1 Chronicles 5 - Introduction

The Genealogies of the Tribes of Israel

The Chronicler deals very unequally with the tribes in their genealogies; as the following table shews:

1 Chronicles 2:1 to 1 Chronicles 4:23. Judah (102 verses).

1 Chronicles 4:24-43. Simeon (20 verses).

1 Chronicles 5:1-26. Reuben, Gad, and Eastern Manasseh (26 verses).

1 Chronicles 6:1-81. Levi (81 verses).

1 Chronicles 7:1-40. Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Eastern Manasseh (again), Ephraim, and Asher (40 verses).

1 Chronicles 8:1-40. Benjamin, though already noticed in 1 Chronicles 7:6-11 (40 verses).

Zebulun and (perhaps) Dan (cp. 1 Chronicles 7:12, note) are omitted.

It may easily be seen that the tribes in which the Chronicler is really interested are the three southern tribes, Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, together with the priestly tribe, Levi.

The order in which the tribes are mentioned is at first geographical, Judah and Simeon the southern tribes first, then the eastern tribes Reuben, Gad, Manasseh; the rest follow in no fixed order.