The Fallible Study Bible

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1 Chronicles8:1–6

Genealogy from Benjamin to Saul

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1 Chronicles 8:1–6 — Genealogy from Benjamin to Saul. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Benjamin was the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, Aharah the third,

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ū·ḇin·yā·min hō·w·lîḏ ’eṯ- be·la‘ bə·ḵō·rōw ’aš·bêl haš·šê·nî wə·’aḥ·raḥ haš·šə·lî·šî

Word by word9 · parsed
וּבִ֨נְיָמִ֔ןū·ḇin·yā·minBenjaminH1144
√ Binyâmîyn — Binjamin, youngest son of JacobConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Binyâmîyn: son of the right hand, youngest son of Jacob The tribe is picked up a second time here after 1 Chronicles 7:6, and the commentators agree on why. Benson and Gill both tie the repetition to Saul, whose house closes the chapter, and to the fact that Benjamin stayed with Judah, went into Babylon with Judah, and came back in greater numbers than any tribe but Judah. The genealogy is therefore not idle: it is the bridge from the name lists into the history that begins with Israel's first king.
הוֹלִ֖ידhō·w·lîḏwas the father ofH3205
√ yâlad — to bear youngVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular
yâlad: to bear, bring forth (Hiphil, to beget) The Hiphil perfect governs the whole verse and, with it, the whole chapter. K&D argues that in registers of this kind the verb covers mediate as well as immediate descent, which is the single grammatical observation that keeps the Chronicler's list from simply contradicting Genesis 46 and Numbers 26. Read that way, "Benjamin begat" names the tribal houses that carry Benjamin's name, not only the bodies born in his own tent.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
’êth: direct object marker Untranslatable particle; it marks Bela as definite and specific, the one son the three parallel lists never disagree about.
בֶּ֣לַעbe·la‘BelaH1106
√ Belaʻ — Bela, the name of a place, also of an Edomite and of two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Belaʻ: Bela, a proper name The fixed point of every Benjamite list. Bela heads the sons of Benjamin at Genesis 46:21, Numbers 26:38 and here, and the next three verses of this unit make him the trunk from which nine further names branch.
בְּכֹר֑וֹbə·ḵō·rōwhis firstbornH1060
√ bᵉkôwr — firstbornNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
bᵉkôwr: firstborn Firstborn status in Israel carried a double portion and the headship of the father's house, so its appearance in a clan register is functional rather than sentimental: it says which house has precedence. Ellicott raises the possibility that the corresponding word in Genesis 46:21 was misread as a name, which would mean that a single consonantal ambiguity about who is firstborn generated much of the divergence between the lists.
אַשְׁבֵּל֙’aš·bêlAshbelH788
√ ʼAshbêl — Ashbel, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
הַשֵּׁנִ֔יhaš·šê·nîthe secondH8145
√ shênîy — properly, double, iArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
shênîy: second Ordinal, articular; Ellicott and Gill both identify this Ashbel with the Jediael of 1 Chronicles 7:6.
וְאַחְרַ֖חwə·’aḥ·raḥAharahH315
√ ʼAchrach — Achrach, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
הַשְּׁלִישִֽׁי׃haš·šə·lî·šîthe thirdH7992
√ shᵉlîyshîy — thirdArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
shᵉlîyshîy: third Ordinal; the third slot where Genesis 46:21 has other names entirely.
2

Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth.

