Bible Commentaries
Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1 Chronicles 7
1 Chronicles 7:2. Whose number in the days of David. This proves that David, in time of peace, numbered the people for war. This very much surprised Joab, and in this lay a great part of the sin. These chapters contain also a heraldry of the Hebrew nobility, each of these names being a prince or princess in the family. It is left with heaven to number the poor. The variations in writing their names, was made by some author anterior to the time of Ezra.
1 Chronicles 7:22. Ephraim their father mourned. If this affair happened in Israel, the Ephraimites were the aggressors, and this Ephraim was the father of the principal men who fell in this expedition; but how many generations from the first Ephraim, may not be exactly traced. Some of the Jews however contend that this affair happened in Egypt, and that the Philistines were the aggressors in going down to steal their cattle; but it is difficult to conceive how those rabbins should know better than Ezra. At the thirteenth verse of the next chapter, we find that the Benjamites drove away the inhabitants of Gath, which was probably to avenge this blood, and keep the borders quiet.
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