1 Chronicles 7:5

And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies fourscore and seven thousand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

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

Whose number was in the days of David ... - The writer would seem by this passage to have had access to the statistics of the tribes collected by David, when he sinfully "numbered the people" (marginal reference). The numbers given in 1 Chronicles 7:4-5 probably came from the same source.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. fourscore and seven thousand—exclusive of the 58,600 men which the Tola branch had produced (1Ch 7:24), so that in the days of David the tribe would have contained a population of 45,600. This large increase was owing to the practice of polygamy, as well as the fruitfulness of the women. A plurality of wives, though tolerated among the Hebrews, was confined chiefly to the great and wealthy; but it seems to have been generally esteemed a privilege by the tribe of Issachar, "for they had many wives and sons" [1Ch 7:4].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And their brethren among all the families of Issachar,.... As those of Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, 1 Chronicles 7:1.

were men of might; valiant and courageous:

reckoned in all, by their genealogies, fourscore and seven thousand; that is, including with these those of Tola and Uzzi before given.

Geneva Study Bible

And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies fourscore and seven thousand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. men of might] R.V. mighty men of valour (as 1 Chronicles 7:2).

1 Chronicles 7:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From Uzzi, the first-born of Tola, are descended through Izrahiah five men, all heads of groups of related households (1 Chronicles 7:4); "and to them (i.e., besides these) according to their generations, according to their fathers'-houses, bands of the war host, 36,000 (men), for they (these chiefs) had many wives and sons." From the fact that Izrahiah is introduced as grandson of Tola, Bertheau would infer that 1 Chronicles 7:3, 1 Chronicles 7:4 refer to times later than David. But this is an erroneous inference, for Tola's sons did not live in David's time at all, and consequently it is not necessary that his grandson should be assigned to a later time. The only assertion made is, that the descendants of Tola's sons had increased to the number mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:2 in the time of David. By that time the descendants of his grandson Izrahiah might have increased to the number given in 1 Chronicles 7:4. That the number, 36,000, of the descendants of the grandson Izrahiah was greater than the number of those descended from the sons of Tola (22,600), is explained in the clause, "for they had many wives and sons." That the two numbers (in 1 Chronicles 7:2, 1 Chronicles 7:4) refer to the same time, i.e., to the days of David, is manifest from 1 Chronicles 7:5, "and their brethren of all the families of Issachar, valiant heroes; 87,000 their register, as regards everything," i.e., the sum of those registered of all the families of Issachar. Whence we gather that in the 87,000 both the 22,600 (1 Chronicles 7:2) and the 36,000 (1 Chronicles 7:4) are included, and their brethren consequently must have amounted to 28,400 (22,600 + 36,000 + 28,400 equals 87,000). In the time of Moses, Issachar numbered, according to Numbers 1:29, 54,400; and at a later time, according to Numbers 26:25, already numbered 64,300 men.