1 Chronicles 5:17
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Cross References
2 Kings 15:32
32In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 14:28
28Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 14:16
16Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:5
5The LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house. Jotham, the king’s son, was over the household, judging the people of the land.
2 Chronicles 27:1
1Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok.
1 more
2 Kings 14:23
23In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria for forty-one years.
Study
1 Chronicles 5:1–24
Chapter 5 lists the family histories for:
Reuben (1 Chronicles 5:1–10; compare Genesis 46:9)
Gad (1 Chronicles 5:11–17)
Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:23–24)
These are the tribes of Israel that settled in Transjordan (the area east of the Jordan River).
Section overviews (1)
1 Chronicles 4:24–8.40
After finishing the genealogy of Judah’s descendants (1 Chronicles 2:3–4:23), the Chronicler examines the records for the other sons of Israel (compare 2:1–2).
5:17
All these were reckoned . . . in the days of Jotham--His long reign and freedom from foreign wars as well as intestine troubles were favorable for taking a census of the people.
and in the days of Jeroboam--the second of that name.
5:1-17
We have here an extract out of the genealogies,
I. Of the tribe of Reuben, where we have,
1. The reason why this tribe is thus postponed. It is confessed that Reuben was the first-born of Israel, and, upon that account, might challenge the precedency; but he forfeited his birthright by defiling his father's concubine, and was, for that, sentenced not to excel, Gen 49:4. Sin lessens men, thrusts them down from their excellency. Seventh-commandment sins especially leave an indelible stain upon men's names and families, a reproach which time will not wipe away. Reuben's seed, to the last, bear the disgrace of Reuben's sin. Yet, though that tribe was degraded, it was not discarded or disinherited. The sullying of the honour of an Israelite is not the losing of his happiness. Reuben loses his birthright, yet it does not devolve upon Simeon the next in order; for it was typical, and therefore must attend, not the course of nature, but the choice of grace. The advantages of the birthright were dominion and a double portion. Reuben having forfeited these, it was thought too much that both should be transferred to any one, and therefore they were divided. (1.) Joseph had the double portion; for two tribes descended from him, Ephraim and Manasseh, each of whom had a child's part (for so Jacob by faith blessed them, Heb 11:21; Gen 48:15, Gen 48:22), and each of those tribes was as considerable, and made as good a figure, as any one of the twelve, except Judah. But, (2.) Judah had the dominion; on him the dying patriarch entailed the sceptre, Gen 49:10 Of him came the chief ruler, David first, and, in the fulness of time, Messiah the Prince, Mic 5:2. This honour was secured to Judah, though the birthright was Joseph's; and, having this, he needed not envy Joseph the double portion.
2. The genealogy of the princes of this tribe, the chief family of it (many, no doubt, being omitted), to Beerah, who was head of this clan when the king of Assyria carried them captive, Ch1 5:4-6. Perhaps he is mentioned as prince of the Reubenites at that time because he did not do his part to prevent the captivity.
3. The enlargement of the coasts of this tribe. They increasing, and their cattle being multiplied, they crowded out their neighbours the Hagarites, and extended their conquests, though not to the river Euphrates, yet to the wilderness which abutted upon that river, Ch1 5:9, Ch1 5:10. Thus God did for his people as he promised them: he cast out the enemy from before them by little and little, and gave them their land as they had occasion for it, Exo 23:30.
II. Of the tribe of Gad. Some great families of that tribe are here named (Ch1 5:12), seven that were the children of Abihail, whose pedigree is carried upwards from the son to the father (Ch1 5:14, Ch1 5:15), as that Ch1 5:4, Ch1 5:5, is brought downwards from father to son. These genealogies were perfected in the days of Jotham king of Judah, but were begun some years before, in the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel. What particular reason there was for taking these accounts then does not appear; but it was just before they were carried away captive by the Assyrians, as appears Kg2 15:29, Kg2 15:31. When the judgments of God were ready to break out against them for their wretched degeneracy and apostasy then were they priding themselves in their genealogies, that they were the children of the covenant; as the Jews, in our Saviour's time, who, when they were ripe for ruin, boasted, We have Abraham to our father. Or there might be a special providence in it, and a favourable intimation that though they were, for the present, cast out, they were not cast off for ever. What we design to call for hereafter we keep an inventory of.
5:16-18
The suburbs of Sharon - There were three places of this name: that mentioned here was a district in the country of Bashan beyond Jordan, (see Jos 12:18); there was another that lay between Caesarea of Palestine and Joppa; and there was a third between Mount Tabor and the Sea of Tiberias. See Calmet.
5:17
All these were reckoned by genealogies,.... All before mentioned:
in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel; not that those two kings reigned at the same time, and one and the same reckoning is meant; but, as Dr. Lightfoot (y) observes, there were two reckonings; his words are,"in the days of Jotham there was an account taken of the families of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, 1 Chronicles 5:17 and so had there been in the days of Jeroboam the second; then at their restoring by Jeroboam out of the hands of Hamath and Syria, and now at their arming against the Assyrian, under whom they fell in the time of Pekah, and are never again restored to Israel.''
(y) Works, vol. 1. p. 100.
5:17
In the days of Jotham king of Judah; who reigning long, partly in his father’ s days, and partly by himself, 2 Kings 15, and being at leisure as to wars or troubles, thought this a fit season to examine the state of his people.
In the days of Jeroboam; either the second of that name, of whom see . Or rather the first Jeroboam; partly because he is called simply Jeroboam, without any addition; which shows that he speaks of the most famous of the two; and partly because this work of taking an account of the people doth far better agree to the times of Jeroboam the First, when the kingdom of Israel was first erected and established, and broken off from that of Judah, when it was necessary for Jeroboam to know his own strength, and the numbers of his people, than to the times of Jeroboam the Second, when the kingdom of Israel was broken, and near to its ruin.
5:17
And they made war with the Hagarites,.... Before mentioned, Ch1 5:19.
with Jetur, and Nephish: with the posterity of these men, who were sons of Ishmael, Gen 25:15 and so was Nodab; perhaps the same with Kedemah, mentioned along with the other two there; so Hillerus (z) thinks.
(z) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 554.