1 Chronicles 8:1-7 lists the sons of Benjamin––Bela the firstborn, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah, and Rapha––along with the sons of Bela and the household heads descended from Ehud who lived in Geba and were carried into exile to Manahath.
1 Chronicles 8:1-7 opens Benjamin's full family record with the sons born to the patriarch and the household heads of Geba. The list begins at the beginning: And Benjamin became the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, Aharah the third, Nohah the fourth and Rapha the fifth (vv 1-2). Benjamin was Jacob's youngest son, born near Bethlehem as his mother Rachel died (Genesis 35:18), and his tribe carried both his smallness and his fierceness through Israel's history.
The five sons appear in birth order, each numbered. Scripture preserves several lists of Benjamin's sons, and they differ in length and spelling. Genesis 46:21 counts ten names among those who went down to Egypt; Numbers 26:38-40 organizes five clan heads with two grandsons; 1 Chronicles 7:6 names three sons for the military census. Ancient family records served different purposes--some counted every son, some counted only the clans that survived to be counted, and some folded grandsons into the ranks of sons once their houses grew large enough to stand on their own. The Chronicler draws from records available in his day, and each list is shaped for its own aim. This one aims at Saul.
Later Scripture shows these clans in action. The wilderness census organized the tribe under the firstborn's name--"of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites" (Numbers 26:38)--so Bela his firstborn and Ashbel the second (v 1) stood at the head of enduring clan structures, with Aharah the third likely corresponding to the Ahiram of that census. The men numbered here as the fourth and the fifth, NohahandRapha (v 2), appear in this list alone, another sign that the Chronicler drew on family archives fuller than the census summaries. Every name preserved meant a household that had endured.
Attention turns immediately to the firstborn's house: Bela had sons: Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, Gera, Shephuphan and Huram (vv 3-5). Nine names, with Gera appearing twice--a family name repeated across branches or generations, a common practice in Israelite households. The name Gera resonates in Benjamin's story: Ehud the judge is called "the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man" (Judges 3:15), and Shimei, who cursed David, was likewise "the son of Gera" (2 Samuel 16:5). The name belonged to this tribe.
The nine grandsons through Bela--Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, a secondGera, Shephuphan and Huram (vv 3-5)--show the firstborn clan branching wide. A tribe that had once been reduced to six hundred fugitives at the rock of Rimmon (Judges 20:47) needed exactly this: sons, and sons of sons. Every branch recorded here represents recovery, the quiet rebuilding of a people that God had a plan for.
The record then shifts from sons to settlements: These are the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them into exile to Manahath (v 6). Geba was a Benjamite town given to the Levites (Joshua 21:17), sitting at the tribe's northern edge. An Ehud appears here as the ancestor of Geba's leading families. The famous judge Ehud shared this name and this tribe, and the family of Gera appears in this same record (vv 3, 5), though the Chronicler leaves any connection unstated. The text's interest lies in what happened to Ehud's descendants: a forced relocation to Manahath, a place associated elsewhere with Calebite families (1 Chronicles 2:52-54).
Geba itself kept appearing at the center of Israel's story. Jonathan struck the Philistine garrison stationed there, igniting the war of 1 Samuel 13-14 (1 Samuel 13:3), and centuries later the phrase "from Geba to Beersheba" marked the full span of Judah's territory (2 Kings 23:8). The town whose heads of fathers' households are counted in this verse guarded the northern approach to Jerusalem. Households organized under known heads—the repeated concern of this chapter—were how a tribe held such ground generation after generation.
The details of that relocation stay compressed: namely, Naaman, Ahijah and Gera—he carried them into exile; and he became the father of Uzza and Ahihud (v 7). Gera appears to have led the removal of his relatives to Manahath, and there his own line continued with Uzza and Ahihud. The episode arrives without explanation—Scripture records the displacement and moves on. Even within the promised land, Benjamin's families knew upheaval, and the Chronicler includes it. For readers who had themselves been "carried away into exile" (1 Chronicles 9:1), a family record that included earlier displacements—and the generations born after them—testified that removal from home ends neither a family nor its place in God's record.
