Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 5-6.

Reading this list it seems to me that it exists, at least in part, in order to provide a baseline to which those who returned from Exile to connect the genealogical records which they had to those Israelites who lived in the land before the Exile.  It starts off by pointing out that Reuben forfeited his rights as firstborn and that those rights were passed on to Joseph.  In making that point it also says that this change impacted both of their descendants.  The other thing which struck me is that it makes a point of identifying from among the towns given to the Levites which ones were cities of Refuge, where someone guilty of accidentally killing another man could go to avoid the revenge of the dead man’s family.  The command to create Cities of Refuge is one of those which it is unclear from reading elsewhere if it was followed.  The fact that those who compiled the books of Chronicles knew which cities were Cities of Refuge indicates that it most certainly was followed.  It is also one of those things which acts as a counterpoint to those who claim that the Israelites were not a people distinct from the Canaanites.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.