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

nō·w·ḥāh hā·rə·ḇî·‘î wə·rā·p̄ā ha·ḥă·mî·šî

Word by word4 · parsed
נוֹחָה֙nō·w·ḥāhNohahH5119
√ Nôwchâh — Nochah, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular
הָֽרְבִיעִ֔יhā·rə·ḇî·‘îthe fourthH7243
√ rᵉbîyʻîy — fourthArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
rᵉbîyʻîy: fourth Ordinal continuing the roll from v. 1.
וְרָפָ֖אwə·rā·p̄āand RaphaH7498
√ Râphâʼ — Rapha or Raphah, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Râphâʼ: Rapha, a proper name A genuinely rare lexeme, occurring in only two verses, the other being 1 Chronicles 8:37 within this same chapter's Saul genealogy. Whether the two are connected the text does not say, and no commentator in this brief asserts it; but the rarity is a fact of the lexicon and is the strongest internal reason to read chapter 8 as a single composed unit running from Benjamin to Saul.
הַחֲמִישִֽׁי׃סha·ḥă·mî·šîthe fifthH2549
√ chămîyshîy — fifthArticleNumberordinal masculine singular
chămîyshîy: fifth The terminal ordinal. Its whole weight is arithmetical: five sons here, five Benjamite family heads at Numbers 26:38 and 26:39, which is the hinge of K&D's harmonization.
3

The sons of Bela: Addar, Gera, Abihud,

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yih·yū ḇā·nîm lə·ḇā·la‘ ’ad·dār wə·ḡê·rā wa·’ă·ḇî·hūḏ

Word by word6 · parsed
וַיִּהְי֥וּway·yih·yūH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
hâyâh: to exist, to come to be (Qal, waw consecutive) The verb the English has no room for. Its force is that offspring came into being for Bela, which is the register's way of saying the house continued. In a chapter whose theme is a tribe nearly wiped out at Judges 20 and later carried off to Manahath, the plain statement that sons came to be is not filler.
בָנִ֖יםḇā·nîmThe sonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural
bên: a son, in the widest sense (builder of the family name) The lexicon's own gloss, "a builder of the family name," is the key to the whole chapter. K&D argues that if bānîm meant sons in the narrow sense the repetition of Gera in vv. 3 and 5 would be unintelligible, whereas if it means descendants who founded fathers' houses, two cousins may perfectly well bear one name. The word is elastic by design, and the Chronicler's list is a map of houses, not a birth certificate.
לְבָ֑לַעlə·ḇā·la‘of BelaH1106
√ Belaʻ — Bela, the name of a place, also of an Edomite and of two IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Belaʻ: Bela Now the head rather than a member of a list: the firstborn of v. 1 becomes the trunk of vv. 3 to 5.
אַדָּ֥ר’ad·dārAddarH146
√ ʼAddâr — Addar, a place in PalestineNounpropermasculine singular
ʼAddâr: Addar, a place in Palestine Strong's classes the lexeme as a place name, and its only other occurrence (Joshua 15:3) is a boundary marker of Judah. Here it is a person. That single word carries the chapter's recurring ambiguity in miniature: Benjamite genealogy and Benjamite geography are told with the same vocabulary, because a clan is where it settles.
וְגֵרָ֖אwə·ḡê·rāGeraH1617
√ Gêrâʼ — Gera, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
וַאֲבִיהֽוּד׃wa·’ă·ḇî·hūḏAbihudH31
√ ʼĂbîyhûwd — Abihud, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĂbîyhûwd: Abihud, my father is majesty Ellicott notes that Abihud and Abishua are peculiar to this list, and that some interpreters identify this Abihud with the Ehud of v. 6, comparing the pairs Nadab and Abinadab, Dan and Abidan. Pulpit, weighing the same suggestion, refuses to settle it.
4

Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah,

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wa·’ă·ḇî·šū·a‘ wə·na·‘ă·mān wa·’ă·ḥō·w·aḥ

Word by word3 · parsed
וַאֲבִישׁ֥וּעַwa·’ă·ḇî·šū·a‘AbishuaH50
√ ʼĂbîyshûwaʻ — Abishua, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĂbîyshûwaʻ: Abishua, my father is salvation A rare lexeme, in five verses only. Four of the five (1 Chronicles 6:4, 6:5, 6:50 and Ezra 7:5) place an Abishua in the high priestly succession from Aaron through Phinehas, the line Ezra himself claims. The Chronicler is not asserting any link, and neither do we; but the name means "my father is salvation," and its presence in a Benjamite list is a reminder that Israel's naming carried confession as well as descent.
וְנַעֲמָ֖ןwə·na·‘ă·mānNaamanH5283
√ Naʻămân — Naaman, the name of an Israelite and of a DamasceneConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Naʻămân: Naaman, pleasantness The one name in this verse whose clan is independently attested: Numbers 26:40 names the family of the Naamanites, as Gill points out. That is the Chronicler's method in miniature. He is listing not individuals for their own sake but the households through which the tribe survived into the post exilic present in which he writes.
וַאֲחֽוֹחַ׃wa·’ă·ḥō·w·aḥAhoahH265
√ ʼĂchôwach — Achoach, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĂchôwach: Ahoach Appears nowhere else. K&D links the consonants to the Ahiah of the following verse; Ellicott to the Ehi of Genesis 46:21. Neither is provable, and the brief supplies no evidence that would settle it.
5

Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ḡê·rā ū·šə·p̄ū·p̄ān wə·ḥū·rām

Word by word3 · parsed
וְגֵרָ֥אwə·ḡê·rāGeraH1617
√ Gêrâʼ — Gera, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Gêrâʼ: Gera, the name of six Israelites The most consequential name in the unit. Strong's itself counts six Israelites called Gera, and the lexeme runs through nine verses: it names Ehud's father at Judges 3:15, Shimei's father at 2 Samuel 16:5, 2 Samuel 19:16 and 18, and 1 Kings 2:8, and it reappears in the very next verse of this chapter as the man who carried the Geba families away. A single Benjamite house thus stands behind Israel's deliverer from Moab and behind the man who cursed David in flight.
וּשְׁפוּפָ֖ןū·šə·p̄ū·p̄ānShephuphanH8197
√ Shᵉphûwphâm — Shephupham or Shephuphan, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Shᵉphûwphâm: Shephupham, Shephuphan A rare lexeme in two verses only, the other being Numbers 26:39. The variation of a single final consonant between the two is the clearest surviving evidence that these lists were copied and recopied by hand, and that the Chronicler worked from sources already bearing scribal variation, which is precisely what Ellicott means by the vagueness of tribal terms.
וְחוּרָֽם׃wə·ḥū·rāmand HuramH2361
√ Chûwrâm — Churam, the name of an Israelite and two SyriansConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Chûwrâm: Churam, Huram Closes the nine descendants of Bela. Pulpit's four paired spellings and K&D's suggested transcriber's error both point the same way: the Chronicler preserved what he received rather than smoothing it, which is itself a datum about how these registers were handled.
6

These were the descendants of Ehud who were the heads of the families living in Geba and were exiled to Manahath:

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·’êl·leh bə·nê ’ê·ḥūḏ ’êl·leh hêm rā·šê ’ā·ḇō·wṯ lə·yō·wō·šə·ḇê ḡe·ḇa‘ way·yaḡ·lūm ’el- mā·nā·ḥaṯ

