1 Chronicles 5:1-10 meaning

1 Chronicles 5 turns the genealogies of Israel to the tribes that settled east of the Jordan River: Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. The chronicler wrote for families returning from exile in Babylon, and these opening chapters (1 Chronicles 1-9) gave each tribe its documented place in Israel's story. For the eastern tribes, that story runs from a lost birthright, through a God-given victory, to exile under Assyria.

1 Chronicles 5:1-10 opens with a legal question that must be settled before Reuben's family can be listed. Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright (v 1). Reuben was born first, and the verse says so twice. Yet his place at the head of the family, the birthright, went to another.

The event behind the phrase, he defiled his father's bed (v 1), is recorded in Genesis 35:22, where Reuben lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. Jacob carried the offense to his deathbed. In his final blessing he told Reuben,

"you shall not have preeminence, Because you went up to your father's bed" 
(Genesis 49:4).

"The birthright" in Israel meant the firstborn's double share of the inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17) together with leadership of the family. Jacob transferred that double share to Joseph by adopting Joseph's two sons as his own:

"Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are"
(Genesis 48:5).

Joseph's one tribe became two tribes, which is the double portion in tribal form.

The parenthesis closes by dividing the firstborn's privileges between two brothers. Though Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came the leader, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph (v 2). Judah received the rule; Jacob had promised, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah" (Genesis 49:10), and from Judah came David, his royal line, and the Messiah (Matthew 1:1-16). Joseph received the property portion of the firstborn. Reuben's sin cost his descendants both.

With the legal note settled, the list begins. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi (v 3). These are the same four sons who went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:9; Exodus 6:14). The chronicler anchors the tribe to the founding generation of the nation.

The line of Joel then runs generation by generation: The sons of Joel were Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was leader of the Reubenites (vv 4-6). The genealogy travels in a straight line from the patriarchs to the Assyrian deportation. Tilgath-pilneser is the spelling Chronicles uses for the king called Tiglath-pileser in 2 Kings 15:29. Reuben's last named leader is remembered as an exile, and the chapter will end the same way (1 Chronicles 5:26).

Beerah's kinsmen follow: Jeiel the chief, then Zechariah and Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who lived in Aroer, even to Nebo and Baal-meon (vv 7-8). Aroer, Nebo, and Baal-meon sat east of the Dead Sea, in the territory Reuben received when Israel entered the land. Numbers 32:37-38 records the sons of Reuben rebuilding Nebo and Baal-meon in the days of Moses; the same towns mark their holdings centuries later.

The next verse shows how the tribe grew eastward: To the east he settled as far as the entrance of the wilderness from the river Euphrates, because their cattle had increased in the land of Gilead (v 9). Reuben was a herding tribe from the start; their fathers had asked for this side of the Jordan because they had very large herds and the land of Gilead was good pasture (Numbers 32:1-5). As the cattle multiplied, the tribe spread toward the open steppe that stretched in the direction of the Euphrates.

Next, it is explained that In the days of Saul they made war with the Hagrites, who fell by their hand, so that they occupied their tents throughout all the land east of Gilead (v 10). The Hagrites were desert-dwelling peoples on Israel's eastern frontier; Psalm 83:6 lists them among the nations allied against Israel. This one-verse notice previews the fuller battle account in 1 Chronicles 5:18-22, where the Chronicler explains how the victory was won.