1 Chronicles 7


1 Chronicles 7 is the seventh chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. This chapter contains the genealogies of tribes settled north of Judah: Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim and Asher. It belongs to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 40 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus.

Old Testament references

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    Structure

The whole chapter belongs to an arrangement comprising 1 Chronicles 2:3–8:40 with the king-producing tribes of Judah and Benjamin bracketing the series of lists as the priestly tribe of Levi anchors the center, in the following order:

Descendants of Issachar (7:1–5)

The list parallels and, but with additional information about the tribe of Issachar whose allotted land was located southwest of the Sea of Galilee.

Verse 1

  • Cross references: ;
  • "Jashub": from yā-shūḇ is written as "Job" in Genesis 46:13. Rashi notes that Job was the original name, but when the brothers settled themselves to learn Torah, “of the sons of Issachar, who possessed understanding of the times,” he merited, so was named Jashub.
"Puah" : written as Puvvah in Genesis 46:13, and Puvah in Numbers 26:23.

Verse 5

  • "Reckoned": used only in Book of Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles, indicating the period when this list is compiled.

    Descendants of Benjamin (7:6–12)

This is one of varying Benjamin's genealogies in Chronicles and other Old Testament documents, with one uniting element: Bela is Benjamin's firstborn son. A longer genealogy is listed in 1 Chronicles 8:1–28.

Verse 6

  • "Becher": from ; with different vowels would mean "firstborn", so the original reading in and here may have been Bela bechoro, "Bela his firstborn," as in 1 Chronicles 8:1.

    Verse 12

  • "Shuppim": is written as "Shupham" or "Shephupham" in.
  • "Huppim": is written as "Hupham" in.
  • "Ir": is written as "Iri" in verse 7.
  • "Aher": is written as "Ahiram" in.

    Descendants of Naphtali (7:13)

The genealogy consists of only one verse, paralleling Genesis 46:24 and Numbers 26:48–50.

Descendants of Manasseh (7:14–19)

The list is difficult to understand because of possible transmission corruption in some places since it differs from older source. It also parallels Joshua 17:1–6.

Verse 15

  • "Zelophehad had daughters": Five daughters are named and play a significant role in Numbers 27:1–11 and 36:1–12 for the reinterpretation of laws of heredity which traditionally was only restricted to sons.

    Descendants of Ephraim (7:20–29)

This section consists of 3 parts:
  1. genealogy of Ephraim
  2. a story
  3. genealogy of Joshua
Joshua's genealogy resembles David's in.

Verse 22

This verse recalls the opening of the story of Job suggesting that the Chronicler wished to draw a parallel between Job and Ephraim,

Descendants of Asher (7:30–40)

The first part of Asher's genealogy parallels Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:44-7, but the rest has no other parallel and contains far more non-Hebrew names than other biblical documents.