We have in chapter seven of the book of First Chronicles the genealogies of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher, most notably omitting Dan. Hear now the word of almighty God inspired by his spirit and profitable for us, First Chronicles chapter seven. starting at verse one. Now the sons of Issachar were Tola and Pua, Jashub and Shimron four, and the sons of Tola Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jemai, and Jibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their father's house, to wit of Tola, they were valiant men of might in their generations. whose number was in the days of David, two and 20,600, and the sons of Uzziah, Israhiah, and the sons of Israhiah, Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah five, all of them chief men. And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and 30,000 men, for they had many wives and sons. And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies, fourscore and 7,000. The sons of Benjamin, Bela, and Becher, and Jadaiel, three, and the sons of Bela, Esbon, and Uzi, and Uziel, and Jeremoth, and Eri, five, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valor, and were reckoned by their genealogies 20 and 2,000 and 30 and four. and the sons of Beqer, Zamira, and Joash, and Eliezer, and Elioanai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth. All these are the sons of Beqer. And the number of them, after their genealogy by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valor, was 20,200. The sons also of Jeddiel, Bilhan, and the sons of Bilhan, Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Kanaanah, and Zethan, and Tharshish, and Ahi-Shahar. All these, the sons of Jeddiel, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valor, were 17,200 soldiers fit to go out for war and battle. Shupim also and Hupim, the children of Ir, and Hushim, the son of Aher, the sons of Naphtali, Jaziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shalom, sons of Bilhah, the sons of Manasseh, Asriel, whom she bear, but his concubine, the Eremitis, bear Makir, the father of Gilead, And Makir took to wife the sister of Hupim and Shupim, whose sister's name was Ma'akah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad. And Zelophehad had daughters. And Ma'akah, the wife of Makir, bear a son. And she called his name Peresh. And the name of his brother was Sheresh. And his sons were Ulam and Rakem. and the sons of Ulam-Bidan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, and his sister, Hamel-Leketh-Ber-Ishod, and Abi-Ezer, and Mahala. And the sons of Shemida were Ahion, and Shechem, and Likhi, and Anayim. And the sons of Ephraim, Shuthila and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son, and Zebad his son, and Shuthila his son, and Ezer and Eliad, whom the men of Gath that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him. And when he went in to his wife, she conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house. And his daughter was Sherah, who built Bethhoron, the nether, and the upper, and Uzen-Sherah, And Rapha was his son, also Reshef and Tela his son, and Tehan his son, Laodan his son, Amihud his son, Elishama his son, Nan his son, Jehoshua his son. And their possessions and habitations were Bethel and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof. Shechem also in the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof. And by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth-Shean and her towns, Ta-Anak and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns. In these dwelt the children of Joseph, the son of Israel. The sons of Asher, Imnah, and Esuah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Sarah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah, Heber, and Malkiel, who is the father of Ber-Zavith. And Heber begat Jophlet, and Shomer, and Hotham, and Shuah, their sister. And the sons of Jophlet, Passach, and Bimhal, and Ashvath. These are the children of Jophlet. And the sons of Shemar, Ahi and Rogah, Jehubah and Aram. And the sons of his brother Helem, Zophah and Imnah, and Shelesh and Amal. The sons of Zophah, Suah, and Harnefer, and Shual, and Berai, and Imrah, Bezer, and Hod, and Shama, and Shilsha, and Ithran, and Beara, and the sons of Jether, Jephunneh, and Pisbah, and Ara, and the sons of Ulah, Ara, and Haniel, and Reziah, All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father's house, choice and mighty men of valor, chief of the princes. And the number throughout the genealogy of them that were apt to the war and to battle was 20 and 6,000 men. Thus far the reading of God's inspired inerrant and infallible word. First Chronicles chapter seven, may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. And now to the exposition of it. Verses 1 through 5, we have the genealogy of Issachar. A few things, the number in the days of David mentioned in verse 2, likely when David did his ill-conceived census, probably from 2 Samuel 24, 1 and following. Also note they had many wives and children in Issachar, verse 4, and many valiant men of might in verse 5. We have the genealogy of Benjamin, verses 6 through 12. Three sons are mentioned in verse six, five are listed in First Chronicles eight verse one, these are likely the three principal sons, five total. Also, Jadiel in verse six is very likely the same with Ashbel from Genesis 46, 21 and Numbers 26, verses 38 and 39. Verse 12, you'll notice it says, shupim. Now when you see in Hebrew, those two letters im at the