1 Chronicles 7:17

And the sons of Ulam; Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) Bedan (i.e., ben Dan “the Danite” in 1Samuel 12:11 is a judge between Jerubbaal and Jephthah. Here a clan is meant, not a person.

These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.—These words appear to refer to a series of names which has dropped out of the text, but which may be inferred from Numbers 26:30-32 to have included Abiezer (of which Jeezer is a contraction) and Shemidah. (See the genealogy, 1Chronicles 7:14, Note.) 1Chronicles 7:17 b and 1Chronicles 7:18 may thus have read, “These were the sons of Gilead, &c. Abiezer . . . Shemidah. (Now his sister Hammoleketh had borne Ish-hôd and Abiezer and Mahalah.) And the sons of Shemidah were,” &c. (1Chronicles 7:19).

Hammoleketh—or, the queen, as the Vulg. renders it, may be conceived of here as a half-sister and consort of Gilead.

Ishod = Man of majesty.

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 7:17-18. These were the sons of Gilead — Namely, Ashriel and Zelophehad, named 1 Chronicles 7:14-15, the relative being here referred to the remoter antecedent, as is frequent in the Hebrew. His — Gilead’s sister. Mahalah — Understand, and Shemidah, out of the next verse.

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

These were the sons of Gilead - i. e. these descendants of Machir were reckoned to the family of Gilead. The name "Gilead" prevailed above all others in the line of Manasseh, the term "Gileadite" almost taking the place of "Manassite."

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

These, to wit, Ashriel and Zelophehad, named 1 Chronicles 7:14,15; the relative being here referred to the remoter antecedent, as is frequent in the Hebrew.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the sons of Ulam: Bedan,.... See 1 Samuel 12:11.

these were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh; that is, were of his posterity, or belonged to his family; for Ulam and Rakem were sons of a brother of Gilead, 1 Chronicles 7:16.

Geneva Study Bible

And the sons of Ulam; Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. the sons of Ulam] Sons of Ulam are mentioned (1 Chronicles 8:40) among the descendants of Benjamin. A variation in the tradition of their descent is possible.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Bedan. While all the names of the preceding verse are strange to us, this name excites much interest, as possibly to be identified with the Bedan (1 Samuel 12:11) who is placed after Jerubbaal (i.q. Gideon), and before Jephthah and Samuel. Who in the Book of Judges is to answer to this Bedan of the Book of Samuel it is impossible to say. See Bishop Cotton's excellent short article (Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' L 177). These were the sons of Gilead (see ver. 14). The name Gilead surpassed the name Machir, and even rivalled that of Manasseh itself. 1 Chronicles 7:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 Chronicles 7:15 is literally, "And Machir took a wife to Huppim and Shuppim, and the name of his sister was Maachah, and the name of the second Zelophehad." According to 1 Chronicles 7:16, on the contrary, Maachah is the wife of Machir, and we should consequently expect to find in 1 Chronicles 7:15 only the simple statement, "And Machir took a wife whose name was Maachah." From the words מעכה אחתו מעכה sdrow eh ולשׁפים לחפים no meaning which harmonizes with the context can be obtained. Since ל אשּׁה לקח signifies "to take a wife for one" (cf. Judges 14:2), we can only suppose that by the names Huppim and Shuppim Machir's sons are meant, to whom he, as their father, gave wives. But we cannot suppose that the sons of Machir are referred to, for the birth of the sons is first mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:16. But we have found the names חפם and שׁפם spoken of as descendants of Benjamin; and Bertheau consequently conjectures that these names have been brought thence into our verse by some gloss, and that the beginning of our verse originally stood thus: המלכת אחתו ושׁם מעכם ושׁמה אשׁה לקח ומכיר לקח אשׁה ושׁם, "And Machir took a wife whose name is Maachah, and the name of his sister if Hammoleketh" (the last according to 1 Chronicles 7:18). By this means we certainly bring some meaning into the words; but we cannot venture to maintain that this conjecture corresponds to the original text, but rather incline to doubt it. For, in the first place, the following words, "And the name of the second (is) Zelophehad," do not suit the proposed reading. Berth. must here alter השּׁני into אהיו (the name of his brother). But even after this alteration, the mention of the brother of Machir is not suitable to the context; and moreover Zelophehad was not a true brother, but only a nephew of Machir, the son of his brother Hepher; cf. Numbers 26:33; Numbers 27:1. And besides this, according to the concluding formula, "These are the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh" (1 Chronicles 7:17), we should expect to find in 1 Chronicles 7:15, 1 Chronicles 7:16, not merely sons or descendants of Machir, but rather descendants of Gilead. We therefore hold the statement of 1 Chronicles 7:15, "And the name of the second if Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had (only) daughters," to be correct and beyond criticism, and the first part of 1 Chronicles 7:15 to be corrupt and defective; and conjecture that a son of Gilead's was mentioned in it, to whose name the words, "And the name of the second," etc., belonged. This son who was mentioned in the text, which has been handed down to us only in a defective state, was probably the Ashriel mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:14, a son of Gilead, whose descent from Machir was given more in detail in the corrupt and consequently meaningless first half of 1 Chronicles 7:15. In 1 Chronicles 7:15, 1 Chronicles 7:17, other descendants of Machir by his wife Maachah are enumerated, which favours the probable conjecture that the wife whom Machir took, according to 1 Chronicles 7:15, was different from Maachah, that Machir had two wives, and that in 1 Chronicles 7:15 originally the sons of the first were enumerated, and in 1 Chronicles 7:16, 1 Chronicles 7:17, the sons of the second. Peresh and Shelesh are mentioned only here. בּנין, "his sons" (that is, the sons of the last-named, Shelesh), were Ulam and Rakem, names which are also met with only here. The name בּדן is found in our Masoretic text, 1 Samuel 12:11, as the name of a judge, but probably בּרק should be read instead.