37 From the other side of Jordan, there were a hundred and twenty thousand of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the men of the half-tribe of Manasseh, armed with every sort of instrument of war.
And this land which we took at that time, from Aroer by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead with its towns, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, all the land of Argob, together with Bashan, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This land is named the land of the Rephaim. Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the land of Argob, as far as the country of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, naming it, Bashan, Havvoth-Jair after himself, as it is to this day.) And Gilead I gave to Machir. And the land from Gilead to the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a limit, as far as the river Jabbok which is the limit of the country of the children of Ammon, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites;
So now make division of this land for a heritage to the nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. With him the Reubenites and the Gadites have been given their heritage, which Moses gave them, on the east side of Jordan, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them; From Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land from Medeba to Dibon; And all the towns of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, to the limits of the children of Ammon; And Gilead, and the land of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who was ruling in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he was one of the last of the Rephaim); these did Moses overcome, driving them out of their country. However, the people of Israel did not send out the Geshurites, or the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath are living among Israel to this day. Only to the tribe of Levi he gave no heritage; the offerings of the Lord, the God of Israel, made by fire are his heritage, as he said to him. And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Reuben by their families. Their limit was from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land by Medeba; Heshbon and all her towns in the table-land; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon; And Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath; And Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the mountain of the valley; And Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth; And all the towns of the table-land, and all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses overcame, together with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the chiefs of Sihon, who were living in the land. And Balaam, the son of Beor, the prophet, the children of Israel put to death with the sword. And the limit of the children of Reuben was the edge of Jordan. This was the heritage of the children of Reuben by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places. And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Gad by their families. And their limit was Jazer, and all the towns of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer before Rabbah; And from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the edge of Debir; And in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, having Jordan for its limit, to the end of the sea of Chinnereth on the east side of Jordan. This is the heritage of the children of Gad by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places And Moses gave their heritage to the half-tribe of Manasseh by their families. And their limit was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all Havvoth-Jair, in Bashan, sixty towns; And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by their families. These are the heritages of which Moses made distribution in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan in Jericho, to the east.
Then Joshua sent for the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, And said to them, You have kept all the orders of Moses, the Lord's servant, and have done everything I gave you orders to do: You have now been with your brothers for a long time; till this day you have been doing the orders of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given your brothers rest, as he said: so now you may go back to your tents, to the land of your heritage, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave to you on the other side of Jordan. Only take great care to do the orders and the law which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you; to have love for the Lord your God and to go in all his ways; and to keep his laws and to be true to him and to be his servants with all your heart and with all your soul. Then Joshua gave them his blessing and sent them away: and they went back to their tents. Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a heritage in Bashan; but to the other half, Joshua gave a heritage among their brothers on the west side of Jordan. Now when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he gave them his blessing, And said to them, Go back with much wealth to your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver and gold and brass and iron, and with a very great store of clothing; give your brothers a part of the goods taken in the war. So Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went back, parting from the children of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their heritage which had been given to them by the Lord's order to Moses. Now when they came to the country by Jordan in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh put up there, by Jordan, a great altar, seen from far.
And the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, (for he was the oldest son, but, because he made his father's bride-bed unclean, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; but he is not to be given the place of the oldest. Though Judah became stronger than his brothers, and from him came the ruler, the birthright was Joseph's:) The sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, took away as a prisoner: he was chief of the Reubenites. And his brothers by their families, when the list of their generations was made up: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, And Bela, the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who was living in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon; And to the east his limits went as far as the starting point of the waste land, ending at the river Euphrates, because their cattle were increased in number in the land of Gilead. And in the days of Saul they made war on the Hagarites, and overcame them; and they put up their tents through all the land east of Gilead.
So Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, all the land with its towns and the country round them. And the children of Gad were the builders of Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer; And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah; And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran: walled towns and shut-in places for sheep. And the children of Reuben were the builders of Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim; And Nebo and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the towns they made. And the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, driving out the Amorites who were living there. And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh; and he made it his living-place. And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the towns of Gilead, naming them Havvoth-Jair. And Nobah went and took Kenath and its small towns, naming it Nobah, after himself.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 1 Chronicles 12
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 12
1Ch 12:1-22. The Companies That Came to David at Ziklag.
1-7. Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag—There are three lists given in this chapter, arranged, apparently, according to the order of time when the parties joined the standard of David.
while he yet kept himself close because of Saul—that is, when the king's jealousy had driven him into exile from the court and the country.
Ziklag—(See on 1Sa 27:6). It was during his retirement in that Philistine town that he was joined in rapid succession by the heroes who afterwards contributed so much to the glory of his reign.
2. of Saul's brethren of Benjamin—that is, of the tribe of Benjamin (compare 1Ch 12:29), but some of them might be relatives of the king. This movement to which the parties were led, doubtless by the secret impulse of the Spirit, was of vast importance to the cause of David, as it must have been founded on their observation of the evident withdrawal of God's blessing from Saul, and His favoring presence with David, to whom it was universally known the Divine King of Israel had given the crown in reversion. The accession of the Benjamites who came first and their resolution to share his fortunes must have been particularly grateful to David. It was a public and emphatic testimony by those who had enjoyed the best means of information to the unblemished excellence of his character, as well as a decided protest against the grievous wrong inflicted by causelessly outlawing a man who had rendered such eminent services to his country.
