1 Chronicles 7:14

The sons of Manasseh; Ashriel, whom she bare: (but his concubine the Aramitess bare Machir the father of Gilead:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) The sons of Manasseh.—Translate, the sons of Manasseh, Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bare. (She bare Machir, father of Gilead.) Numbers 27:1, Joshua 17:3, give the line

Zelophehad has five daughters, but no sons. Numbers 26:29-33 gives the same line with additions thus:—

This last passage is important, because it expressly declares that the names all represent clans, with the exception of Zelophehad, who “had no sons, but daughters.” It also shows that Asriel was great-grandson of Manasseh. The parenthesis of 1Chronicles 7:14, therefore, appears to be intended to warn the reader that Asriel was the “son” of the Aramean concubine of Manasseh, mediately through descent from Machir.

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

1Ch 7:14-40. Of Manasseh.

14, 15. The sons of Manasseh—or descendants; for Ashriel was a grandson, and Zelophehad was a generation farther removed in descent (Nu 26:33). The text, as it stands, is so confused and complicated that it is exceedingly difficult to trace the genealogical thread, and a great variety of conjectures have been made with a view to clear away the obscurity. The passage [1Ch 7:14, 15] should probably be rendered thus: "The sons of Manasseh were Ashriel, whom his Syrian concubine bare to him, and Machir, the father of Gilead (whom his wife bare to him). Machir took for a wife Maachah, sister to Huppim and Shuppim."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The sons of Manasseh, i.e. grandchildren, as 1 Chronicles 7:13. For both Ashriel and Zelophehad were the grandchildren of Machir son of Manasseh, Numbers 26:29 &c.; Numbers 27:1.

Whom she bare, to wit, his wife, as may be thought, because his concubine is here opposed to her. Or, whom he got; for the Hebrew word yalad is sometimes used of men’s begetting, as Genesis 5:18, &c. Compare Psalm 2:7. But these and the following words may be otherwise rendered according to the Hebrew text,

whom his concubine the Aramitess bare, who bare him (which ellipses are very frequent in the Hebrew) for meeth, of, or by Machir: so this was a differing Ashriel from him named Numbers 26:31; for that was Gilead’s son, and this his brother.

The father of Gilead; a person so called, as is manifest from 1 Chronicles 7:17 Numbers 26:29.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The sons of Manasseh; Ashriel, whom she bare,.... The wife of Manasseh, as distinguished from his concubine in the next clause; though the Targum reads, in connection with that,"whom his Aramitess (or Syrian) concubine bare;''

and then adds:

who also bare Machir the father of Gilead; so that Ashriel and Machir were brethren; from which Ashriel sprung the family of the Ashrielites, Numbers 26:29 as from Machir the Machirites, Numbers 26:29.

Geneva Study Bible

The sons of Manasseh; Ashriel, whom she bare: (but his concubine the Aramitess bare Machir the father of Gilead:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Ashriel, whom she bare] R.V. Asriel, whom his wife bare. Numbers 26:31.

his concubine the Aramitess] The inhabitants of Gilead were thus in part Aramaeans (Syrians) by descent.

14–17. The Genealogy of Eastern Manasseh

A difficult section. The text is much disturbed in 1 Chronicles 7:14-15; and there is hardly any material available for the illustration of 1 Chronicles 7:16-17.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - The sons of Manasseh. The tribe of Manasseh has been partly treated of in 1 Chronicles 5:23-26, viz. those of the tribe who inhabited Gilead and Bashan. Here those who inhabited this side Jordan are treated cf. And it is very difficult to give any coherent account of the differences of this passage when compared with Numbers 26:28-34 and Joshua 17:1-4. In these places six families, or heads of families, are noted to only two, or at most three here, viz. Askriel, Shemida, and perhaps Abiezer (iq. Jeezer, Numbers 26:30; comp. with Joshua 17:2). The opening clause of this verse also is unmanageable as it stands. One way of reducing it to coherence would be to Supply the words "his wife" between whom and bars, the similarity of the Hebrew letters of which to those of the Hebrew for "whom" might possibly account for the loss of it. The parenthesis about the concubine would then read with emphasis. But there is not the slightest reason to suppose there was such a wife. Another way would be to read the concubine as the mother of Ashriel, and prefix a conjunction, and, to the second "bare;" i.e. and she bare, or, she bare also Machir." But it seems pretty plain from Numbers and Joshua that Ashriel was not strictly a son, but only descendant of Manasseh; and, further, the irresistible impression is that Machir was the only son, strictly speaking (see especially Genesis 50:23). The position of Ashriel in our present passage, first, is also very unsatisfactory in face of Genesis 50:23 and the other references already given. 1 Chronicles 7:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Families of the half-tribe of Manasseh. - The families of Manasseh which dwelt in Gilead and Bashan have already been mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:23, 1 Chronicles 5:14. Our verses deal with the families of this tribe which received their inheritance in Canaan, on this side Jordan. These were, according to Numbers 26:30, Numbers 26:34, and Joshua 17:2, six families, of which, however, only two are here spoken of - Ashriel, 1 Chronicles 7:14, and Shemidah, 1 Chronicles 7:19; or perhaps three, if Abiezer, 1 Chronicles 7:18, be the same person as Jeezer (Numbers 26:30), who is called Abiezer in Joshua 17:2. The statements of 1 Chronicles 7:14, 1 Chronicles 7:15 are very obscure. At the head of the register of the Manassites stands Ashriel, who, according to Numbers 26:31, belonged to the sons of Gilead the son of Manasseh and the grandson of Joseph (cf. Genesis 50:23), and founded one of the six families of the cis-Jordanic Manassites. But the words which follow are obscure; the words are וגו ילרה אשׁר, "whom his Aramaic concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead." But since Ashriel, according to this, was the great-grandson of Manasseh, while Machir was his son, the relative clause can refer only to Manasseh, to whom his concubine bore Machir. Movers and Berth. would therefore erase אשׂריאל, as a gloss arising out of a doubling of the following יל אשר. By this expedient the difficultly as to the connection of the relative clause is certainly got rid of, but the obscurities of the following verse (1 Chronicles 7:15) are not thereby removed. The analogy of the other registers in our chapter requires, rather, that immediately after מנשּׁה בּני there should stand the name of a descendant, - a fact which speaks strongly in favour of the authenticity of אשׂריאל. It is therefore a much more probable suggestion, that after the name אשׂריאל, some additional clause, such as בּן־מנשּׁה, has been dropped, or regarded as superfluous by a copyist, and so omitted. To such an omitted מנשׁה בן, the relative sentence, which gives more details as to the descent of Ashriel, would be attacked in a simple and natural manner, since it was known from Numbers 26:30. that Ashriel was descended from Manasseh through Gilead.