Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 1:54
Duke Magdiel, duke Iram. These [are] the dukes of Edom.
1Ch 1:54
These are the dukes of Edom.
A high order of names
The great lesson teaches the transitoriness of all human dignity and glory. Where are the dukes of Edom now? Who knows the names of Timnah, Allah, Jetheth? How far are our own names known? What will be thought of them in the next century? Men are not to be estimated by their renown, but by them in the next goodness and their local influence. In the Christian Church we have come to a higher order of names than was ever known in secular history. Men may now be called sons of God, saints, slaves of Jesus Christ, inheritors of the world of light: let us aspire after these higher titles, for they never perish. The titles which men give soon expire: the titles which God confers are vital with His own Eternity. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
[See comments on 1Ch 1:43].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(54) These are the dukes (chiliarchs) of Edom.Eleven names only are given, whereas there were twelve (or thirteen) chiliarchs of Edom (Gen. 36:15-19; see Note on 1Ch. 1:35-37). A name may have fallen out of the ancient text from which the chronicler derived the list.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
READER! pause over this chapter, and mark the several important instructions it contains. What a subject of wonder, of humiliation, and of praise, is here! What wonder is opened to our contemplation in the astonishing succession of so many generations! What multitudes have sprung from one stock! And what an immense and incalculable congregation will it be, that shall; at length, be brought to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, when not one, from Adam to the consummation of all things, shall be found wanting. What humiliation also, is in the subject of the genealogy of mankind, when we call to mind, that the whole race is alike polluted and fallen: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none that doeth good, no not one. And what a subject of praise doth this furnish, in beholding the long-suffering and patience of the Lord, in preserving the race of men from father to son, notwithstanding the universal depravity of all!
But, chiefly and above all, while we admire and adore the divine goodness and mercy in his condescension to the sons of men, think, Reader, of the everlasting love of God to our nature, in the provision made for the recovery of man from the fall, by the gracious interposition, benignity, and love of the Lord Jesus Christ! Oh! how highly ought we to prize the genealogy of Him, after the flesh, who came in the fulness of time, to repair the desolations of many generations, and to restore perfect order among all the works of God. Hail, thou holy, blessed, precious Jesus! Thou wast indeed free from the taint of the fallen race thou camest to redeem. Thou wast holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. And how precious the thought, that thy righteousness, and thy blood, are the effectual source and cause of all our mercy. Blessed be our Jesus, that amidst all the dying circumstances of all generations, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Though all things perish, yet thou remainest: and though we all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture are we changed, yet thou art the same, and thy years do not fail. Give us, precious Jesus, to rejoice in the everlasting duration of thyself and thy kingdom, and to look beyond the grave with this assured hope, that because thou livest, thy people shall live also. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“Handfuls of Purpose,”
For All Gleaners
“These are the dukes of Edom.” 1Ch 1:54 .
Of how small consequence is this announcement to the men of to-day! Importance, however, is not to be denied simply because it is limited. Every man must look upon his importance from his own point of view, a father may be important in a family, and yet may be nobody in the state; a man may be of some importance in one state, and hardly known in the next province. Then there is an importance which is limited by time. Men walked according to the light they had. We are not to blame the dukes of Edom because they were not as intelligent as the children of this day. If they walked according to the degree of light which was given to them, they faithfully fulfilled their responsibilities. The great lesson teaches the transitori-ness of all human dignity and glory. Where are the dukes of Edom now? Who knows the names of Timnah, Aliah, Jetheth? Yet we must not mock these names because we do not know them. How far are our own names known? What will be thought of them in the next century? Men are not to be estimated by their renown, but by their personal goodness and their local usefulness. Not every man can handle a state, yet the man who can help us to carry our daily burden may be quite as useful to us as if he had been entrusted with genius of the highest order. All our words should tend to the encouragement of simplicity, modesty, local utility, and should show the hollowness of mere fame, or splendour, or titular elevation. In the Christian Church we have come to a higher order of names than was ever known in secular history. Men may now be called the sons of God, saints, slaves of Jesus Christ, inheritors of the world of light: let us aspire after these higher titles, for they never perish; we are not born to their enjoyment; verily, these are not hereditary dignities, but we are introduced to them by the right of the new birth, by the creation of a spiritual aristocracy. The titles which men give soon expire: the titles which God confers are vital with his own eternity. It would be a poor thing to have been a duke of Edom as compared with being a child of pious parentage, if in the one case the dignity has been but a name, and in the other has been a discipline and a stimulus. Aim after the highest designation.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
These are: Gen 36:41-43
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 1:54. These are the dukes of Edom Let us, in reading these genealogies, think of the multitudes that have gone through the world, have successively acted their parts in it, and retired into darkness. All these and all theirs had their day: many of them made a mighty noise in the world, until their day came to fall, and their place knew them no more. The paths of death are trodden paths. How soon are we to tread them!