-- the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel Enoch and Phallu, Hezron and Carmi.
Verse 3 lists the four sons of Reuben, Jacob's eldest son. Two verses come first to explain the delay, because the man with the natural right of the firstborn heads no line of his own.
Reuben still keeps the title "firstborn" here. One writer weighs what that title normally carried.
"The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel." As firstborn, Reuben had a prominent place. The firstborn, or whoever stands in that place, comes before the whole family, and the main family line is usually traced through him. But Reuben is set aside, and the natural prominence of the birthright only sank him lower when he lost it. When has the natural order ever held up under the righteous government of God? The order of nature is not God's order. Nothing can meet the wandering of nature but the sovereign mercy of God. God gave the birthright to Joseph. Yet even here, showing the sovereignty of grace, the family line is not counted according to the birthright.
Reuben's own act cost him the place. The rules Moses later wrote rule out favouritism as the cause.
This order agrees with the rules of the birthright that Moses set down later on (Deuteronomy 21:15-17). The son of the loved wife could not be put ahead of the firstborn, who was the son of the unloved wife. Reuben did forfeit his birthright, and it was entirely his own fault. He had gone up to his father's bed and committed adultery with Bilhah, his father's concubine. So his privileges were taken from him (Genesis 35:22; Genesis 49:3-4; 1 Chronicles 5:1-2). The position that went with the birthright passed to Judah, the fourth son of Leah. The wealth that went with it, however — the firstborn was entitled to a double portion of the inheritance — passed to Joseph, the first son of Rachel, the loved one.
Chronicles stops at this exact spot to explain the order it uses.
Then in 1 Chronicles 5 comes Reuben. We have had the purpose of God set before us, so we are not simply taken back to the line of nature. Reuben falls into the second place. Verse 2 is put in as an aside, to explain why Judah is first among the tribes, while Reuben sinks into a secondary place.
Joseph does not head the list either. One writer explains why.
As in all the rest of Scripture, Joseph is here a picture of the Messiah, rejected by his brothers and later given rule over the nations. But our passage (vv. 1-2) explains why he does not come first here. His place is given to Judah, the stock of the kingship according to God's counsels.
Why did God split the two honours? One writer answers from the cross.
It is the genealogy of the Chief Ruler. In His wisdom God separates the birthright and the chief rule for a brief time. This had to be so for the purposes of redemption. The birthright was Christ's when He came into the world; it belongs to Him personally. But the chief rule then could only have been in judgment. If the Lord Jesus had taken the supremacy then, which is His by right of office, where would the cross be? Where would the glory of God be — the highest glory, the glory of His grace? Where would redemption be? He came at the first to be cut off and have nothing.
Every one of the four names in verse 3 means something good. One writer weighs what they add up to.
Here we have the record of his sons' names only, four in number: Enoch — "dedicated," Pallu — "separated," Hezron — "enclosed," and Carmi — "vine-dresser." Clearly these names make a harmonious series, and at first sight one would say they are good throughout. Enoch is the name of the man who walked with God and was taken away without seeing death. But it was also the name of a son of Cain, and, as here, a firstborn son. Self-righteousness can have its dedication and its separation (like the Pharisees) and its enclosure and its cultivation — yet nothing is said of any real fruit.
The list that starts in verse 3 sets the pattern for the chapter.
Yet, just as all through these chapters, the ways of the flesh are mentioned first (vv. 3-6).
- Forfeit. Reuben lost the birthright by his own sin against his father, not by his father's favouritism.
- Divided. His loss was split two ways: the wealth of the birthright to Joseph, the chief rule to Judah.
- Mercy. Nature's order never holds up under God's government. Only His sovereign mercy meets its failure.
- Christ. The brief separation of birthright from rule left room for the cross — He came first to be cut off and have nothing.
- Fruit. His four sons carry fine names — dedicated, separated, enclosed, cultivated — yet Scripture records no fruit.
The sons of Joel Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
This short line belongs to the family record of Reuben, Israel's firstborn son, and follows Joel's family down three more generations. No other part of Scripture mentions these men again, so why does the record keep them, and where is the list heading?
The chapter opens with Reuben's loss of his birthright, and the names in verses 3-6 follow from it:
Reuben's place in the genealogy, as we have already seen, is fixed by his sin. The birthright was his by right of birth, but he lost it (v. 1), and it passed to Joseph and his sons. As in all the rest of Scripture, Joseph is here a picture of the Messiah rejected by His brothers, and later receiving rule over the nations. But our passage (vv. 1-2) explains why he does not come first here. His place is given to Judah, the family line of the kingship according to God's counsels... Yet, as everywhere in these chapters, the ways of the flesh come first (vv. 3-6), and they run on until Tilgath-Pilneser carries the ten tribes away captive.
The reason lay in what Reuben himself had done:
He forfeited his birthright because he defiled his father's bed, and it went to Joseph, who had a double portion among the tribes through Ephraim and Manasseh. 1 Chr. 5:1.