Word by word12 · parsed
וְאֵ֖לֶּהwə·’êl·lehThese [were]H428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thoseConjunctive wawPronouncommon plural
ʼêl-leh: these, those The demonstrative that opens a new paragraph in the register, shifting from Bela's line to Ehud's.
בְּנֵ֣יbə·nêthe descendantsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
אֵח֑וּד’ê·ḥūḏof EhudH261
√ ʼÊchûwd — Echud, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
ʼÊchûwd: Echud, the name of three Israelites The contested name of the unit. Ellicott observes that the Hebrew difference between this Ehud and the Ehud son of Gera who judged Israel (Judges 3:15) is so slight that an original identity may be assumed; JFB and Cambridge simply take him for the judge. Gill denies it: "Not he that was a judge in Israel." Pulpit, faced with the same data, says it is impossible to establish order here except by gratuitous conjecture. We record the dispute rather than resolving it.
אֵ֣לֶּה’êl·leh. . .H428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thosePronouncommon plural
הֵ֞םhêmwhoH1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
רָאשֵׁ֤יrā·šêwere the headsH7218
√ rôʼsh — the head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itcNounmasculine plural construct
rôʼsh: the head, in rank or place In construct with "fathers" this is a title of office, not a metaphor of importance. These men answered for their clans in war, in land allotment and in census. That is why the verse can pivot from their standing to their deportation in a single breath: when the heads are carried off, the households go with them.
אָבוֹת֙’ā·ḇō·wṯof the familiesH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural
ʼâb: father, literal and immediate or figurative and remote Strong's own gloss carries both ranges, which is exactly what the plural does in this phrase. "Fathers" here are ancestral houses, not living parents, so the register is speaking of lineage as a structure of belonging that outlasts any individual father.
לְי֣וֹשְׁבֵיlə·yō·wō·šə·ḇêlivingH3427
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgePreposition-lVerbQalParticiplemasculine plural construct
yâshab: to sit down, to dwell, to remain The Qal participle names them as the settled population of Geba, a Benjamite town (Joshua 18:24) which K&D identifies with the half ruined village Jeba about three leagues north of Jerusalem. The participle is durative: this is what they were doing, steadily, until the next verb ends it.
גֶ֔בַעḡe·ḇa‘in GebaH1387
√ Gebaʻ — Geba, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular
וַיַּגְל֖וּםway·yaḡ·lūmand were exiledH1540
√ gâlâh — to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine pluralthird person masculine plural
gâlâh: to uncover, to denude, hence to carry away captive The theological pivot of the unit. The root's base sense is exposure, a stripping bare, and out of that comes the standard Hebrew verb for deportation: to be exiled is to be uncovered. Ellicott notes that the same expression denotes the Babylonian transportation and was used at 1 Chronicles 5:26 of the Assyrian removal of the trans jordanic tribes. The subject here is unstated. K&D takes it from the next verse and makes Gera the author of the removal; Barnes says plainly that "they" has no antecedent; Cambridge concludes that words have probably fallen out and "we cannot say who carried whom captive." The Chronicler, writing for people who had themselves come home from Babylon, drops the word exile into a list of names and does not explain it.
אֶל־’el-toH413
√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition
מָנָֽחַת׃mā·nā·ḥaṯManahathH4506
√ Mânachath — Manachath, the name of an Edomite and of a place in MoabNounproperfeminine singular
Mânachath: Manachath, resting place JFB places it within the territory of Judah and reads the move as a body of Ehud's descendants seeking more room under Gera's direction; Gill records the Targum's addition that they went to the land of the house of Esau, and calls that unlikely. K&D says the site has not been discovered. A place whose name suggests rest is where this clan is deposited, and the text will not tell us whether they went as refugees, as settlers, or as captives.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Why Benjamin twice — 1 Chronicles 8:1-2

The Chronicler has already handled Benjamin at 1 Chronicles 7:6, and he now starts the tribe over. Benson and Gill give the same two reasons independently: it is done for Saul's sake, whose house will close the chapter, and because this tribe held to David and to Judah, went into Babylon with Judah, and came back in greater numbers than any tribe but Judah. Geneva's marginal note compresses it to one clause, that the writer's purpose is to set forth the genealogy of Saul. Barnes names the structural motive: the return to Benjamin exists to connect the genealogical introduction with the historical body of the work, since the history is to begin with Saul.

The Hebrew itself signals that something deliberate is happening. הוֹלִ֖יד (hō·w·lîḏ, Hiphil of yâlaḏ) governs a numbered roll, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, rather than the usual chain of conjunctions. K&D reads that count as the key: the enumeration in v. 1 harmonizes with Numbers 26:38, and therefore only those sons are named who founded the families of Benjamin. Ellicott is less confident, judging it more likely that Nohah and Rapha stand for different clans prominent when this list was drawn up. Both are reading the same five names; neither claims certainty; and Ellicott closes with the sentence that should govern the whole chapter, that these fluctuations of statement demonstrate the vagueness of terms denoting degrees of kindred when used of tribal and clan relationships.

ii. Nine names and a repeated one — 1 Chronicles 8:3-5

Verse 3 opens with a verb the English does not translate: וַיִּהְי֥וּ (way·yih·yū), "and there came to be sons belonging to Bela." Nine follow, and Ellicott notes the awkward coincidence that this is the same number as the sons of the suspected Becher at 1 Chronicles 7:8, though none of the names correspond. Then Gera appears at v. 3 and again at v. 5. Ellicott calls the repetition probably a scribe's inadvertence, while allowing that two great Benjamite houses may have borne the name. Pulpit states the condition exactly: the recurrence would point inevitably to a disordered text if these nine were really brothers. K&D takes the other road, arguing from בָנִ֖ים (bānîm) in its wider sense, descendants who founded fathers' houses, that two cousins might perfectly well share one name.

