1 Chronicles 7:10

The sons also of Jediael; Bilhan: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Eight sons of Jediael.

Bilhan.—1Chronicles 1:42, a son of Seir. Perhaps an Edomite element in Benjamin. (Comp. 1Chronicles 2:34; 1Chronicles 4:18; 1Chronicles 2:46, and especially the case of Caleb the Kenizzite.)

Jeush.—So Heb., margin. Text, Jeish; a son of Esau (1Chronicles 1:35).

Benjamin.—It is curious that a Benjamite clan should have borne the tribal name. (Comp. 1Chronicles 4:16, Asareel and Note.)

Ehud.—A namesake of Ehud the judge, who slew Eglon the Moabite oppressor of Israel (Judges 3:15). Ehud the judge was a son of Gera, and Gera was a division of Bela (1Chronicles 8:3; 1Chronicles 8:5).

Chenaanah (Canaanitess) is perhaps a Canaanite house which had amalgamated with the bnê Jediael.

Tharshish.—Elsewhere the name of a famous Phœnician colony in Spain. The name occurs once again as a personal name (Esther 1:14, one of the seven Persian princes). In Exodus 28:20, and six other places, it is the name of a gem.

Ahishahar.—Brother of dawn. (Comp. Shaha-raim—double dawn, 1Chronicles 8:8, and Isaiah 14:12, ben-shahar—son of dawn.) Perhaps the common Arab designation bnê qedem—“sons of the east”—is similar.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. We can assign no reason why they only should be omitted; but it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan, that idolatry began in that colony which fixed in Laish, and called it Dan, Jud 18 and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam. Dan is omitted, Re 7. Men become abominable when they forsake the worship of the true God, for any creature object.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The lists here are remarkably different from those in marginal references Probably the persons here mentioned were not literally "sons," but were among the later descendants of the founders, being the chief men of the family at the time of David's census.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. the sons of Bela—Each of them was chief or leader of the family to which he belonged. In an earlier period seven great families of Benjamin are mentioned (Nu 26:38), five of them being headed by these five sons of Benjamin, and two descended from Bela. Here five families of Bela are specified, whence we are led to conclude that time or the ravages of war had greatly changed the condition of Benjamin, or that the five families of Bela were subordinate to the other great divisions that sprang directly from the five sons of the patriarch.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The sons also of Jediael,.... The third son of Benjamin before mentioned, 1 Chronicles 7:6. Bilhan, including his posterity, as follows:

and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin; called so after his great grandfather:

and Ehud; who was the second judge in Israel, Judges 3:15.

and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar; of whom we nowhere else read.

Geneva Study Bible

The sons also of Jediael; Bilhan: and the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahishahar.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Bilhan; Jeush. Both of these, us well as the name Bela, are of Edomitish origin (Genesis 36:5, 18, 27, 32). 1 Chronicles 7:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Among the descendants of Jediael we find Benjamin and Ehud, the first of whom is named after the patriarch; but the second is not the judge Ehud (Judges 3:15), who was indeed a Benjamite, but of the family of Gera. Chenaanah does not necessarily indicate a Canaanite family. Tharshish, which is elsewhere a precious stone, is here the name of a person; Ahishahar, that is, Brother of the Dawn, perhaps so named because sub auroram natur. - In 1 Chronicles 7:11 the expression is contracted, as often happens in formulae which frequently recur; and the meaning is, "All these are sons of Jediael (for as sons of Bilhan the son of Jediael, they are at the same time sons of the latter), (registered) according to the heads of their fathers'-houses, valiant heroes 17,200, going forth in the host to war." האבות ראשׁי is contracted from בּית־אבות ראשׁי, vide on Exodus 6:25; and the ל before ראשׁי, which Bertheau from a misinterpretation wishes to remove, depends upon the התיחשׂם (1 Chronicles 7:9) to be supplied in thought.