Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 7-9.

The genealogies continue today and once again I noticed a couple of things only because I had to find something to write about this passage.

Note: I am not saying that these things are only worth noticing because I need something to write, only that I would not have noticed them if I did not need something to write.

First, the passage mentions that two of Ephraim’s sons were killed when they raided livestock from Gath.  One might easily pass that by, after all Gath is more or less part of the Land of Canaan and most of Jacob’s sons and grandsons grew up near there.  However, Ephraim was born in Egypt and never lived in Canaan.  This is not an important thing, but it tells us that the Israelites raided into Canaan after Jacob’s family moved to Egypt.  Second, I noticed that the writer tells us that complete genealogies were kept in the records of the kings of Israel and Judah.   Or, at least, that is how I read chapter 9 verse 1.  At some point I may look into whether Hebrew scholars agree with my understanding of what is written here.  The other thing I noticed was that after listing genealogies for all of the tribes, the writer writes about those who first resettled in the land after the Exile.  This tells us that the Books of Chronicles were compiled after the Israelites returned from Exile.  I know some people who conclude from this that ALL of the Old Testament was compiled after the Exile.  However, that does not follow and we have portions of the Torah from before the Exile.  The fragile nature of paper and parchment makes it somewhat surprising we have even that.

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