some measure repaired, by the
addition of another son in his old age. When God thus restores comfort
to his mourners, he makes glad according to the days wherein he
afflicted, setting the mercies over against the crosses, we ought to
observe the kindness of his providence. Yet the joy that a man was born
into his family could not make him forget his grief. For he gives a
melancholy name to his son, Beriah, that is, in trouble: for he was
born when the family was in mourning. It is good to have in remembrance
the affliction and the misery which are past, that our souls may be
humbled within us.
