The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four.
Chronicles opens its record of Israel with nine chapters of names, and this verse gives the whole tribe of Issachar its start: four sons, and a count of them. Why would God have such a list written down, and what was it worth to the people who first read it?
Four sons, and nothing else
This one line of sons holds nearly all we know about Issachar the man.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe ninth son of Jacob, and the fifth of Leah. Scripture keeps no record of his personal history except that he had four sons, who became heads in the tribe... At the first numbering Issachar had 54,400 men fit for war, and at the second 64,300.
The same men under other names
Two of the four sons appear elsewhere in the Bible under different spellings.
Morrish Bible DictionarySon of Issachar and ancestor of the Punites (Gen. 46:13). The King James Version calls him Pua in Num. 26:23, though the Hebrew is the same, and he seems to be the same person as Puah in 1 Chr. 7:1.
The third son changes name in the same way.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThird son of Issachar (Num. 26:24; 1 Chr. 7:1). He seems to be the same man as Job in Gen. 46:13.
Where the tribe stands in the list
The verse begins a run of tribes the record covers briefly, right after a whole chapter on Levi.
J. N. DarbyThe genealogies of Levi (1 Chron. 6) give us first the line of high priests down to the captivity, and then the Levites, their services and their cities. After Levi come Issachar (1 Chron. 7:1), Benjamin (1 Chron. 7:6), Naphtali (1 Chron. 7:13), few in number; the other half tribe of Manasseh (1 Chron. 7:14), Ephraim (1 Chron. 7:20), and Asher (1 Chron. 7:30).
What Issachar did with its record
Compared with the tribes around it, Issachar comes off well in this chapter.
H. L. Rossier1 Chronicles 7 closes the genealogy of the tribes. The sons of Issachar come first... The numbering of the men of war begins with Issachar. In this tribe, the number of men of war continued to increase from the time of the establishment of the kingship... A second good trait of this tribe is that they took care of their genealogies, for the record says that all these men were registered by genealogy (v. 5). A third feature belongs only to Issachar, Benjamin, and Asher: "valiant men of might," fit to go out to war.
Not every tribe cared. The same chapter shows the opposite.
H. L. RossierNaphtali, Bilhah's son, seems to have taken no interest in his genealogy (v. 13). The record hardly mentions his descendants, and says even less about the number of his men of war.
Why keeping the list took faith
The book was written at the worst moment in the nation's history.
William KellyThe books of Chronicles were written after the captivity, when everything was thrown into disorder. The Jews were crushed by a destruction they refused to believe in until it came, and they might have thought, "What is the use of a genealogy? What is the use of caring now about our lands or houses? Everything is ruined. All is gone." But the man who believed God knew that seventy years would see them return from captivity. So care for God and confidence in His Word would make them guard their genealogies carefully. Then, when they did return, they could take up the portion God had given them. For this was what made every homestead in Israel so precious — that it was God who gave it. It was not merely something that man earned by his own labour or skill. It was the gift of God to them.
Behind the human record stands a divine one.
J. N. DarbyAt the same time He records the names of those who came through the trials in this history without being blotted out of the book. Here it is only the outward picture of that blessed memorial of the people of His grace; but that is truly what we find here.
Summary
- Four names. The Bible tells no personal story of Issachar — only four sons who became heads of a tribe that later understood the times.
- Two spellings. Puah also appears as Pua, and Jashub as Job in Genesis 46:13 — the same men under different spellings.
- Kept records. Issachar's care for its genealogy counts in the tribe's favour, along with its fighting men. Naphtali took no such interest, and the record hardly mentions him.
- Faith in exile. Keeping a family line after the captivity looked pointless. It was confidence that God would bring His people back to the portion He had given them.
- God's memorial. The list on the page is the outward picture of a deeper record. God keeps the names of those who came through these trials without being blotted out of His book.