4. Ismaiah the Gibeonite—It appears that not only the Canaanites who were admitted into the congregation (Jos 9:1-27), but people of the tribe of Benjamin, were among the inhabitants of Gibeon. The mention of "the Gederathite," probably from Gederah (Jos 15:36), in the lowlands of Judah; of the Korhites (1Ch 12:6), from Korah (1Ch 2:43), and of Gedor (1Ch 12:7), a town in Judah, to the southwest of Beth-lehem (compare 1Ch 4:4), shows that this first list contains men of Judah as well as Benjamin [Bertheau].
8-13. of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David—that is, from the service of Saul and from the rest of the Gadites who remained steadfast adherents of his cause.
into the hold—or fortress, that is, of Ziklag, which was in the wilderness of Judah.
whose faces were like the faces of lions, &c.—A fierce, lion-like countenance (2Sa 1:23), and great agility in pursuit (2Sa 2:18), were qualities of the highest estimation in ancient warfare.
14. one of the least was over an hundred, and the greatest over a thousand—David, while at Ziklag, had not so large an amount of forces as to give to each of these the command of so many men. Another meaning, therefore, must obviously be sought, and excluding was, which is a supplement by our translators, the import of the passage is, that one of the least could discomfit a hundred, and the greatest was worth a thousand ordinary men; a strong hyperbole to express their uncommon valor.
15. These are they that went over Jordan in the first month—that is, in spring, when the swollen river generally fills up the banks of its channel (see on Jos 3:14; Jos 4:19; Jos 5:10).
they put to flight all them of the valleys—This was probably done at the time of their separating themselves and their purpose being discovered, they had to cut their passage through the opposing adherents of Saul, both on the eastern and western banks. The impossibility of taking the fords at such a time, and the violent rapidity of the current, make this crossing of the Jordan—in whatever way these Gadites accomplished it—a remarkable feat.
16. the children of Benjamin and Judah—It is probable that the Benjamites invited the Judahites to accompany them, in order to prevent David being suspicious of them. Their anticipations, as the result showed, were well founded. He did suspect them, but the doubts of David as to their object in repairing to him, were promptly dispelled by Amasai or Amasa, who, by the secret impulse of the Spirit, assured him of their strong attachment and their zealous service from a unanimous conviction that his cause was owned and blessed of God (1Sa 18:12-14).
19-22. there fell some of Manasseh—The period of their accession is fixed as the time when David came with the Philistines against Saul to battle.
but they helped them not—(See on 1Sa 29:4).
20. As he went to Ziklag—If those Manassites joined him on his return to Ziklag, after his dismissal from the Philistine army, then their arrival took place before the battle of Gilboa could have been fought (compare 1Sa 29:11). Convinced of the desperate state of Saul's affairs, they abandoned him, and resolved to transfer their allegiance to David. But some learned men think that they came as fugitives from that disastrous field [Calmet and Ewald].
captains of the thousands … of Manasseh—Those seven were commanders of the large military divisions of their tribe.
21, 22. they helped David against the band—that is, the Amalekites who had pillaged Ziklag in David's absence. This military expedition was made by all his men (1Sa 30:9), who, as David's early helpers, are specially distinguished from those who are mentioned in the latter portion of the chapter.
22. the host of God—that is, a great and powerful army.
1Ch 12:23-40. The Armies That Came to Him at Hebron.
23. these are the numbers of the bands … that came to David to Hebron—after the death of Ish-bosheth (see on 2Sa 5:1).
to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the Lord—(1Ch 10:14; 11:3, 10). The account commences with the southern tribes, Levi being associated with Judah and Simeon, as the great majority of the leading men in this tribe resided in Judah; and, after recounting the representatives of the northern tribes, it concludes with those on the east of Jordan.
27. Jehoiada, the leader of the Aaronites—not the high priest, for that was Abiathar (1Sa 23:9), but the leader of the Aaronite warriors, supposed to be the father of Benaiah (1Ch 11:22).
29. Benjamin … three thousand—This small number shows the unpopularity of the movement in this tribe; and, indeed, it is expressly stated that the mass of the population had, even after Ish-bosheth's death, anxiously endeavored to secure the crown in the family of Saul.
32. children of Issachar, … that had understanding of the times, &c.—Jewish writers say that the people of this tribe were eminent for their acquirements in astronomical and physical science; and the object of the remark was probably to show that the intelligent and learned classes were united with the military, and had declared for David.
33. Zebulun … could keep rank—that is, were more disciplined soldiers than the rest.
not of double heart—Though their numbers were large, all were in a high degree well affected to David.
38. all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king—that is, entertained a unanimous desire for his elevation.
39, 40. there they were with David three days, eating and drinking—According to the statements made in the preceding verses, the number of armed warriors assembled in Hebron on this occasion amounted to three hundred thousand. Supplies of provisions were abundantly furnished, not only by the people of the neighborhood, but from distant parts of the country, for all wished the festivities to be on a scale of liberality and magnificence suitable to the auspicious occasion.