Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 1.

I have repeatedly written that I struggle with reading and commenting on the passages which are composed of genealogies, such as today’s.  When I do so, I am not complaining, I am just sharing something about the way my mind works.  In any case, As I was reading today I thought about two men about whom the passage references something the writer thought noteworthy.  The first is Nimrod, the son of Cush, and grandson of Ham.  The passage tells us that Nimrod became a mighty warrior and then says nothing more about him.  The second one is Peleg, about whom the passage says that he had that name because in his time the earth was divided.  The passage then proceeds to trace the descendants of Peleg’s brother, Joktan.  Joktan was the ancestor of Abraham, and thus of the Israelites.  I don’t know why these facts are mentioned about these men.  Perhaps they were mentioned in legends or other accounts and the writer included these facts in order to tie this with something its readers knew from other sources.  Then towards the end of this passage it speaks of the kings of Edom who reigned before any Israelite king reigned.  The passage lists eight kings of Edom, followed by eleven men whom it says were the chiefs of Edom.  Again, I am not sure why these men are listed here.  Perhaps they are listed to demonstrate that Edom became a kingdom long before Israel did.  I am not sure what any of that means, but I do believe there is value in trying to understand why these things are written.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.