Behind that grammatical dispute lies a lexical fact the brief supplies and no commentator here mentions. Three of these names are genuinely rare: ʼAddâr (H146) and Shᵉphûwphâm (H8197) each stand in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible, and Râphâʼ (H7498) in only two as well. Cambridge would read Addar as Ard (Genesis 46:21, Numbers 26:40); K&D says the same and adds that Shephuphan is another form of the Shephupham of Numbers 26:39 and that Huram may be a transcriber's error for Hupham. Pulpit gathers four such pairs and suspects they all designate one couple. ⚙ The honest summary is that this stretch of text is a hand copied clan register whose variants the Chronicler preserved rather than corrected, and the commentators are unanimous only in finding it hard.

iii. The verb that ends the list — 1 Chronicles 8:6

The register stops being a register in its last clause. רָאשֵׁ֤י אָבוֹת֙, which Ellicott glosses as heads of father houses, that is, of groups of kindred families or clans, names men settled in Geba, a Benjamite town (Joshua 18:24) which K&D identifies with the ruinous village Jeba about three leagues north of Jerusalem. Then comes וַיַּגְל֖וּם (way·yaḡ·lūm, Hiphil of gâlâh, H1540), whose root means to uncover or denude, especially in a disgraceful sense. Ellicott insists on the force of it: rather, carried them captive, or transported them, the same expression that denotes the Babylonian exile and that was used at 1 Chronicles 5:26 of the Assyrian removal of the trans jordanic tribes.

Who did it, nobody can say. Barnes states that "they" has no antecedent and that it is difficult to supply one. K&D supplies one anyway from v. 7, making Gera the author of the deportation. JFB reads the move as a voluntary emigration under Gera's direction because their increased numbers needed more room, and places Manahath in Judah. Poole offers three possibilities at once, their fathers removed them, or their superiors, or they removed themselves. Cambridge simply concedes that words have probably fallen out and we cannot say who carried whom captive. Gill reports the Targum's gloss sending them to the land of the house of Esau and judges it not likely. ⚙ Five careful readers, five different subjects for one verb: this is what an honest apparatus looks like, and we will not manufacture a sixth answer to tidy it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is our own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Six verses of names, and the last word before the section break is a place called Rest, reached by a verb that means to be stripped bare. That is the shape of the whole unit. Benjamin's houses are counted out with the formality of an army muster, first through fifth, and then the counting stops and the names simply pile up, and then a clause admits that the heads of Geba were carried off to Manahath by a subject the sentence never names. Henry saw what is actually at stake: many great and mighty nations then in being, and many illustrious men, are now wholly forgotten, while the names of multitudes of the Israel of God are here kept in everlasting remembrance. Judges 20 had nearly ended this tribe; JFB thinks the resulting damage to its records is why the lists disagree. Yet the Chronicler, writing for people who had themselves come home from Babylon, does not omit the wreckage. He writes Aharah whose spelling is uncertain, Gera twice over, Huram who may be a copyist's slip for Hupham, and an exile whose agent has fallen out of the text. He keeps the damaged record because the damaged record is the true one. ⚙ We take that as the unit's claim: that God's remembering does not depend on our archives being clean, and that a house can be uncovered, deported, and still named. The names here are broken and preserved at once, which is exactly the condition of the people reading them.

