1 Chronicles 8:1–40

8:6–7 The first note regarding Benjaminite land occupation is that of the “sons of Ehud.” Their movement may have been due to conflict, such as that recounted in Judges 20, or to something more localized. “Geba,” 6 miles (9.7 km) north-northeast of Jerusalem, is named as one of the Levitical cities in Benjamin (1 Chron. 6:60; it was also a location of a Philistine garrison, 1 Sam. 13:3), while “Manahath” is probably in Judah, 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Chron. 2:52, 54), although Edom is a possibility (1:40).

The name “Ehud” (ʼekhud) is similar to that of the early judge, “Ehud [ʼehud], the son of Gera, the Benjaminite” (Judg. 3:15).² Commentators often propose that “Gera, Abihud” in the preceding list of Bela’s sons (1 Chron. 8:3) is to be emended to “Gera, the father of Ehud” (ʼabi ʼehud), so making verses 1–7 continuous.

8:8–28 Various clans are associated as descendants of an otherwise unknown “Shaharaim” and his named wives. Their geographical spread is wide, divided in the text by reference to “heads of fathers’ houses” (vv. 10, 13, 28). The spread was from “Moab,” east of the Dead Sea (v. 8), to “Ono and Lod” on the coastal plain near Joppa (v. 12; Ezra 2:33; Neh. 11:35). “Aijalon” (1 Chron. 8:13) is a strategic town about 12 miles (19 km) north-northwest of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Sam. 14:31), listed in 1 Chronicles 6:69 as a Levitical town in Ephraim (originally assigned to Dan before that tribe moved north; Josh. 21:23–24).

More numerous is the list of more than forty names of those who “lived in Jerusalem” (1 Chron. 8:28). Here is a striking reminder to hearers that Jerusalem had a substantial Benjaminite population alongside descendants of David (3:4, 5) and the priests and Levites serving at the temple (6:10, 32).

8:29–40 Although given no description, “Saul” (v. 33) is the focus of this block, with possibly four generations of ancestors and twelve of descendants listed. With minor differences, verses 29–38 are repeated in 9:35–44. Whereas the listing of David’s descendants in the monarchic period is a linear succession of kings (3:10–16), here several brothers are named four times (8:35, 36b, 38, 39). The focus is not on a possible claim as Saul’s successor but rather on a full listing of clans that continued to be an integral part of the life of Israel, possibly to the time of the late monarchy. Clear is the continuity from Jonathan’s son “Merib-baal” (v. 34).

Ancestry is traced back not to Benjamin but to a group that came from “Gibeon,” 6 miles (9.7 km) northwest of Jerusalem.³ The Hebrew word order, with “lived in Jerusalem” (end of v. 28) immediately followed by “and in Gibeon lived” (the first words of v. 29), draws attention to these two locations and how they relate. Gibeon was an older Canaanite town (Joshua 9) and, unmentioned in Chronicles, the location of the battle after Saul’s death between forces under Abner, Saul’s army commander, and those under Joab, David’s commander (2 Sam. 2:12–32). The Chronicler chooses to mention what unites. He has already included Gibeon as a Levitical town (1 Chron. 6:60) and later will tell how Gibeon was the site of the tabernacle and altar of burnt offering until Solomon’s reign (16:39; 2 Chron. 1:3–6). Here he soon notes the wide group of “kinsmen” who subsequently “lived . . . in Jerusalem” (1 Chron. 8:32), just as the worship division between the two centers (16:37–42) became one in Jerusalem (6:32; 2 Chron. 5:5).

While “Kish” is clearly always Saul’s father, elsewhere Kish and “Ner” are not son and father but brothers (1 Chron. 9:36;⁴ 1 Sam. 14:50–51; cf. 1 Sam. 9:1). It is possible that, as is common in genealogies, social rather than exact biological relationships are recorded.

The names “Eshbaal” (“man of [the] Baal”; 1 Chron. 8:33) and “Merib-baal” (“[the] Baal contends”; v. 34) in the books of Samuel are given as “Ish-bosheth” (2 Sam. 2:8, etc.; cf. “Ishvi,” “man of Yahweh,” in 1 Sam. 14:49) and “Mephibosheth” (2 Sam. 4:4, etc.), substituting Hebrew boshet (“shame”), so rejecting syncretistic connotations of Israelite names containing “Baal.”⁵ It appears that with Canaanite religion no longer a living issue after the exile (the only mention of the god Baal in Chronicles is 2 Chron. 23:17), the Chronicler prefers to record the names exactly as they appear in the official records to hand.