1 Chronicles 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Compiled around 450 to 400 BC, ending with the Assyrian deportations of roughly 734 to 732 BC
Location
The land east of the Jordan River: Gilead, Bashan and the plateau reaching toward the Syrian and Arabian deserts
Audience
Returned exiles in Judah, who lived west of the Jordan and had lost contact with the eastern tribes
Situation
The chapter registers Reuben, Gad and the eastern half of Manasseh, records a victorious war they fought against Arab tribes called the Hagrites, and then reports that Assyria carried these tribes away because they abandoned their God.
Key Background
Reuben was Jacob's firstborn but is not given the leading place, and the writer says outright that the birthright passed to Joseph's sons while leadership passed to Judah, an unusually explicit note on how inheritance customs could be overridden. The eastern tribes held rich grazing land but no natural defensive barrier, so they were the first Israelites swept up when the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser the Third campaigned through the region. Their deportation happened more than a decade before the northern kingdom's capital fell, which is why their story ends early in the book.
The sons of Reuben, Israel's — he was actually the but because he rights were given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel. So he isn't listed as in the genealogy.
Judah became the strongest among his brothers, and the came from him, but the firstborn rights belonged to Joseph.
The sons of Reuben, Israel's firstborn: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
The descendants of Joel: his son Shemaiah, his son Gog, his son Shimei,
his son Micah, his son Reaiah, his son
his son Beerah, whom king of Assyria took into He was a leader of the Reubenites.
His relatives by their clans, listed in the genealogical records: Jeiel the chief, then Zechariah,
and Bela son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel. They lived in and as far as Nebo and Baal-Meon.
To the east they settled as far as the edge of the desert that stretches to the Euphrates River, because their livestock had multiplied in the land of
During Saul's reign they waged war against the who fell to them. So they occupied their tents throughout the entire eastern region of Gilead.
The descendants of Gad lived next to them in the land of as far as Salecah:
Joel was the chief, Shapham the second, then Janai and Shaphat in Bashan.
Their relatives, by their ancestral families: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber — seven in all.
These were the sons of Abihail son of Huri, son of Jaroah, son of Gilead, son of Michael, son of Jeshishai, son of Jahdo, son of Buz.
Ahi son of Abdiel, son of Guni, was head of their ancestral family.
They lived in Gilead, in Bashan and its surrounding towns, and in all the of Sharon as far as they extended.
All of these were recorded in the genealogies during the reigns of Jotham king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel.
The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the of had 44,760 men ready for military service — men who could carry shield and sword, draw a bow, and were trained for battle.
They went to war against the Hagrites, and Nodab.
They received help against them — the Hagrites and all their allies were handed over to them — because they out to God during the battle, and he responded to them because they him.
They captured the Hagrites' livestock: 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, and 2,000 donkeys. They also took 100,000 people captive.
Many had fallen in battle, because the was And they lived in their territory until the
The people of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land from Bashan to Baal-Hermon, Senir, and They were numerous.
These were the heads of their ancestral families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel — mighty famous men, heads of their ancestral families.
But they with the God of their ancestors and the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.
So the God of Israel up the of king of Assyria — that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria — and he carried them away: the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. He brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River, where they remain to this