Numerical Bible Notes

We have but one tribe more, that of Naphtali. His prince is Ahira, "brother of evil," the son of Enan, which means apparently "eyed," or "having eyes." This is the most difficult name perhaps to interpret of all that we have had; the words also being susceptible of other meanings, though these are the simplest ones. May it be that in Ahira we find one whose eyes have affected his heart, like another Jeremiah (Lam. 3:51), and made him a man of sorrows in sympathy with the sorrow around? Such a spirit one would suppose to need expression among these leaders of Israel, and thus the "brother of evil" would come to be the "brother born for adversity," of which Proverbs speaks (Prov. 17:17). And this would not suit ill with the character of that Naphtali, whose own name is a memorial of "struggling," and whose "pleasant words" are noted in that prophecy of Jacob to which there seems constant reference all through.