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father’s house, to wit, of Tola: they were valiant men of might in their generations; ivhosenumber was,in the days of David, tivo-and~hventy thousand and six hundred. When David numbered the people, (2 Sam. xxiv.) there were found thus many descended from the first-born of Issachar; which was a very great increase. Vcr. 20. Andthe$07i$ofEpJiraim; ShuthelaJi, and Bercd his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son.’] Some will have all these to be the sons of Ephraim: but the most natural sense seems to be, that Be’red was the son of Shuthelah, and Tahath the son of Bcred, &c. and so on to the following descendants of Ephraim, whose genealogy is now related.

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jyi OW the sons of Issachar were Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimron,four. There is some little difference in the names of two of these, as they are mentioned Gen. xlvi. And Jashub seems to have been called Job, for brevity’s sake: just as Aram is called Ram, and among us Alexander is called Saunder. See Buxtorfs Antieritica, par. ii. cap. 8. where Rasi gives another account of it, but not so likely.

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And the sons of Tola; Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jahmai, and Jibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their

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And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah. He names but one son: therefore, all his posterity is comprehended in the name of sons. And the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five: all of them chief men.’] Reckoning their father for one, they were five in all: and persons of great authority.

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And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six-audthirty thousand men. As they were numerous, so they were of a warlike spirit; which made them very considerable. For they had many wives and sons.] They were very fruitful, and propagated the more, because they had many wives, who bare them many sons: and those sons, it is likely, took many wives also, for the greater increase of their family. For this was the cause of polygamy among them, the desire of a numerous offspring (whereby God’s promise to Abraham, of making them as the stars of heaven for multitude, might be fulfilled), and of a holy race of people to propagate piety, when the nations of the world were generally corrupted. (See chap. viii. 40.)

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And their brethren. That is, their kindred. Among all the families of Issachar, were valiant men of might, reckoned in all, by their genealogies, fourscore and seven thousand.] There was no such great increase of the rest of the families of Issachar, since in all they amounted but to this number: and from two of his sons sprung above fifty-eight thousand.

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T/ie sons of Benjamin; Beta, and Becher, and Jediael, three. He mentions no more in this place; but in the next chapter (ver. 1, 2.) he mentions five: they were ten in all, as we read in Gen. xlvi. 21. But either half of them died without issue, or their families were extinct, or their genealogies lost.

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And the sons ofBela; Ezbon, and Uzzi, and TJzziel, and Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour; and were reckoned by their genealogies twenty and two thousand and thirty and four.] There are others mentioned as his sons, chap. viii. 8. therefore it is likely these were his grandsons: who, being more eminent than their fathers, were mentioned as the chief of their several families, from whence they sprung.

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And the sons of Becher; Zemira, and Joash, and Eliezer, and EUoenai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth. All these are the sons of Becher.

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And the number of them, after their genealogy by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour, was twenty thousand and two hundred. They were not so many as those descended from the eldest son; and the youngest son had still fewer.

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The sons also of Jediael; Bilhan. He mentions but one; who includes all descended from him, as it here follows. And the sons of Bilhan; Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan,and Tharshish, and Ahishahar, I

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All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle.

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Shuppim also, and Huppim, the children oflr. Or of Iri, as he is called, ver. 7. the youngest son of Bela; whose sons are called Huppim and Muppim, Gen. xlvi. 21. In which book there are other proper names of men, in the plural number, (Gen. x. 13, 14. xxv. 3.) And Hushim, the sonsofAher.] If he still speak of the sons of Benjamin, this person was called Ahiram, Numb. xxvi. 39. But there being no mention of the tribe of Dan in this genealogy, unless it be here, many take Aher not to be a proper name, but a common word, signifying other; and so translate the words thus, another son: that is, the son of another tribe or family, viz. of Dan. For Hushim was his only son, Gen. xlvi. 23. where the word sons, though he speak of one man only, is used as it is in this place.

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The sons ofNaphtali; Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons ofBilhah. The sons of Bilhah were Naphtali and Dan. Therefore these were her grandsons by the first of them.

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Tlie sons of Manasseh; Ashriel.~. His greatgrandson; for both he and Zelophehad were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh. (See Numb. xxvi. 29. &c. xxvii. 1.) Whom she bare.] That is, whom his wife bare; for his concubine is here opposed to her, in the next words. (But his concubine the Aramitess bare Machir the father of Gilead.] He took a Syrian woman to wife, from whom his chief posterity descended.

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And Machir took to wife the sister of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister s name was Maachah). He married into the tribe of Benjamin, whose sons these were.. And the name of the second son was Zelophehad.^] This relates to the beginning of ver. 14. where his first son Ashriel is mentioned. And Zelophehad had daughters.] No sons, but only daughters; as we read in the book of Numbers, chap. xxvii.

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And Maachah, the wife of Machir, bare a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were TJlam and Rakem.

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And the sons of TJlam; Sedan. TJiese were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir’, the son of Manasseh.

