1 Chronicles 7:3

And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah: and the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five: all of them chief men.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

-31Chronicles 8:1—

All the lists make Bela the first of Benjamin’s sons. In other respects they differ greatly. 1Chronicles 7:6 assigns him two brothers—Éecher and Jediael. Of these, Becher occurs in Genesis 46, Jediael here only.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. We can assign no reason why they only should be omitted; but it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan, that idolatry began in that colony which fixed in Laish, and called it Dan, Jud 18 and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam. Dan is omitted, Re 7. Men become abominable when they forsake the worship of the true God, for any creature object.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whose number was in the days of David ... - The writer would seem by this passage to have had access to the statistics of the tribes collected by David, when he sinfully "numbered the people" (marginal reference). The numbers given in 1 Chronicles 7:4-5 probably came from the same source.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. five: all of them chief men—Four only are mentioned; so that as they are stated to be five, in this number the father, Izrahiah, must be considered as included; otherwise one of the names must have dropped out of the text. They were each at the head of a numerous and influential division of their tribe.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The sons, for the son; for he names but one son.

Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five, including their father

Izrahiah.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah,.... Including his posterity:

and the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five; together with their father, all reckoned the sons of Uzzi:

all of them chief men; in their father's house, heads of families.

Geneva Study Bible

And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah: and the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, {c} five: all of them chief men.

(c) Meaning, the four sons and the father.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. five] We can make up this number only by counting Izrahiah one and the sons of Izrahiah four. Reckoned thus the second Izrahiah would denote a fresh person.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Five. The name of Izrahiah's sons count up only four; but if, with four of Kennicott's manuscripts, the words, and the sons of Izrahiah, should be omitted, the five will count right for sons of Uzzi, and the little clause beginning this verse will correspond exactly with that beginning ver. 2. The Syriac, however, does not omit "and the sons of Izrahiah;" but alters the numeral "five" to "four." 1 Chronicles 7:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From Uzzi, the first-born of Tola, are descended through Izrahiah five men, all heads of groups of related households (1 Chronicles 7:4); "and to them (i.e., besides these) according to their generations, according to their fathers'-houses, bands of the war host, 36,000 (men), for they (these chiefs) had many wives and sons." From the fact that Izrahiah is introduced as grandson of Tola, Bertheau would infer that 1 Chronicles 7:3, 1 Chronicles 7:4 refer to times later than David. But this is an erroneous inference, for Tola's sons did not live in David's time at all, and consequently it is not necessary that his grandson should be assigned to a later time. The only assertion made is, that the descendants of Tola's sons had increased to the number mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:2 in the time of David. By that time the descendants of his grandson Izrahiah might have increased to the number given in 1 Chronicles 7:4. That the number, 36,000, of the descendants of the grandson Izrahiah was greater than the number of those descended from the sons of Tola (22,600), is explained in the clause, "for they had many wives and sons." That the two numbers (in 1 Chronicles 7:2, 1 Chronicles 7:4) refer to the same time, i.e., to the days of David, is manifest from 1 Chronicles 7:5, "and their brethren of all the families of Issachar, valiant heroes; 87,000 their register, as regards everything," i.e., the sum of those registered of all the families of Issachar. Whence we gather that in the 87,000 both the 22,600 (1 Chronicles 7:2) and the 36,000 (1 Chronicles 7:4) are included, and their brethren consequently must have amounted to 28,400 (22,600 + 36,000 + 28,400 equals 87,000). In the time of Moses, Issachar numbered, according to Numbers 1:29, 54,400; and at a later time, according to Numbers 26:25, already numbered 64,300 men.