1 Chronicles 7:11

All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) All these the sons of Jediael.—Render, “All these were sons of Jediael; (according) to the heads of the clans, valiant warriors; 17,200 going out in host to the battle.” Perhaps the particle (according to) should be omitted. In any case, the chiefs or the clans are regarded as one with their warriors.

The sum of the warriors of Benjamin is thus 54,434. The Mosaic census (Numbers 26:41) gave 45,600. An increase of barely 14,000 in the course of atleast three centuries may seem too small. But the tribe was well-nigh exterminated in the vengeance which Israel took for the crime of Gibeah (Judges 20:47).

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

All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle. Which, with the above sums put together, make of the tribe of Benjamin, besides what follow, 59,430; who, if numbered by Joab, the account was not given in by him, 1 Chronicles 21:6.

Geneva Study Bible

All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valor, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. by the heads of their fathers] R.V. according to the heads of their fathers’ houses.

soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle] R.V. that were able to go forth in the host for war. The total armed strength of Benjamin acc. to 1 Chronicles 7:7; 1 Chronicles 7:9; 1 Chronicles 7:11 was 59,434; cp. Numbers 1:37; Numbers 26:41.

1 Chronicles 7:11

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.