1 Chronicles 7:1-12
[Phuvah, Job.]
[Pua.]
listed <04557> [whose number.]
This was probably the number returned by Joab and his assistants, when they made that census of the people with which God was so much displeased. We find that the effective men of Issachar amounted to 87,000 (ver. 5;) 22,600 of whom descended from Tola his eldest son; but whether the 36,000 (ver. 4) were descendants of Tola by Uzzi, and the 22,600 his descendants by Tola's other sons; or whether another of Issachar's sons be intended, does not clearly appear; though the former seems the more obvious meaning.
Benjamin <01144> [of Benjamin.]
In the parallel place of Genesis, ten sons of Benjamin are reckoned, Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard; and in Numbers, five only are mentioned, Bela, Ashbel, Ahiraim, Shupham, and Hupham; and Ard and Naaman are said to be the sons of Bela, and consequently Benjamin's grandsons. In the beginning of the following chapter, also, five are only mentioned, Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah, and Rapha; and Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoha, another Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram, are all represented as grandsons, not sons of Benjamin: hence we see that in many cases, grandsons are called sons, and both are often confounded in the genealogical tables. It seems, also, that the persons mentioned in the following verses were neither sons nor grandsons of Bela and Becher, but distinguished persons among their descendants.
Jediael <03043> [Jediael.]
listed in their genealogical records <03187> [were reckoned.]
Ehud <0164> [Ehud.]
warriors <01368 02428> [mighty men.]
Shuppites <08206> [Shuppim.]
[Muppim, Huppim.]
[Shupham, Hupham. Ir.]
[Iri. Aher.]
{Aher} signifies another, and it has been conjectured that these were Danites, "the sons of another tribe;" especially as Hushim is named as the only son of Dan, Ge 46:23. And they suppose that the name of Dan was not mentioned, because his descendants first established idolatry. But Zebulun, as well as Dan, is here omitted, perhaps because none of either of these tribes returned at first from Babylon. Though the Benjamites had been almost destroyed in the first days of the judges, they soon became numerous and powerful.
[Ahiram.]