⚙ Not Scripture, an editorial line: the register is the mercy, because God keeps the names no empire bothered to write down.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Five sons, three registers: the same list copied three times verbal / quotation: confirmed

The five sons of v. 1 and v. 2 stand against two older rolls. Genesis 46:21 and Numbers 26:38 share with this verse the lexemes אַשְׁבֵּל֙ (ʼAshbêl, H788), בֶּ֣לַע (Belaʻ, H1106) and בִנְיָמִ֔ן (Binyâmîyn, H1144), as the Verifier confirms. Ashbel is the decisive one: it occurs in only three verses of the whole Hebrew Bible, and all three are these Benjamite rolls. Ellicott states that the present series agrees with Numbers 26:38 in assigning five sons to Benjamin, of whom Bela is first and Ashbel second, and K&D builds his harmonization on that agreement. This is a verbal link between registers, not a quotation of a sentence: the Chronicler is reusing an inherited name list, and the rarity of the shared lexeme is what shows it.

Genesis 46:21 · Numbers 26:38

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H788 ʼAshbêl (rare, in 3 vv), H1106 Belaʻ (in 14 vv), H1144 Binyâmîyn (in 160 vv). The rare lexeme H788 occurs only in these three Benjamite registers, which establishes textual dependence on a common list. Confirmed as verbal reuse of a source list, not as quotation of a sentence.

Shephuphan and Rapha: two words that occur twice in the whole Bible verbal / quotation: confirmed

Two of the rarest lexemes in the unit each appear in exactly two verses. וּשְׁפוּפָ֖ן (Shᵉphûwphâm, H8197) is here and at Numbers 26:39, where it is spelled with a final mem; K&D says the second is another form of the first. וְרָפָ֖א (Râphâʼ, H7498) is here and at 1 Chronicles 8:37, inside this same chapter's Saul genealogy. The Verifier records both pairs. ⚙ We note, without asserting an identification the text does not make, that the second pair binds the opening of chapter 8 to its closing section by a lexeme found nowhere else in Scripture.

Numbers 26:39 · 1 Chronicles 8:37

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H8197 Shᵉphûwphâm (rare, in 2 vv) with Numbers 26:39, and H7498 Râphâʼ (rare, in 2 vv) with 1 Chronicles 8:37. Both are complete concordance sets: each lexeme occurs only in the two verses named. Verbal in the sense of shared rare vocabulary between lists; no sentence is quoted.

The house of Gera: a deliverer, a curser, and a deporter structural / thematic: confirmed

גֵרָ֖א (Gêrâʼ, H1617) runs through nine verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the Verifier links this unit to most of them. Gera is the father of Ehud the judge at Judges 3:15; the father of Shimei who cursed David at 2 Samuel 16:5 and who met him again at 2 Samuel 19:16 and 19:18 and whose account David left to Solomon at 1 Kings 2:8; and, in the next verse of this very chapter, the man K&D identifies as the author of the deportation to Manahath. Cambridge takes the link as direct, saying Ehud the deliverer of Israel from Moab was descended from Gera. ⚙ One Benjamite house therefore stands behind Israel's rescue from Moab, behind the loudest curse David ever absorbed, and behind an internal Benjamite exile. That is a pattern, not a quotation, and Strong's itself notes the name belonged to six different Israelites, so the shared lexeme cannot by itself prove one family.

Judges 3:15 · 2 Samuel 16:5 · 2 Samuel 19:16 · 1 Kings 2:8 · 1 Chronicles 8:7

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1617 Gêrâʼ (in 9 vv) across all five refs, and with 1 Chronicles 8:7 also H5283 Naʻămân (in 14 vv). The lexeme is a personal name Strong's assigns to six distinct Israelites, so it is too common and too ambiguous to carry a verbal claim; the link is a shared Benjamite house and motif, confirmed at the level of vocabulary only.

Is this Ehud the judge? The commentators split flagged: verify source

The name אֵח֑וּד (ʼÊchûwd, H261) enters v. 6 without introduction, and its identification is openly disputed in the sources. Ellicott notes that the Authorised Version makes no distinction between this Ehud and Ehud son of Gera the Benjamite judge, and that the difference in the Hebrew is so slight that an original identity may perhaps be assumed. JFB calls him most probably the judge of Israel. Cambridge states it as fact. Gill contradicts them: "Not he that was a judge in Israel," suggesting instead a son of the Huram just named. Ellicott himself records a third option, that this Ehud is the Abihud of v. 3. Pulpit refuses all of them, saying it is impossible to establish order in these verses except by most gratuitous conjecture. ⚙ We flag the link rather than assert it: the Verifier offers no shared lexeme between this verse and Judges 3:15, and the tie rests entirely on a contested reading of two similar spellings.