1 Chronicles 8:1-7
Genealogy from Benjamin
1 And Benjamin became the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, Aharah the third,
2 Nohah the fourth and Rapha the fifth.
3 Bela had sons: Addar, Gera, Abihud,
4 Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah,
5 Gera, Shephuphan and Huram.
6 These are the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them into exile to Manahath,
7 namely, Naaman, Ahijah and Gera—he carried them into exile; and he became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.
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1 Chronicles 8:1-7 meaning
1 Chronicles 8:1-7 opens Benjamin's full family record with the sons born to the patriarch and the household heads of Geba. The list begins at the beginning: And Benjamin became the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, Aharah the third, Nohah the fourth and Rapha the fifth (vv 1-2). Benjamin was Jacob's youngest son, born near Bethlehem as his mother Rachel died (Genesis 35:18), and his tribe carried both his smallness and his fierceness through Israel's history.
The five sons appear in birth order, each numbered. Scripture preserves several lists of Benjamin's sons, and they differ in length and spelling. Genesis 46:21 counts ten names among those who went down to Egypt; Numbers 26:38-40 organizes five clan heads with two grandsons; 1 Chronicles 7:6 names three sons for the military census. Ancient family records served different purposes--some counted every son, some counted only the clans that survived to be counted, and some folded grandsons into the ranks of sons once their houses grew large enough to stand on their own. The Chronicler draws from records available in his day, and each list is shaped for its own aim. This one aims at Saul.
Later Scripture shows these clans in action. The wilderness census organized the tribe under the firstborn's name--"of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites" (Numbers 26:38)--so Bela his firstborn and Ashbel the second (v 1) stood at the head of enduring clan structures, with Aharah the third likely corresponding to the Ahiram of that census. The men numbered here as the fourth and the fifth, Nohah and Rapha (v 2), appear in this list alone, another sign that the Chronicler drew on family archives fuller than the census summaries. Every name preserved meant a household that had endured.
Attention turns immediately to the firstborn's house: Bela had sons: Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, Gera, Shephuphan and Huram (vv 3-5). Nine names, with Gera appearing twice--a family name repeated across branches or generations, a common practice in Israelite households. The name Gera resonates in Benjamin's story: Ehud the judge is called "the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man" (Judges 3:15), and Shimei, who cursed David, was likewise "the son of Gera" (2 Samuel 16:5). The name belonged to this tribe.
The nine grandsons through Bela--Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, a second Gera, Shephuphan and Huram (vv 3-5)--show the firstborn clan branching wide. A tribe that had once been reduced to six hundred fugitives at the rock of Rimmon (Judges 20:47) needed exactly this: sons, and sons of sons. Every branch recorded here represents recovery, the quiet rebuilding of a people that God had a plan for.
The record then shifts from sons to settlements: These are the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them into exile to Manahath (v 6). Geba was a Benjamite town given to the Levites (Joshua 21:17), sitting at the tribe's northern edge. An Ehud appears here as the ancestor of Geba's leading families. The famous judge Ehud shared this name and this tribe, and the family of Gera appears in this same record (vv 3, 5), though the Chronicler leaves any connection unstated. The text's interest lies in what happened to Ehud's descendants: a forced relocation to Manahath, a place associated elsewhere with Calebite families (1 Chronicles 2:52-54).
Geba itself kept appearing at the center of Israel's story. Jonathan struck the Philistine garrison stationed there, igniting the war of 1 Samuel 13-14 (1 Samuel 13:3), and centuries later the phrase "from Geba to Beersheba" marked the full span of Judah's territory (2 Kings 23:8). The town whose heads of fathers' households are counted in this verse guarded the northern approach to Jerusalem. Households organized under known heads—the repeated concern of this chapter—were how a tribe held such ground generation after generation.
The details of that relocation stay compressed: namely, Naaman, Ahijah and Gera—he carried them into exile; and he became the father of Uzza and Ahihud (v 7). Gera appears to have led the removal of his relatives to Manahath, and there his own line continued with Uzza and Ahihud. The episode arrives without explanation—Scripture records the displacement and moves on. Even within the promised land, Benjamin's families knew upheaval, and the Chronicler includes it. For readers who had themselves been "carried away into exile" (1 Chronicles 9:1), a family record that included earlier displacements—and the generations born after them—testified that removal from home ends neither a family nor its place in God's record.