These are the heads of their fathers' houses the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel Enoch and Phallu, Hezron and Carmi these are the families of Reuben.
God has just promised to bring Israel out of Egypt. Then the rescue story stops, and a list of names begins: the sons of Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi. Why break off a rescue to file a family register? And why start with sons who are named only to be passed by?
One writer presses the reader to stop and ask what this list is doing here:
Here we are told to pause a moment and see who these people are that carry this burden. The record sets out their family line, and for the history here it means their line alone... Only Reuben and Simeon share the space. As the elder sons of Jacob, they might seem to have a claim above Levi to supply Israel's deliverer. Yet they do not, and the record looks at them only to pass them by. A family list at this point ought to catch our attention. Is it an interruption? Is it just a scrap of old record? or what?
One writer sees God here counting His own people while Pharaoh still holds them.
The rest of our section records "the heads of their fathers' houses." It shows us Jehovah coming in and numbering those who belonged to Himself, while the enemy still held them. Israel was God's people, and He here counts up those on whom He had a sovereign claim. Amazing grace! To find an object of His love in people sunk in all the degradation of Egyptian slavery! ... He came down and stood among the brick kilns of Egypt. There He saw a people groaning under the whip of the slave-drivers, and He said those memorable words, "Let my people go." Then He went on to count them up, as if to say, "These are mine. Let me see how many I have, so that not one is left behind."
Another writer draws the lesson from the naming itself.
Then follows the record of "the heads of their fathers' houses." He knows them by name. He comes down where the slaves are, and calls them by name, so identifying Himself with them. And then He knew, as He does now, every groan and every burden. He knew every place where the cruel slave-driver's whip had fallen. This is the precious lesson of this register of names. Exodus has no other genealogy.
One writer takes the four names in order and weighs what they add up to. He uses older spellings: Enoch for Hanoch, Hetzron for Hezron.
First, the sons of Reuben... Here we have the record of his sons' names only, four in number: Enoch — "dedicated," Pallu — "separated," Hetzron — "enclosed," and Carmi — "vine-dresser." These names clearly make a series that fits together... and at first sight you would call them good all through... Self-righteousness may have its dedication and its separation (Pharisee-like), its enclosure and its cultivating — yet there is no word of real fruit.
One writer sees a reason behind the quick dismissal of the first two sons.
The record dismisses Reuben and Simeon with only one verse each (vv. 14-15). Reuben speaks of the strength of the flesh (Gen. 49:3), which can have no place in the true service of God. Simeon stands for the cruelty and divisiveness of nature, and Levi shared that too (Gen. 49:5-7). But Levi's name means joined, which seems to imply that in him evil was exposed and judged. That fits all the more since he had three sons, reminding us of resurrection, the only true basis for the fulfilment of God's covenant.
The list never tries to cover the whole nation. It runs only as far as the two men God is sending.
Here the record recalls the covenant again, and the people own it in a feeble way. Alongside that it traces the family line of Moses and Aaron, the deliverers. So the whole passage ties back to the covenant promises God made to the fathers. It is very significant that the record traces the tribes only until it reaches Moses and Aaron (Ex. 6:26); so Christ is the one object before God, the only Deliverer of His elect.
The timing matters: the list arrives at the lowest moment of the story.
Israel was in despair and Moses was overwhelmed. Just at this point the record brings in the family line of Aaron and Moses, and their high dignity as God's servants in Israel's deliverance. And we see that slavery had not cost them their tribal order or the leadership of their princes. Israel was a nation. It never sank into a herd of slaves, even in its most bitter and hopeless days of bondage.
- Pause — The names are not filler. A family list dropped into a rescue story stops the reader and asks who these people are.
- Claim — Pharaoh still held them, yet God counted them as His own, so that not one would be left behind.
- Known — He comes down to slaves and calls them by name. The list itself shows He knows every burden, and that Israel is still a nation with its own princes.
- Passed by — Reuben's sons carry fine names but no fruit. He and Simeon get one verse each, then the record moves on.
- Deliverer — The list narrows to Levi and stops at Moses and Aaron. Every name points to the deliverers God chose.
-- And the sons of Simeon Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul the son of a Canaanitish woman these are the families of Simeon.