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And his sister Hammoleketh bare Ishod, and Abiezer, and Mahalah. That is, the sister of Gilead, as Kimchi understands it (though some take her to have been the sister of Bedan), who was an illustrious woman, and therefore here mentioned, and, as the Targum imagines, was a queen; that is, governess of a certain tract of land in the country of Gilead. For he takes Hammoleketh not for a proper name, but for an appellative: of which there is no mention neither in the law, nor in the prophets, as Kimchi confesses; but they have this by tradition. Which, though it be very groundless, the Vulgar Latin follows it, arid translates this word regina. Which Estius ingenuously acknowledges to be a mistake.

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And the sons of Shemida were Ahian, and Shechem, and Likhi, and Aniam. There is no’ mention of Shemida before. But he is supposed to be another son of Gilead’s sister beforenamed.

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And Zabad his son, and Shnthelak his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. This piece of history is no where else recorded: which in all likelihood fell out before the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. For Ephraim, it appears by the next verse, was alive when these children of his were slain. Who, as the Targum thinks, mistook in their computation of the end of the years, wherein they were to be slaves in Egypt, and imagining them to be expired, made an inroad into the land of Canaan to take possession • of it, before the time they were to enjoy it’ But others think it proceeded from their desire of prey and spoil, which they thought they’ might lawfully get from those whose country they Avere to possess: and they presumed the more to -make this attempt, because they were valiant men, and proud, perhaps, of the great power and authority which their uncle Joseph had in Egypt. Though others think it more probable, that the Philistines having infested them in the land of Goshen, these sons of Zabad broke into their country to make reprisals upon their cattle. Dr. Lightfoot(inhis conclusion of his Annotations on Genesis), quite contrary, thinks that the men of Gath went to plunder in Egypt, and there slew these Ephraimites, who only stood up in defence of their cattle. And those words, that were born in the land, he thinks, signify these men of Gath were born in Egypt, though they now dwelt in Gath. So the men of Gath were the plunderers, and not the Ephraimites. But they who take the Ephraimites to have been the invaders, think those words are added, to shew that the Philistines were the more incensed against them; because they seemed to come to dispossess them of their land. ver. 22. And Ephraim their father.] They were his grandchildren. Mourned many days, and Tds brethren came “to comfort him.] That is, his kindred (as the word brethren often signifies), they that were of his family came to condole with him. This shews Ephraim lived to be a very old man, if this happened near to the time of their going out of Egypt. Vcr. 23. And whenhe went in to his wife, she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Beriah, because it went evil tvith his house.] For so the word Beriah imports: his family was in an ill condition.

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( And his daughter was Sherah, who built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper, and Uzzan-Shcrah). She was, it seems, a Very great woman: who restored both these cities of Beth-horon, which were destroyed by the Israelites, when they conquered the land of Canaan, and rebuilt them in the same place, adding another city, which carried her own namo in it.

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AndRephahwashisson. i.e. The son of Beriah. Also Resheph, and Telah his son, and Tahan, his son.] Beriah also had another son, whose name was Resheph, whose son was Telah, &c.

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Laadan his son, Ammihtid his son, Elishama his son. Who was the chief commander in the tribe of Ephraim when they were in the wilderness, (Numb. i. 10.)

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Non his s6n, Jehoshua his son. For whose sake his pedigree seems to be thus largely deduced.

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And their possessio?is and habitations were Beth-el and the towns thereof. See Josh. xvi. 1, &c. And eastward Naaran, and tceshvard Gezer with tlie totms thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof] Or rather Ad-azea, a place so called; for their border did notextend so far as’ Gaza in the land of the Philistines. Vcr. 29. And by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth-shean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns. In these dwelt the children of Joseph, the son of Israel] That is, the children of Manasseh. (See Josh. xvi. 11.)'

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The soils of Asher; Imnah, and Imah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Serah their sister. See the same account of them in Gen. xlvi. 17. “Ver. 31. And the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzavith.] The two first of these were born before they went into Egypt, as appears from Gen. xlvi. 18.

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And Heber begat Japhlet, and Shomer, and Hotham, and Shuah their sister.

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And the sons of Japhlet; Pasach, and Bimhal, and Ashvath: these are the children of Japhlet.

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And the sons’of Shamer; AM, and Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram. The father of these was the second brother of Japhlet, called Shomer, ver. 32.

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And the sons of his brother. That is, of Hotham, who was next brother to Shamer. Helem; Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and AmaL

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The sons of Zophah; Suah, and Harnepher, and Shual, and Beri, and Imrah.

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Bezer, and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera. -

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And the sons of Jether; Jephunneh, and Pispah, andAra. This Jether is the same that is called in the verse foregoing Ithran; the youngest son but one of Zophah: the rest had no sons, or their genealogy was lost.

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And the sons of Vila;‘Arah, and Hanniel. and Rezia.] We do not read whose son Ulla was; but it is probable of Jether; whereof there are many examples in the foregoing chapters.

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All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father’s house, choice and mighty men of valour, chief of the pri?ices. Of these only he gives an account, and takes no notice of inferior families: though they are included, I suppose, in the following number. And the number throughout the genealogy of them that were apt to the war and to battle was twenty and six thousand men.] Though they, lived in a rich and delicious country, abounding with wine and oil, and other good things, in the best part of Galilee; yet they did not give themselves up to sloth and laziness, but were a warlike and valiant people.