Joel heads this line, and the record of his son carries two forms of one name:
A Reubenite, father of Shemaiah, or Shema. 1 Chr. 5:4, 8.
That double name is worth noticing. A few verses later the same chapter names a son of Joel in a shortened form:
Son of Joel, a Reubenite. 1 Chr. 5:8. Apparently the same as SHEMAIAH in 1 Chr. 5:4.
Readers who know the name Gog from prophecy often pause here. The Gog of this verse is given no such weight:
Son of Shemaiah, a Reubenite. 1 Chr. 5:4.
The other Gog is treated as an entirely separate subject, and on a different scale altogether:
Gog is a symbolic name for the powerful and proud chief of the vast hordes of Scythia and Tartary. Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, answering to Russia, Moscow and Tobolsk... These, "coming out of the north" like a cloud to cover the land, will attack Israel in the land of Palestine, but God will strike them down.
A list of four unremarkable men can feel like something to skip. Commentators press the opposite case — that family descent in Israel carried a weight it carries nowhere else:
So when an Israelite was closely tied to his family, this was not just a matter of vanity or pride, as it often is among us. In Israel it was tied to the purpose of God... So love of country, a family line, families that held on to the most distant past — these had a divine character in Israel, which they have in no other country under the sun.
Keeping such a record through exile cost something, and one writer counts that cost as a mark of faith:
Happy was the man who had kept his own record, and who thought so much of the heritage of the Lord that he counted it precious! It was a proof of faith, for someone might well have said, "What use are these genealogies in Babylon?"
Reuben's descendants had settled east of the Jordan. One writer ties that choice to what became of them:
The Jordan can also be seen as the boundary of the promised land. So the two and a half tribes who stayed on the east side of the Jordan stopped short of their privileges. They are a picture of many Christians who do not accept in faith the heavenly portion, through death and resurrection, that God intends for them. So they lie more open to the attacks of the enemy, just as the two and a half tribes were the first to be carried away into captivity.
The same pattern is applied directly to daily life:
When Israel declined, captivity began with the two and a half tribes... Just so, the earthly-minded Christian is captivated most easily by the spirit of the world.
- Forfeited. Reuben lost his place by his own act. Everything that follows in this chapter, Joel's line included, stands under that shadow.
- Named. Joel, Shemaiah, Gog and Shimei appear nowhere else in Scripture. The same Shemaiah is also called Shema four verses later.
- Not that Gog. This Gog is a Reubenite, the son of Shemaiah. He is not the symbolic northern chief of prophecy.
- Recorded. Family lines in Israel served God's purpose, not family pride. Keeping such records in exile proved faith.
- Carried away. The tribes that settled short of the promised land went into captivity first. Writers read this as a picture of the Christian held back by earthly interests.
Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son,
The line of Israel's firstborn runs on here through three more names, one link at a time. A list this bare raises two questions: why keep it at all, and why is the firstborn's family not the leading line in Chronicles?
Reuben opens this section because he was born first. Commentators say that high place only made his fall worse:
Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, so he had a prominent place. The firstborn, or whoever stands in that place, comes before the whole family, and the main family line usually runs through him. But Reuben is set aside. The natural honour of the birthright only sank him lower when he lost it. When did the natural order ever hold up under the righteous government of God? The order of nature is not God's order, and nothing can meet nature's straying but the sovereign mercy of God.
Verse 5 sits in a run of names (verses 3-6) from tribes that settled east of the Jordan. One writer reads the order as the book's pattern:
Here we have the genealogy of the two and a half tribes that chose their portion beyond the Jordan: Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh... Reuben's place in the genealogy, as we have already seen, is decided by his sin. The birthright was his by right of birth, but it was taken from him (v. 1) and given to Joseph and his sons... Joseph, though, does not come first here. His place is given to Judah, the line of the kingship according to God's purpose... Yet, as all through these chapters, the ways of the flesh come first (vv. 3-6), and they run on until Tilgath-Pilneser carries the ten tribes away captive.
One writer follows the birthright and the rule to Christ Himself:
This is the genealogy of the Chief Ruler. In the wisdom of God the birthright and the chief rule are separated for a short time. It had to be so for the purposes of redemption. The birthright was Christ's when He came into the world; it belongs to Him personally. But if He had taken the chief rule then, it could only have been in judgment. If the Lord Jesus had taken that supreme place then, which is His by right of office, where would the cross be?... It took a distinct picture given in advance, such as Joseph is, to show that the Chief Ruler, to Whom the birthright belonged, would appear as One Whose birthright was denied.
A son named Baal in an Israelite family surprises most readers. One writer weighs names like this one elsewhere in Scripture:
We know from Chronicles that Saul's son Ishbosheth was first called Esh-baal. We have a similar change with Jonathan's son Merib-baal, changed into Mephibosheth... In Hosea 9:10 Baal himself is called "the thing of shame," and no one can seriously doubt that the sense of how shameful idolatry was led to these changes. But no one could prove that the names connected with Saul's family carried any idolatrous meaning, since the word baal itself was used in so many ways.