A list of names drops into the middle of the rescue story. Israel is in despair, Moses is overwhelmed, and the record pauses to trace families — ending Simeon's line with a son born to a Canaanite mother.
The record stops to show who carries the burden of Israel's rescue — and who does not.
Here we are told to pause a moment, to see who these are on whom this burden is laid. Their genealogy is put before us... Reuben and Simeon only have a place here. As the elder sons of Jacob, they might seem to have a claim above Levi to supply the deliverer of Israel. But they do not, and they are looked at here only to be passed by. But God does nothing without the fullest reason, so there is a reason in this case. It is not on the surface, but faith can still find it. Certainly a genealogy at this point should wake us up. Is it an interruption? Is it a mere piece of archaeology? Or what?
The list carries good news of its own. Slavery had not erased Israel's order.
Israel was in despair and Moses was overwhelmed. Just at that point the record introduces the genealogy of Aaron and Moses, and their high dignity as God's servants in the rescue of Israel. Israel was enslaved, yet they lost none of their tribal order and none of the leadership of their princes. Israel was a nation; it was not reduced to a herd of slaves even at the time of its most bitter and hopeless bondage. The genealogy marks a new starting point in the history God has given. Here it begins the story of the time when God fulfilled His promise of deliverance.
The line only opens out at Levi, and runs on to Moses and Aaron.
Coming in at this place is a partial genealogy of the first three sons of Jacob. Reuben and Simeon are dismissed with only one verse dealing with each (vv. 14-15). Reuben speaks of the strength of the flesh (Gen. 49:3), which can have no place in the true service of God. Simeon stands for the cruelty and divisiveness of nature, which Levi shared too (Gen. 49:5-7), but Levi's name (meaning joined) seems to imply that in him evil was exposed and judged.
The last name on the list is the one that settles Simeon's case. Older Bibles spell it Saul.
Simeon's sons are six, a still more unfavourable number, as we know. I do not try to interpret the meaning of their names. But they end with the ill-omened "Saul," the half Canaanite. So Simeon too is set aside.
Simeon was counted at the start of the wilderness journey and again at the end. The second count tells a grim story.
In looking at Simeon, we are struck by the shrinkage from fifty-nine thousand, three hundred, to twenty-two thousand, two hundred. His strength was only a little more than a third of what he had at the start. We cannot help remembering that a prince of this tribe was the leading offender at Baal-peor, and judgment fell on him at once (Num. 25:8). No doubt his brothers who shared his sin also shared his judgment, which left Simeon's ranks badly thinned. But what was this sin that caused such damage? What Balak's efforts at cursing could not do, mixture with the Midianites did, in measure. Reuben's sin was rebellion. That did not leave his tribe as weak as mixing with a foreign people left Simeon. How many of God's people have proved what Simeon proved here! Mixture with the world saps their strength and destroys their spiritual prosperity... Let us beware of the first signs of coldness or worldliness, in case we too, like Simeon, find our last days here ruined by failure that cannot be undone.
Jacob had said Simeon and Levi would both be scattered. The writer compares Simeon's line here to Jabez, a man who enlarged his borders while under a curse.
As a result of Simeon and Levi's sin, these two brothers were divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel (Gen. 49:7). But they differed in this. In grace the Lord used Levi's scattering to give him priestly duties suited to his position. It was otherwise for Simeon, who went on bearing the mark of God's judgment... Like Jabez, they bore the consequences of the curse pronounced on them. But their extreme poverty, which they could not deny, drove them to conquer what God placed within their reach.
- Named. Even in slavery Israel kept its tribal order. God kept the record of the families, Simeon's included.
- Passed over. Simeon, like Reuben, gets one verse and is set aside. The elder sons had the natural claim, but the deliverer came through Levi.
- Mixed. Simeon's list closes with Shaul, son of a Canaanite woman — the one detail that stamps the family.
- Weakened. At Baal-peor the same strain shows again. An enemy's curses could not weaken Simeon, but mixing with another people did. The tribe fell to about a third of its strength.
- Still reaching. Simeon's descendants stayed small and bore the mark of judgment. Their very poverty drove some of them to take what God had put within reach.