The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead.
The record of Manasseh opens with a tangle: a son borne by an Aramean (Syrian) concubine, and Machir, the ancestor of Gilead. Why does a register of God's people keep names like these? What was a people just back from exile meant to see in them?
Why the account is so short
The chapter runs through several tribes at speed. One writer ties that speed to what Chronicles puts at the centre.
The Bible Treasury1 Chronicles 7 gives the remaining tribes with the chief men among them. The two things of divine importance are the throne and the temple, and these have been given with care and detail. The other tribes were not as closely connected with them as Judah was with the throne and Levi with the temple, so the record passes over them very briefly.
A verse with a knot in it
The Hebrew here is hard to untie. It is not clear who bore whom. One writer treats it as a case where the verb "bore" has no stated subject, and points to a similar gap elsewhere.
J. N. DarbyFor the omission of the subject of "bore," see 1 Kings 1:6 and 1 Chronicles 7:14, whatever the difficulty connected with it; compare Exodus 6:16-20.
Thirteen women in five verses
The mention of a concubine here is not an isolated oddity. Across this short section, women appear again and again — and one writer reads that as a fingerprint of the era in which the lists were compiled.
H. L. RossierManasseh comes next — that is, the half-tribe beyond the Jordan. Here, as elsewhere in these genealogies, women are mentioned again and again. That is one more proof that someone put these lists together only after the captivity, in the disorder that marked Israel's ruin. The female line gave markers for tracing a family back, while in normal times no one would have needed such mentions. Thirteen women appear in these few verses (vv. 14-19), including the five daughters of Zelophehad.
Not every family took the same care of its records during the captivity.
H. L. RossierWe cannot say often enough that the value of the genealogies here depends on the care families took to preserve them during the captivity. Naphtali is like the dried remnant of a plant that was once green and flourishing, while Issachar, Benjamin, and Asher keep intact the deposit God had entrusted to them.
Machir, "father of Gilead"
The phrase attached to Machir's name carries more than fatherhood. One writer reads it as rule over land, not only the fathering of a son, and finds purpose in the weaving of these names.
Numerical Bible NotesMachir the family seems to be the "firstborn of Manasseh," since Machir the man is the father of them all. Keil takes "father of Gilead" here to mean ruler of the land of Gilead. This weaving together of names must have its reason. It should help us see that names count for something all through the history.
The women who gained a portion
This verse opens with a concubine. Further on in the chapter, women of Manasseh gain a portion of their own.
Numerical Bible NotesEven the women of Manasseh show the courage of faith, and gain an inheritance along with their brothers. Their story is repeated here, to their praise. We do well to long for the portion God has given us.
Forgetting and remembering
The names in this verse pull in two directions. One writer shows how they fit together.
Numerical Bible NotesManasseh, the natural firstborn of Joseph, we have read elsewhere as the first principle of spiritual "increase": "forgetting that which is behind," says the apostle, "I press on." But Manasseh has a son, Machir, who is the father of Gilead. His name comes as close to his father's as possible, and it means "one who recollects." Spiritually there is no clash in this contrast. We forget what is behind so as to keep our goal in mind, and so one springs out of the other. "The memorial heap" also, as Fausset well observes, "marked the crisis in Jacob's life, when he became cut off from his Syrian relatives, and from then on was a stranger in Canaan and its heir."
The sons born in Egypt
These Manasseh names surface again in the New Testament. Stephen speaks of seventy-five people who went down into Egypt, where the Hebrew has seventy. This list supplies the missing five.
William KellyNotice that Stephen speaks of seventy-five souls, where the Hebrew has seventy. He quotes here, as elsewhere, the Greek version of the Old Testament... In fact both the original and the Greek version may be true. The Greek counts in five sons of Manasseh and Ephraim born in Egypt (1 Chr. 7:14-27), following a freedom of form that is common enough in such lists.
Summary
- Kept — a tribe survived in the record only if its families cared enough to preserve it. Naphtali is a dried remnant; Issachar, Benjamin and Asher held their deposit intact.
- Counted — a concubine and thirteen women stand in these verses. After the ruin of exile, the female line was often the only thread left for tracing a family.
- Named — "father of Gilead" may mean ruler of a land as much as parent of a son. Names count for something all through the history.
- Remembered — Manasseh means forgetting and Machir "one who recollects." You forget what is behind so as to hold on to where you are going.
- Confirmed — these same sons born in Egypt account for Stephen's seventy-five, where the Hebrew has seventy.