1 Chronicles 7:1-5 meaning

1 Chronicles 7:1-5 opens with the sons of Issachar, four in number: Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron (v 1). These are the same four sons who went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:13, where the spellings run Puvvah and Iob) and the same four who headed the tribe's census clans in the wilderness (Numbers 26:23-24). Issachar himself received his name from his mother Leah, who said, "God has given me my wages" (Genesis 30:18)--the name sounds like the Hebrew for "wages" or "recompense." His sons' names carry a curious thread: Tola is the Hebrew word for the crimson worm from which scarlet dye was made, and Puah matches the name of the madder plant, source of a red dye. Centuries later a judge arose from this tribe bearing both family names at once--"Tola the son of Puah" of Issachar, who judged Israel twenty-three years (Judges 10:1-2). The households of Issachar, like the other tribes, valued their names and kept handing them down.

The count begins with Tola's house: the sons of Tola were Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam and Samuel, heads of their fathers' households (v 2). The names confess the LORD along the way--Uzzi means "my strength," Rephaiah "the LORD has healed," and Samuel carries the same name as the great prophet. The verse then turns from names to numbers: the sons of Tola were mighty men of valor in their generations; their number in the days of David was 22,600 (v 2). The dating clause shows where the Chronicler found this material--the military registers of David's reign, when Israel's fighting men were organized and counted (1 Chronicles 27:1 describes such rolls of the heads of fathers' households). Valor ran in these families generation after generation, and David's scribes wrote it down.

The line narrows for a moment: the son of Uzzi was Izrahiah, whose name means "the LORD will shine," and the sons of Izrahiah were Michael, Obadiah, Joel, Isshiah; all five of them were chief men (v 3). The count of five includes Izrahiah with his four sons--father and sons together ranked as chiefs, a whole household of leaders within the tribe.

Attached to those five chiefs stood an army: with them by their generations according to their fathers' households were 36,000 troops of the army for war (v 4). The verse adds the reason for such strength: for they had many wives and sons (v 4). The register treats fruitfulness as the engine of the tribe's power--houses full of sons became divisions ready for war. The blessing of children and the strength of the nation rose together.

The section closes with the whole tribe gathered into one sum: their relatives among all the families of Issachar were mighty men of valor, enrolled by genealogy, in all 87,000 (v 5). At the census on the plains of Moab, Issachar had numbered 64,300 (Numbers 26:25); by David's day the tribe had grown well past that mark. Issachar's men appear once more in this book with a memorable commendation--among those who came to make David king were "men of Issachar who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do" (1 Chronicles 12:32). The tribe counted here for valor was remembered also for wisdom.