Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 5:23
And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baalath-hermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon.
23, 24. The Half Tribe of Manasseh
23. Baal-hermon ] In Jdg 3:3 a mount Baal-hermon is mentioned. Here probably a city is meant, possibly Banias.
Senir ] the name given by the Amorites to Hermon (Deu 3:9, R.V.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Baal-Hermon, Senir Deu 3:9, and Mount Hermon, are here not so much three names of the one great snow-clad eminence in which the Anti-Lebanon terminates toward the south, as three parts of the mountain – perhaps the three summits in which it terminates.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Having discoursed of the Reubenites, 1Ch 5:3, &c., and next of the Gadites, 1Ch 5:11, &c., he now comes to the Manassites.
In the land, i.e. in their land, to wit, in the northern part of the land beyond Jordan.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land,…. Not in the land of the Hagarites, but in the land of Gilead and Bashan beyond Jordan, given them by Moses. The writer, having reckoned the genealogies of some of the principal men of Reuben and Gad, proceeds to give a short account of some principal men in this half tribe:
they increased from Bashan; where they first settled, and extended their possessions:
unto Baalhermon and Senir, and unto Mount Hermon; mountains which lay to the north of the land of Canaan, and are what geographers call Antilibanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The families of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, and the leading away of the East-Jordan Israelites into the Assyrian exile. – 1Ch 5:23. The half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan was very numerous ( ), “and they dwelt in the land of Bashan (i.e., the Bashan inhabited by Gad, 1Ch 5:12) (northwards) to Baal Hermon,” – i.e., according to the more accurate designation of the place in Jos 12:7 and Jos 13:5, in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon, probably the present Bnjas, at the foot of Hermon (see on Num 34:8), – “and Senir and Mount Hermon.” , which according to Deu 3:9 was the name of Hermon or Antilibanus in use among the Amorites, is here and in Eze 27:5 the name of a part of those mountains ( vide on Deu 3:9), just as “mount Hermon” is the name of another part of this range.
1Ch 5:24 Seven heads of fathers’-houses of the half-tribe of Manasseh are enumerated, and characterized as valiant heroes and famous men. The enumeration of the names begins strangely with ( ); perhaps a name has fallen out before it. Nothing has been handed down as to any of these names.
1Ch 5:25-26 1Ch 5:25 and 1Ch 5:26 form the conclusion of the register of the two and a half trans-Jordanic tribes. The sons of Manasseh are not the subject to , but the Reubenites and Manassites, as is clear from 1Ch 5:26. These fell away faithlessly from the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God had destroyed before them, i.e., the Amorites or Canaanites. “And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of the Assyrian kings Pul and Tiglath-pilneser, and he (this latter) led them away captives to Halah and Habor,” etc. , Lavater has rightly rendered, “ in mentem illis dedit, movit eos, ut expeditionem facerent contra illos; ” cf. 2Ch 21:16. Pul is mentioned as being the first Assyrian king who attacked the land of Israel, cf. 2Ki 15:19. The deportation began, however, only with Tiglath-pileser, who led the East-Jordan tribes into exile, 2Ki 15:29. To him sing. refers. The suffix is defined by the following acc., ; is, according to the later usage, nota acc.; cf. Ew. 277, e. So also before the name , “to Halah,” i.e., probably the district (in Strabo) on the east side of the Tigris near Adiabene, to the north of Nineveh, on the frontier of Armenia (cf. on 2Ki 17:6). In the second book of Kings (1Ch 15:29) the district to which the two and a half tribes were sent as exiles is not accurately determined, being only called in general Asshur (Assyria). The names in our verse are there (2Ki 17:6) the names of the districts to which Shalmaneser sent the remainder of the ten tribes after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. It is therefore questionable whether the author of the Chronicle took his account from an authority used by him, or if he names these districts only according to general recollection, in which the times of Shalmaneser and of Tiglath-pileser are not very accurately distinguished (Berth.). We consider the first supposition the more probable, not merely because he inverts the order of the names, but mainly because he gives the name instead of “the cities of Media,” as it is in Kings, and that name he could only have