| Clarke's Commentary on the Bible Joel the chief - "Joel, prince of the Sanhedrin; and Shapham, master of the college; and Jaanai and Shaphat, judges in Mathnan." - T.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleJoel the chief,.... In this and the following verse are reckoned up the principal men in the tribe of Gad, and the chief of all was Joel, another from him in the tribe of Reuben, 1 Chronicles 5:4. and Shapham the next; the second chief man, from whom, Reland (x) conjectures, Shophan, a city in the tribe of Gad, had its name, Numbers 32:35. and Jaanai; from whom Danjaan might be called, as Michaelis intimates, 2 Samuel 24:6. and Shaphat in Bashan; not Shaphat the father of Elisha, according to a tradition of the Jews, mentioned by Kimchi; which is not at all probable. (x) Palestin. Illustrat. par. 2. p. 602.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old TestamentThe sons of Gad (Genesis 46:16) are not named here, because the enumeration of the families of Gad had been already introduced by 1 Chronicles 5:11, and the genealogical connection of the families enumerated in 1 Chronicles 5:12., with the sons of the tribal ancestor, had not been handed down. In 1 Chronicles 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 ישׁבוּ is to be repeated or supplied from the preceding verse. - In 1 Chronicles 5:13 seven other names occur, the bearers of which are introduced as brothers of those mentioned (1 Chronicles 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 1 Chronicles 5:16 at a fitting place; for in 1 Chronicles 5:14 and 1 Chronicles 5:15 their genealogy, which rightly goes before the mention of their dwelling-place, is given. אלּה, 1 Chronicles 5:14, is not to be referred, as Bertheau thinks, to the four Gadites mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:12 and 1 Chronicles 5:13, but only to those mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:13. Nothing more was known of those four (1 Chronicles 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 Genesis 22:21 as that of a son of Nahor. The names of his ancestors also are not found elsewhere among the Gadites.
Geneva Study BibleJoel the chief, and Shapham the next, and Jaanai, and Shaphat in Bashan.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.
Matthew Henry's Whole Bible CommentaryChapter 5 This chapter gives us some account of the two tribes and a half that were seated on the other side Jordan. I. Of Reuben (v. 1-10). II. Of Gad (v. 11-17). III. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh (v. 23, 24). IV. Concerning all three acting in conjunction we are told, 1. How they conquered the Hagarites (v. 18-22). 2. How they were, at length, themselves conquered, and made captives, by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken God (v. 25, 26). Verses 1-17 We have here an extract out of the genealogies, I. Of the tribe of Reuben, where we have, 1. The reason why this tribe is thus postponed. It is confessed that Reuben was the first-born of Israel, and, upon that account, might challenge the precedency; but he forfeited his birthright by defiling his father's concubine, and was, for that, sentenced not to excel, Gen. 49:4. Sin lessens men, thrusts them down from their excellency. Seventh-commandment sins especially leave an indelible stain upon men's names and families, a reproach which time will not wipe away. Reuben's seed, to the last, bear the disgrace of Reuben's sin. Yet, though that tribe was degraded, it was not discarded or disinherited. The sullying of the honour of an Israelite is not the losing of his happiness. Reuben loses his birthright, yet it does not devolve upon Simeon the next in order; for it was typical, and therefore must attend, not the course of nature, but the choice of grace. The advantages of the birthright were dominion and a double portion. Reuben having forfeited these, it was thought too much that both should be transferred to any one, and therefore they were divided. (1.) Joseph had the double portion; for two tribes descended from him, Ephraim and Manasseh, each of whom had a child's part (for so Jacob by faith blessed them, Heb. 11:21; Gen. 48:15, 22), and each of those tribes was as considerable, and made as good a figure, as any one of the twelve, except Judah. But, (2.) Judah had the dominion; on him the dying patriarch entailed the sceptre, Gen. 49:10 Of him came the chief ruler, David first, and, in the fulness of time, Messiah the Prince, Mic. 5:2. This honour was secured to Judah, though the birthright was Joseph's; and, having this, he needed not envy Joseph the double portion. 2. The genealogy of the princes of this tribe, the chief family of it (many, no doubt, being omitted), to Beerah, who was head of this clan when the king of Assyria carried them captive, v. 4-6. Perhaps he is mentioned as prince of the Reubenites at that time because he did not do his part to prevent the captivity. 3. The enlargement of the coasts of this tribe. They increasing, and their cattle being multiplied, they crowded out their neighbours the Hagarites, and extended their conquests, though not to the river Euphrates, yet to the wilderness which abutted upon that river, v. 9, 10. Thus God did for his people as he promised them: he cast out the enemy from before them by little and little, and gave them their land as they had occasion for it, Ex. 23:30. II. Of the tribe of Gad. Some great families of that tribe are here named (v. 12), seven that were the children of Abihail, whose pedigree is carried upwards from the son to the father (v. 14, 15), as that v. 4, 5, is brought downwards from father to son. These genealogies were perfected in the days of Jotham king of Judah, but were begun some years before, in the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel. What particular reason there was for taking these accounts then does not appear; but it was just before they were carried away captive by the Assyrians, as appears 2 Ki. 15:29, 31. When the judgments of God were ready to break out against them for their wretched degeneracy and apostasy then were they priding themselves in their genealogies, that they were the children of the covenant; as the Jews, in our Saviour's time, who, when they were ripe for ruin, boasted, We have Abraham to our father. Or there might be a special providence in it, and a favourable intimation that though they were, for the present, cast out, they were not cast off for ever. What we design to call for hereafter we keep an inventory of. |
