Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 5:11 - 5:11

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 5:11 - 5:11


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The families of the tribe of Gad, and their dwelling-places. - 1Ch 5:11. In connection with the preceding statement as to the dwelling-places of the Reubenites, the enumeration of the families of Gad begins with a statement as to their dwelling-places: “Over against them (the Reubenites) dwelt the Gadites in Bashan unto Salcah.” Bashan is used here in its wider signification of the dominion of King Og, which embraced the northern half of Gilead, i.e., the part of that district which lay on the north side of the Jabbok, and the whole district of Bashan; cf. on Deu 3:10. Salcah formed the boundary towards the east, and is now Szalchad, about six hours eastward from Bosra (see on Deu 3:10).

1Ch 5:12-14

The sons of Gad (Gen 46:16) are not named here, because the enumeration of the families of Gad had been already introduced by 1Ch 5:11, and the genealogical connection of the families enumerated in 1Ch 5:12., with the sons of the tribal ancestor, had not been handed down. In 1Ch 5:12 four names are mentioned, which are clearly those of heads of families or fathers'-houses, with the addition “in Bashan,” i.e., dwelling, for יָֽשְׁבוּ is to be repeated or supplied from the preceding verse. - In 1Ch 5:13 seven other names occur, the bearers of which are introduced as brothers of those mentioned (1Ch 5:12), according to their fathers'-houses. They are therefore heads of fathers'-houses, but the district in which they dwelt is not given; whence Bertheau concludes, but wrongly, that the place where they dwelt is not given in the text. The statement which is here omitted follows in 1Ch 5:16 at a fitting place; for in 1Ch 5:14 and 1Ch 5:15 their genealogy, which rightly goes before the mention of their dwelling-place, is given. אֵלֶּה, 1Ch 5:14, is not to be referred, as Bertheau thinks, to the four Gadites mentioned in 1Ch 5:12 and 1Ch 5:13, but only to those mentioned in 1Ch 5:13. Nothing more was known of those four (1Ch 5:12) but that they dwelt in Bashan, while the genealogy of the seven is traced up through eight generations to a certain Buz, of whom nothing further is known, as the name בּוּז occurs nowhere else, except in Gen 22:21 as that of a son of Nahor. The names of his ancestors also are not found elsewhere among the Gadites.

1Ch 5:15

The head of their fathers'-houses (i.e., of those mentioned in 1Ch 5:13) as Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, who is conjectured to have lived in the time of King Jotham of Judah, or of Jeroboam II of Israel, when, according to 1Ch 5:17, genealogical registers of the Gadites were made up.

1Ch 5:16

The families descended from Buz “dwelt in Gilead,” in the part of that district lying to the south of the Jabbok, which Moses had given to the Gadites and Reubenites (Deu 3:12); “In Bashan and her daughters,” that is, in the villages belonging to the cities of Bashan and Gilead inhabited by them (for the suffix in בִּבְנֹותֶיהָ is to be referred distributively to both districts, or the cities in them). “And in all the pasture grounds (מִגְרָשׁ, cf. on Num 35:2) of Sharon unto their outgoings.” שָׁרֹון, Sharon, lay not in Perea, but is a great plain on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from Carmel to near Joppa, famed for its great fertility and its rich growth of flowers (Son 2:1; Isa 33:9; Isa 35:2; Isa 55:10). “A Caesarea Palaestinae usque ad oppidum Joppe omnis terra, quae cernitur, dicitur Saronas.” Jerome in Onom.; cf. v. Raumer, Pal. S. 50, and Robins. Phys. Geog. S. 123. It is this plain which is here meant, and the supposition of the older commentators that there was a second Sharon in the east-Jordan land is without foundation, as Reland, Palestina illustr. p. 370f., has correctly remarked. For it is not said that the Gadites possessed cities in Sharon, but only pastures of Sharon are spoken of, which the Gadites may have sought out for their herds even on the coast of the Mediterranean; more especially as the domain of the cis-Jordanic half-tribe of Manasseh stretched into the plain of Sharon, and it is probable that at all times there was intercourse between the cis-and trans-Jordanic Manassites, in which the Gadites may also have taken part. תֹּוצָאֹותָם are the outgoings of the pastures to the sea, cf. Jos 17:9.

1Ch 5:17

“And these (כֻּלָּם, all the families of Gad, not merely those mentioned in 1Ch 5:13.) were registered in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.” These two kings did not reign contemporaneously, for Jotham ascended the throne in Judah twenty-five years after the death of Jeroboam of Israel. Here, therefore, two different registrations must be referred to, and that carried on under Jotham is mentioned first, because Judah had the legitimate kingship. That set on foot by Jeroboam was probably undertaken after that king had restored all the ancient boundaries of the kingdom of Israel, 2Ki 14:25. King Jotham of Judah could prepare a register of the Gadites only if a part of the trans-Jordanic tribes had come temporarily under his dominion. As to any such event, indeed, we have no accurate information, but the thing in itself is not unlikely. For as the death of Jeroboam II was followed by complete anarchy in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and one ruler overthrew the other, until at last Pekah succeeded in holding the crown for ten years, while in Judah until Pekah ascended the throne of Israel Uzziah reigned, and raised his kingdom to greater power and prosperity, the southern part of the trans-Jordanic land might very well have come for a time under the sway of Judah. At such a time Jotham may have carried out an assessment and registration of the Gadites, until his contemporary Pekah succeeded, with the help of the Syrian king Rezin, in taking from the king of Judah the dominion over Gilead, and in humbling the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Ahaz.