The line runs on only a little further, and ends in captivity. Commentators trace that end back to the tribe's own choice:
Their beginning seemed fair; there were brave men among them. Famous as they were, this deadly charge stood against them: they "broke faith." So they lost the special blessing of the land. How great their loss! Yet the loss is not the most serious part of their disobedience. Worse was this: they preferred what they liked to the goodness of God. The consequences were two: moral and judicial. The moral one was that they went after the gods of the people of the land, and became idolaters... The judicial one was that the "God of Israel" brought the king of Assyria against them, and he carried them off into captivity, far from the land they valued above God's land.
Yet the record does not close the door on them:
Sovereign grace will bring them back at the end, and Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh will stand in their portion with the other tribes, and in equal numbers (Rev. 7), at least in symbol.
- Birth — Reuben was firstborn by nature. That high place only made his loss deeper. Nature's order is not God's order.
- Forfeit — His sin sent the birthright to Joseph and the rule to Judah. Chronicles lists the ways of the flesh first.
- Names — A son called Baal stands in this list. No one can prove idolatry from such a name, though Israel later renamed men to escape its shame.
- Drift — The tribe chose land outside God's promise. They preferred their own liking to His goodness, and idolatry followed.
- Return — The line ends in Assyrian captivity. Yet sovereign grace will set Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh in their portion with the rest.
Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria carried away captive he was prince of the Reubenites.
Beerah closes a short family list with a hard fact. The leader of Reuben's tribe was carried off to Assyria. Why does the record of Israel's firstborn tribe run only a handful of generations and then stop at a deportation?
The chapter opens by telling us that Reuben lost the rights of the firstborn. That loss shapes the list that follows. One writer shows how the book arranges its tribes around God's purpose, not birth order:
Then in 1 Chronicles 5 comes Reuben. Having had God's purpose before us, we are not taken back simply to the line of natural descent. Reuben falls into second place. "Though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph." That verse is a short aside, explaining why Judah is first among the tribes and why Reuben sinks into a secondary place.
Beerah closes the run of names that begins in verse 3. One writer reads that whole stretch as the record of the flesh, ending in captivity:
In these chapters, as everywhere else, the ways of the flesh are mentioned first (vv. 3-6), and they continue until Tilgath-Pilneser carries the ten tribes away captive.
Tilgath-pilneser is the Assyrian ruler better known as Tiglath-pileser. His campaigns reached the tribes settled on the east side of the Jordan:
Successor to Pul, king of Assyria. He is called a usurper and the founder of the second Assyrian empire. He reigned B.C. 745-727. In the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, he overran the northern part of Palestine and took the people away as captives… The final result was that Tiglath-pileser, instead of helping Ahaz, troubled him and carried away captive the tribes on the east of the Jordan… Some Assyrian scholars hold that Tiglath-pileser is the same person as Pul. But in 1 Chronicles 5:26 both kings are named as different persons, and the dates of the Pul of Scripture do not agree with those of Tiglath-pileser.
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had asked for land east of the Jordan, outside the country God had promised them. One writer points to the blunt word the chapter itself uses for that choice:
Moses said that if they went armed over the Jordan, then afterward "you shall return and be guiltless before the LORD." Guiltless! So said Moses, but not the LORD. On the contrary, the record here in 1 Chronicles 5:25 is, "And they transgressed"… Those words point to their great sin: they chose for themselves when God had chosen for them… Yet even though they transgressed like this, they are not left out of this genealogy, for they are sons of Israel, part of the chosen nation. But because of this sin, only brief mention is made of them. God did not forget them while He noted their sin.
The words "guiltless" and "transgressed" above follow an older English translation; the ESV words both verses differently. The land they chose also left them exposed:
The Jordan can also be seen as the boundary of the promised land. So the two and a half tribes who stayed on its east side stopped short of their privileges. They picture many Christians who do not accept by faith the heavenly portion that God intends for them, reached through death and resurrection. Such Christians are more open to the attacks of the enemy, just as those two and a half tribes were: they were the first to be carried into captivity.
The story of these tribes is not only judgment. A few verses later, these same men cry to God in battle, and He answers them:
"They put their trust in Him." The God of grace owed it to His own character to answer them, however guilty they were in the matter of the unity of God's people. So, despite the ruin, grace always responds to faith… The flesh is condemned, and the captivity is the result of its independence. But God answers faith. He is not only a God of government, who repays man according to his responsibility, but also a God of grace, who cannot deny His character.
- Loss. Reuben lost the rights of the firstborn, so his tribe stands second here, behind Judah, the line the ruler came from.
- Choice. Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh settled east of the Jordan, short of the promised land. Scripture calls that a transgression: they chose for themselves when God had chosen for them.
- Exposure. Land outside the promised boundary meant land nearest the enemy, and these tribes were the first taken away.
- Result. Their prince Beerah ends the list as a captive of Tilgath-pileser, the founder of the second Assyrian empire.
- Grace. In the same chapter these guilty tribes trusted God in battle, and He answered. God's government repays man what he is responsible for; His grace still answers faith.