Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

The first thing I noticed today was that the list of Judah’s descendants at the beginning of chapter two only lists those who descended from his sons by Tamar.  It is only in chapter four, at the end of the list of Judah’s descendants, just before it discusses Simeon’s descendants, that there is any mention of Shelah’s descendants.  I don’t know if that is significant, but I took notice of that fact.  Also of interest is the mention of Jabez is verses nine and ten of chapter four.  There is a book written about Jabez, which to my mind makes more of these two verses than the text supports.  What I find most interesting about Jabez is that he is mentioned in a list of genealogies, but neither his father nor his sons are mentioned.  Even the reference to his brothers does not list them by name.  So, who was Jabez?  We don’t really know.  The passage tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers, but, since the passage does not tell us who his brothers were, that does not tell us much.  However, the passage also tells us that he asked God to enlarge his territory and that God granted his request.  So, while the book about Jabez’ prayer makes more of it than the passage supports, we can learn something from Jabez.  He was honorable and therefore when he asked God to bless him and expand his territory, God  granted his request..  So, if we are honorable in our dealings, we can be sure that God will bless us as well.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

I don’t really know what to do with this passage, but I will write about a few things which I found noteworthy.  I have made note before that Joab, Abishai, and Asahel were King David’s nephews by his sister Zeruiah, and Amasa was David’s nephew by another sister named Abigail.  I mention this because Joab killed Amasa when David had offered Amasa Joab’s job as commander of his army.  I have written about all of that previously.  However, what I noticed today is that Amasa’s father is mentioned in this passage, but no father is mentioned for Joab and his brothers.  I am not sure what to make of those facts, but I want to think about whether or not the failure to mention a father for Joab and his brothers has any significance.  In addition I want to think about whether the significance of Amasa’s father is that he was known, or that he was an Ishmaelite, rather than an Israelite?  This passage also implies that the Line of David after the Exile consisted solely of the descendants of Jehoiachin.  I am not entirely sure why that is important, but its presence here means that it has significance.  The list of descendants of Jehoiachin also gives us an idea about when this book was compiled, which was a generation or three after Zerubbabel, who was governor of Jerusalem after the Israelites returned from Exile.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

I have written time and again that I get little out of the genealogies in the Bible, nevertheless I believe they have value and seek to find it each time I come to them.  Today, reading this passage I received confirmation of something that had gradually been rising in my awareness.  The family of Jesse, King David’s father, was prominent in the tribe of Judah, and thus in all of Israel, before David rose to prominence.  Jesse was descended from Boaz, who was descended from Nahshon.  Nahshon was the leader of the tribe of Judah during the Exodus.  That fact is not terribly important, but it does help us understand why King David’s nephews (Joab, Amasa, and a few others) kept cropping up in the accounts of his reign as people he had to negotiate with rather than just command.  Again this demonstrates the value of reading and re-reading the Bible, even the “boring parts”.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

Today’s passage consists of more genealogies.  One thing we learn about the genealogies in the Old Testament is that we need to be careful about interpreting the number of generations between “father” and “son”.  This is not to dismiss these genealogies.  For example, it tells us that Achar (an alternate spelling of Achan) was the son of Kami, the son of Judah.  Assuming this is the Achan mentioned in the Book of Joshua, which is probable, we know he was more generations from Judah than his grandson.  This genealogy also tells us that Caleb was Judah’s great grandson, but we know that Caleb was more generations removed from Judah than that.  Now, the key here is that we know that the Hebrew words used to indicate that Caleb was the  son of Hezron and that Achar was the son of Karmi, can also just mean that they are descended from them.  We need to remember that Ancient Hebrew had very few words when compared to modern languages.  But even in modern English, we sometimes use the expression “child of” to indicate that someone descended from that person rather than to indicate that they are the following generation.

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