and Sheba, and Jorai, and Jacan, and Zia, and Eber, seven. 14These were the sons of Abihail the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz; 15Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, chief of their fathers' houses. 16And they dwelt in Gilead in Bashan, and in her [1]towns, and in all the [2]suburbs of Sharon, as far as their [3]borders. 17All these were reckoned by genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.
18The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skilful in war, were forty and four thousand seven hundred and threescore, that were
patriarchal families (Greek πατριαί). Sometimes it is used to denote the whole tribe, cp. Num. xvii. 17.
16. in Gilead in Bashan] a contradictory phrase, since Gilead means the southern and Bashan the northern part of Israel's trans-Jordanic territory. Perhaps in Bashan is here an addition made by the Chronicler or a later hand to harmonise in Gilead (the territory usually assigned to Gad—see note on ver. 11 above) with vv. 11 and 23. The emendation "in Gilead in Jabesh" has been suggested.
Sharon] some place, unidentified, to the E. of Jordan. LXX. (B) has Sirion. (The well-known Sharon lay in the maritime plain between Joppa and Caesarea.)
17. reckoned by genealogies . . . and in the days of Jeroboam] "Reckoning by genealogy" is a phrase used only in the writings of the Chronicler (Chron., Ezra, Neh.), but the practice probably resembled what is called in other books "numbering the people": see the example in Neh. vii. 5—65. The object however was different and corresponded with the circumstances of the returned exiles, who found themselves in the midst of a Gentile population in Judea. The people were "reckoned by genealogy" not so much to take a census of them, as to inquire into the purity of their Israelite descent. The ancient term "numbering" would be a more suitable description of a transaction belonging to the days of Jotham. For Jotham see 2 Chr. xxvii. and for Jeroboam 2 Kin. xiv. 23—29. The last years of the reign of Jeroboam II probably synchronized with part of the reign of Jotham.
18—22.The War of the Trans-Jordanic Tribes
against Arabian Tribes.
18. skilful in war] cp. xii. 8, 21.
forty and four thousand] According to Josh. iv. 13 "about forty thousand" from these tribes crossed the Jordan with Joshua.