end, it is the plural of a thing. So when you see Baal, that's the male God, the Lord or husband. But if you see Baalim or Baalim, that's the plural, many Baals or many masters or husbands. So when you see that, Shupim and Hupim, some believe that these are not personal names for a person. These are names of a group of people, the Shupim and the Hupim. They're called the children of Ere. And this name is not used elsewhere in any genealogies. The word ear in Hebrew means a city. So the Hupim and the Shupim were children of the city, perhaps as some conjecture. Not any particular sons, but men born and bred in the city, being one part of Benjamin. And some believe the other part of Dan, the Hupim. In fact, in verse 12 it mentions Hushim, the son of Aher. Now, this word Aher in Hebrew means another or a different thing. In fact, sometimes it means something is so different that it is foreign. It is a different sort or another sort of people. Now, in this genealogy, I mentioned earlier that Dan is nowhere to be found. And why do you suppose that is? Well, Dan is also excluded, if you recall from the Book of Revelation, when the tribes are numbered up. It says nothing about the tribe of Dan when it numbers up the 144,000. He is omitted. Why is that? Some believe this explains part of it. Ahir being that other one, the Hushim are the sons of Ahir. They descend from that other tribe, that foreign tribe, that tribe who alienated itself from its inheritance. Do you remember this? Dan had an inheritance and what did they do with it? Well, in the book of Judges, we find out. They left their inheritance. They went north and committed idolatry with the household gods of Micah, if you'll recall. They took a priest. They took Teraphim. They went north. They worshiped idols. They alienated themselves from their possession. They are that other family, in other words, that foreign family. Furthermore, When we read of the sons of Dan in Genesis 46 verse 23, we find the name Hushim. In other words, these Hushim, the sons of Ahar, are very likely the same as the son of Dan named Hushim. The tribe of Dan, that foreign, that alien, that idolatrous tribe, marked with infamy. Verses 13 through 19, we have the genealogy of Naphtali and Manasseh. You'll recall the daughters of Zelophehad, verse 15. He had daughters, meaning without any sons. We read of their case in Numbers 27, verses one and following. Verses 20 through 29, we have the genealogy of Ephraim. Verse 21 is of note. You'll recall that in the Septuagint, this book of Chronicles is called the things leapt over, the things that were left behind, the fragments that were left. And 1st and 2nd Chronicles gather up the fragments so that they would not be lost. Here in verse 21, we find something we've never read of before this book, and that is that there were men of Gath born in the land who came down and slew some of the men of Ephraim because they came down to take away their cattle. This appears to have been when they still dwelt in Egypt, because remember, the inhabitants of Gath came down upon them. When they left Egypt, they went up out of Egypt. That means that these are coming down into Egypt from the Philistines land to invade, to steal, to plunder, and in this case, to kill. The sons of Ephraim defended their cattle and were slain by the men of Gath, the native born Philistines. It says that during this time, Ephraim, their father mourned for many days, verse 22, either being the actual patriarch Ephraim or possibly his sons named after him, the sons of Ephraim being called Ephraim, and they mourning for those who were lost. He mourned many days. Verse 23 tells us that after the begetting of a child, he is called Beriah because it went evil with his house. And the word Beriah means in evil or within the sphere of evil or during these evil times he was conceived and born. Verse 24 refers us to Sherah, who is said to have built Bethhorah on the nether and the upper. Now the word to build in Hebrew, this is very important. The word to build and the word house and the word son are all from a common root. Ben is the word for a son. Bene here means to build. She built a house. And a house is a beth, which comes from the same root word. So a house and a son and building, they all refer to the same thing because a man builds his house how? by raising up sons, by begetting sons. So when it says that Sherah built Bethhor on the nether and the upper, it is possible that she built it with her own hands. It's also possible that she designed it or that she adorned it, or it's possible that she begat the sons through whom those places were populated. In any case, she was a wonderful example of one who built the cities of God. Now in verse 26, we read of Elishama, who was a leader in Ephraim when Israel came out of Egypt. You may read of him in Numbers 1, verse 10, Numbers 2, verse 18, and other places. Also in verse 27, we have Non, also known as Nun, and Jehoshua his son, also called what? Joshua, the son of Nun. Verses 30 through 40, we have the genealogy of Asher. He is the eighth son of Israel, the final by Zilpah, Leah's maid. We have in verse 40, they were apt to the war and to battle. Now, aptitude means someone has a capacity or has been trained up The Westminster Annotations say concerning this aptitude, they had been trained up unto and well exercised in military exploits and fitted for the war. And thus far the exposition of the seventh chapter of First Chronicles. May the Lord bless us in the things we have heard.