1 Chronicles 7
Israel’s hill people, west of the Jordan
Issachar’s family tree
1Issachar had four sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.2Tola had six sons, each a fine warrior and a leader in the clan: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel. In King David’s day, there were 22,600 in Tola’s clan.
3Uzzi had one son, Izrahiah, and four grandsons: Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah. All five men helped lead the clan. 4Uzzi’s clan had large families with a lot of wives who produced a lot of sons. The clan was large enough to field a militia of 36,000 warriors.
5Combined armies of Issachar’s clans totaled 87,000 soldiers, according to the genealogy records.
Benjamin’s family tree
6Benjamin had three sons: Bela, Becher, and Jediael.7His oldest son Bela had five sons, all clan leaders fine warriors: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. They had 22,034 warriors in their militia.
8Benjamin’s second son, Becher, had nine sons: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. Yes, they were all his. 9Becher’s clan had a militia of 20,200 warriors, according to family records.
10Benjamin’s third son, Jediael, had one son, Bilhan, along with seven grandsons: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. 11All eight of these men helped lead the clan. They had a militia of 17,200 warriors.
12Ir had two sons: Shuppim and Huppim. Aher [1] had one: Hushim.
Naphtali’s family tree
13Naphtali was the son of Jacob and Bilhah, his concubine. Naphtali had four sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. They were all descendants of Bilhah, the concubine.Manasseh’s family tree
14Manasseh and his Syrian concubine had two sons: Asriel and Machir. Each led a clan. Machir led his half of the tribe east of the Jordan River, settling in the territory of Gilead.15Machir found wives for Ir’s two sons, Huppim and Shuppim. [2] Machir had two sisters, Maacah and Zelophehad. Zelophehad had daughters. 16Machir married a woman named Maacah. They had two sons: Peresh and Sheresh. Sheresh had two sons: Ulam and Rekem.
17Ulam had one son: Bedan. These were the descendants of Machir, a grandson of Manasseh. They all lived in the territory of Gilead.
18Machir’s other sister, Hammolecheth, had three sons: Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah.
19Shemida had four sons: Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.
Ephraim’s family tree
20Ephraim had a son: Shuthelah. Family generations continued from father to son: Bered, Tahath, Eleadah, Tahath, 21Zabad, and Shuthelah. Ephraim had two other sons: Ezer and Elead. But when they went to the town of Gath to steal some cattle, the men there killed them.22Ephraim mourned for many days. His relatives came to comfort him. 23His wife comforted him, too. In the process, she got pregnant and gave him another son. She named him Beriah [3] because of the tragedy that had happened to the family.
24Ephraim had a daughter named Sheerah who built three communities: Lower and Upper Beth-horon, along with Uzzen-sheerah.
25Ephraim had another son, Rephah, along with generations of descendants from Rephah’s family: Resheph, Ephraim’s grandson, followed by Telah, Tahan, 26Ladan, Ammihud, Elishama, 27Nun, and Joshua. [4]
28Ephraim’s tribe settled in the heart of Israel, as far south as Bethel (on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem), east to Naaran, west to Gezer, and north to Shechem—and to outlying villages of all these towns. Some settled in Ayyah. [5]
29The half-tribe of West Manasseh settled along the northern border of Ephraim. Cities in Manasseh included Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo, Dor, and the outlying villages of each town. This is where descendants of Joseph’s son lived.
Asher’s family tree
30Asher had four sons and a daughter: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah.31Beriah had two sons and a grandson: Heber and Malchiel, who had a son named Birzaith. 32Heber had three sons and a daughter: Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham, and their sister Shua. 33Japhlet had 3 sons: Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath. 34Shomer had four sons: Ahi, Rohgah, Hubbah, and Aram. 35Shomer’s brother Helem had four sons: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal.
36Zophah had 11 sons: Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, 37Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera. 38Jether had three sons: Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara. 39Ulla had three sons: Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia.
40All these men in Asher’s tribe were warriors and leaders in their clans of extended families. They could call up a militia of 26,000 men.
Footnotes
Aher who? The Hebrew word aher can mean “someone else.” As in, “I can’t remember who,” or “I don’t want to say.” Some scholars speculate the word refers to the small tribe of Dan, which otherwise is a no-show in this extensive genealogy. And they lost their assigned land because Spartan-like Philistines were already there. So they moved to Israel’s far northern border at the foot of Mount Hermon, to the city that became known as Dan. In a nutshell, they lost their place on the map and their name in Israel’s family tree.
After verse 14, Manasseh’s family tree starts to look like a nut tree. The Hebrew text has a vague and scrambled read about it. For example, a few vexing questions: Why lead Machir’s family tree with him match-making for someone in another tribe on the opposite side of the Jordan River? The man had two sons and two grandsons, but that gets lost in the paragraph. Even the names of Machir’s sisters get posted before his boys. Another thing: Did Machir marry his sister? Wife and sister had the same name. And where did his sister Hammolecheth come from, popping up later in the paragraph? Was she his sister or the sister of someone named Gilead, since that’s the name the Hebrew text uses? But Machir’s nickname was Gilead because he led the settlement in that region. There are more questions, but these are enough for now. Lots of guessing going on in this section, and throughout much of the genealogy in 1 Chronicles.
It’s unclear why Beriah’s mother gave him that name. The writer seems to tie it to evil that happened: the killing of his cattle-rustling brothers. In Hebrew, the name and the word “evil” have a couple shared letters: “Beriah” is בְּרֵאשִׁית. “Evil” is מְרוּשָׁע. It takes a taffy stretch to link those two, it would seem. But the word “Beriah” has a variety of upbeat meanings: excellent, new beginning, most important. Those terms may have given Ephraim a reason to hope.
This Joshua is the famous warrior who led the Hebrew invasion into Canaan, which later became Israel and is now Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Ayyah is a mystery. Some say it may refer to the somewhat similar sounding “Gaza,” a city in the Gaza Strip. It was a Philistine city in during much of the time of ancient Israel. It’s a Palestinian town today.
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