Judges 3:15

basis: No Verifier-computed lexical basis between 1 Chronicles 8:6 and Judges 3:15 (H261 ʼÊchûwd is not among the shared lexemes in the candidate list; the Judges 3:15 candidate rests on H1617 Gêrâʼ alone). Provenance is contested in the sources themselves: Ellicott, JFB and Cambridge identify this Ehud with the judge; Gill explicitly denies it; Pulpit calls any ordering here gratuitous conjecture.

Carried away: the exile verb inside a genealogy flagged: verify source

וַיַּגְל֖וּם (way·yaḡ·lūm, Hiphil of gâlâh, H1540) is the standard Hebrew verb of deportation, built on a root meaning to uncover or strip bare. Ellicott records that the same expression denotes the Babylonian exile or transportation, and that it was used at 1 Chronicles 5:26 of the Assyrian removal of the trans jordanic tribes. JFB notes that the Benjamites in this chapter include many born in Assyria who returned from the long captivity in Babylon, comparing the roll of restored exiles at Ezra 2. ⚙ So the word that ends this genealogy is the word that ends the book's history, and the Chronicler's first readers had lived it. We take this as a real motif link and not more: the Verifier did not compute these pairs, so the basis here is Ellicott's stated lexical observation plus the shared root, and it should be checked rather than assumed.

1 Chronicles 5:26 · Ezra 2:1

basis: Basis is not Verifier-computed: neither 1 Chronicles 5:26 nor Ezra 2:1 appears in the candidate list for this unit. The link rests on Ellicott's verbatim note that the same expression (gâlâh, Hiphil) denotes the Babylonian transportation and was used at 1 Chronicles 5:26, and on JFB's note connecting these Benjamites to the returned exiles of Ezra 2. Flagged so a reader checks the lexeme in those verses directly.

Addar, Geba, Manahath: a clan told as a map structural / thematic: confirmed

Three of the words in this unit are places as much as persons. אַדָּ֥ר (ʼAddâr, H146) is classed by Strong's as a place in Palestine, and its only other occurrence is Joshua 15:3, a border marker of Judah; here it is a son of Bela. גֶ֔בַע (Gebaʻ, H1387) is a Benjamite town, which K&D identifies with the village Jeba north of Jerusalem. מָנָֽחַת׃ (Mânachath, H4506) K&D cannot locate at all, and Gill connects it via Jarchi with the Manahath of 1 Chronicles 2:52 in Judah, while JFB places it within Judah's territory. ⚙ The register describes people by where they sat, which is exactly Poole's observation: Benjamin's sons are described by the places of their habitation, without an exact account of their parents, because the genealogies were broken.

Joshua 15:3 · Joshua 18:24

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H146 ʼAddâr (rare, in 2 vv) with Joshua 15:3, where the word is a place on Judah's border rather than a person. Joshua 18:24 carries no Verifier-computed shared lexeme and is cited only because Barnes, Gill and K&D all identify the Geba of this verse with the Benjamite town listed there. Tiered structural because the shared lexeme links a name to a place name, not a claim to a quotation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

Names kept when nations are forgotten ancient/widely-held

Henry states the principle this chapter exists to demonstrate: many great and mighty nations were then in being upon earth, and many illustrious men, whose names are now wholly forgotten, while the names of multitudes of the Israel of God are here kept in everlasting remembrance. ⚙ The Chronicler's method is a register, and the register is an act of keeping. Scripture carries that practice forward into its last books: the Lord tells the seventy to rejoice that their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20), the promise to the overcomer at Sardis is that his name will not be blotted out of the book of life (Revelation 3:5), and the judgment scene of Revelation 20:12 turns on books being opened. Reading a clan roll of Benjamin as an anticipation of that keeping is the ancient and widely held instinct behind Henry's line, and it does not require us to allegorize a single name in the list.

