5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.

Verses 11-17. - The tribe of Gad is taken next, and occupies but few lines. Gad was born seventh in order of all the sons of Jacob (Genesis 30:9-12), and first of the children of Leah's maid Zilpah. The compiler seems to pass easily on to Gad, from the mere circumstance of the name of the tribe being so constantly linked with that preceding, in the matter of local settlement on the east of Jordan, after the journeyings of the wilderness (Joshua 13:7, 8). The geography in vers. 11 and 16 offers very little difficulty. Compared with the time of the first settling of the Gadites (Deuteronomy 3:10-13; Joshua 13:25, 30), it is evident that they had pushed their borders further to the north, trenching somewhat upon the lot of the half-tribe Manasseh, as they also in turn extended their limits northward to Hermon (ver. 23). This reconciles Joshua 13:30 with the present passage. Salcah, or (Authorized Version) Salchah (Deuteronomy 3:10; Joshua 13:11), is probably to be identified as the modern Sulkhad, at the extreme eastern point of the plain Hauran, which is bordered by the desert. "In Gilead in Bashan" may be read, with some, as two coordinate places, separating them by a stop; or may point to a time when Bashan included the upper half of Gilead. Sharon, which Keil, quoting Reland, 'Pal. Ill.,' 370, would make the well-known Sharon of Carmel and the Mediterranean, is, though unmentioned elsewhere, probably distinguished sufficiently from it by the absence of the article, which is invariably prefixed to the other. Stanley's suggestion ('Sinai and Palestine,' edit. 1866, pp. 484, 485, 260) would seem exceedingly apt, that it is one in fact, as one in derivation and meaning, with the Mishor (i.e. "level ]ands," "table-land") of Gilead and Bashan. With this explanation, however, the term "suburbs" does not so well agree. Upon the other side, distant as the well-known Sharon is, a link of connection might be found with it, in that the other Manasseh half-tribe stretched into its plains; and in that case the last word of the verse, תּועְאותָם, might mean (Joshua 17:9) "the outgoings" of the land or regions in question to the "sea"-coast.

And the children of Gad dwelt over against them,.... Or by them, the Reubenites; and one part of Gilead was given them between them, and the other to the half tribe of Manasseh:

in the land of Bashan, unto Salcah; for though all Bashan is said to be given to the half tribe of Manasseh, Deuteronomy 3:13 yet that is to be understood of the greater part of it; all of that which belonged to Og, but what did not, the Gadites, either from the first, or in later times, inhabited even as far as Salcah, which was one of the cities of Og, Deuteronomy 3:10 and which Benjamin of Tudela (w) makes mention of, being called by the same name in his days.

(w) Itinerar. p. 57.

1Ch 5:11-26. The Line of Gad.

11-15. the children of Gad dwelt over against them—The genealogy of the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh (1Ch 5:24) is given along with that of the Reubenites, as these three were associated in a separate colony.

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