obtained from his authorities. is not the river Chaboras in Mesopotamia, which falls into the Euphrates near Circesium, for that river is called in Ezekiel , but is a district in northern Assyria, where Jakut mentions that there is both a mountain on the frontier of Assyria and Media (Ptolem. vi. 1), and a river Khabur Chasaniae, which still bears the old name Khbur, rising in the neighbourhood of the upper Zab, near Amadijeh, and falling into the Tigris below Jezirah. This Khbur is the river of Gozan ( vide on 2Ki 17:6). The word appears to be the Aramaic form of the Hebrew , mountains, and the vernacular designation usual in the mouths of the people of the mountain land of Media, which is called also in Arabic el Jebl (the mountains). This name can therefore only have been handed down from the exiles who dwelt there.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Eastern Half-Manasseh, Verses 23-26
The inspired record devotes only two verses to the genealogy of the three Manassite families who settled east of Jordan The broad expanse of the area they possessed is stressed. Their allotment territorially was by far the largest of them all, though some parts were poor and disputed with other peoples. It reached from Bashan across the Golan heights northward, following the valley of the upper Jordan to the foothills around Baal-hermon, and beyond to the Lebanese peaks of Hermon and Senir. Only a few of their men are listed as outstanding.
Verses 25-26 pertain not to east-Manasseh only, but to the other two tribes east of Jordan, Reuben and Gad, as well. Their early apostasy in adopting idolatry is recounted. “Going a whoring after the gods of the people of the land” means that they turned to worshipping the false gods of the very people they had vanquished by the help of their own God. This transgression of the Lord caused Him to unleash on them the power of the Assyrian kings, Pul and Tilgath-pilaeser. These cruel kings were bent on annexing all outlying kingdoms to their empire. Their custom was to deport the inhabitants of a conquered land and to repopulate it with people brought in from other conquered lands. This is what happened to the people of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh. They were removed far away to Babylonian and Assyrian cities and lands.
Some lessons: 1) Instability will eventually result in great loss for the unstable one; 2) complacency and apostasy in the Lord’s service will always eventuate in chastisement; 3) on the other hand trust and reliance on the Lord will result in victory; 4) people are fickle and constantly display it by turning away from the Lord by whose providence they enjoy life.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(23) Baal-hermon.Perhaps the same as Baal-gad (Jos. 12:7; Jos. 13:5), the modern town of Banias.
Senir.The Amorite name of the range of Hermon (Deu. 3:9). The principal summit is now called Jebel esh-Sheikh, hill of the chief, and Jebel eth-Thelj, Snow Hill.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(23, 24) The sons of half-Manasseh in the land east of Jordan. The translation should be: And the children . . . dwelt in the land, from Bashan unto Baal-hermon and Senir and mount Hermon. These were many. Their territory extended from Bashan, the domain of Gad, in the south, to the mountains of Hermon, or Antilibanus, in the north.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
half: i.e. the half beyond Jordan.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ch 5:23-24
1Ch 5:23-24
“And the children of the half-tribe of Manesseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baal-hermon and Senir and mount Hermon. And these were the heads of their fathers’ houses: even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers’ houses.”
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 5:23-24. The two and one half tribes are usually mentioned as one unit. But in the matter of settling the inheritance, the half tribe maintained its tribal distinction and occupied the land in its proper place.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Baalhermon: Jos 13:29-31
Hermon: Jos 13:11, Psa 133:3, Son 4:8
Reciprocal: Gen 46:20 – Manasseh Deu 3:9 – Shenir Deu 3:13 – the rest
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 5:23. The half-tribe of Manasseh Having spoken of the Reubenites, (1Ch 5:3-10,) and next of the Gadites, (1Ch 5:11, &c.,) he now comes to the Manassites. Dwelt in the land In the same country with the Reubenites and Gadites, on the other side of Jordan, namely, in the northern part of that land.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:23 And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto {k} Baalhermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon.
(k) Otherwise called Baal-gad.