Luke 10:20 · Revelation 3:5 · Revelation 20:12

The genealogy that runs toward a king ancient/widely-held

Barnes explains the placement of this chapter structurally: the return to the Benjamite genealogy exists to connect the genealogical introduction with the historical body of the work, and since the history is to begin with Saul, the genealogical portion ends with the family of this Benjamite monarch. Geneva says the same in a clause, that the writer's purpose is to set forth the genealogy of Saul. ⚙ Israel's Scriptures repeatedly organize descent so that it arrives at a throne, and the Gospels take up the same form when Matthew opens his book with a genealogy that ends in Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. Chronicles reaches Saul, whose reign the book will record and whose house will fall; the evangelist reaches the one whose reign does not. The formal parallel is plain and widely noted; we claim no more than the form, since the Chronicler nowhere points beyond Saul here.

Matthew 1:1 · 1 Chronicles 8:33

A Benjamite carried out and a Benjamite sent out novel

The unit ends with Benjamites uncovered and transported from Geba to Manahath, agent unnamed. ⚙ Benjamin is also the tribe Paul names as his own when he insists God has not rejected His people (Romans 11:1) and when he lists his standing in the flesh at Philippians 3:5. The tribe of the first king, nearly destroyed at Judges 20 by JFB's account, scattered and deported here, is the tribe from which the apostle to the nations is drawn. We mark this as our own reading rather than a received one: none of the commentators in this brief draws the line, the Verifier supplies no lexical basis for it, and it rests on the plain fact of Paul's self description rather than on anything the Chronicler writes.

Romans 11:1 · Philippians 3:5

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers supplied by the brief. All six verses carry interlinear data; there are no text only verses in this unit.

What is uncertain here is unusually large, and the sources say so themselves. (1) The five sons of vv. 1 and 2 do not match Genesis 46:21, and only partly match Numbers 26:38. Nohah and Rapha occur in no other Benjamite list, as Ellicott states. K&D's proposal that they correspond to Shephupham and Hupham is an inference from the shared count of five, not a datum. (2) Gera appears twice, at v. 3 and v. 5. Ellicott calls this probably a scribe's inadvertence; K&D explains it as two cousins bearing one name; Pulpit says it would point inevitably to a disordered text if these nine were literally brothers. We have not chosen among them. (3) The identity of the Ehud of v. 6 is disputed inside the brief itself: Ellicott, JFB and Cambridge take him for the judge of Judges 3:15, Gill explicitly denies it, and Ellicott separately records the proposal that he is the Abihud of v. 3. That thread is badged flagged. (4) The subject of וַיַּגְל֖וּם in v. 6 is absent from the Hebrew. Barnes states that "they" has no antecedent and that it is difficult to supply one; Cambridge concludes that words have probably fallen out and that we cannot say who carried whom captive; K&D supplies Gera from v. 7; JFB reads a voluntary emigration; Poole lists three possibilities. No reconstruction is asserted here. (5) Manahath is unlocated. K&D says its situation has not been discovered; JFB places it in Judah; Gill reports the Targum's addition sending them to Edom and calls it not likely.

Thread bases: the Genesis 46:21, Numbers 26:38, Numbers 26:39, 1 Chronicles 8:37, 1 Chronicles 8:7, Judges 3:15, 2 Samuel 16:5, 2 Samuel 19:16, 1 Kings 2:8 and Joshua 15:3 links are Verifier computed shared Strong's lexemes, quoted with their frequencies in each badge. The 1 Chronicles 5:26, Ezra 2:1 and Joshua 18:24 references are not Verifier computed; they come from Ellicott, JFB, Barnes, Gill and K&D respectively and are badged or annotated accordingly. The New Testament references in the christ section cannot share Strong's numbers with a Hebrew text and are offered as structural and typological readings only, with the Benjamite reading of Romans 11:1 and Philippians 3:5 marked novel because no source in this brief proposes it.

⚙ marks machine synthesis throughout: it is fallible and should be tested. The commentary excerpts are verbatim public domain text resolved from anchors, quoted contiguously and attributed by name. Spelling, punctuation and dashes inside those quotations are the sources' own.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)