1 Chronicles 8:8-13 follows Shaharaim's sons born in Moab, the line of Elpaal whose sons built Ono and Lod, and Beriah and Shema of Aijalon who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath—Benjamin's builders and defenders.
1 Chronicles 8:8-13 carries Benjamin's record east across the Jordan and back again, covering a family begun in Moab and the town-builders and fighters it produced. The section opens with a domestic history told in a single breath: Shaharaim became the father of children in the country of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives (v 8). Shaharaim dismissed two wives and started a new family abroad. The text reports this without comment, as Scripture's genealogies regularly do—the record preserves what happened in a household, including its fractures, because the descendants mattered to Israel's story. A Benjamite family in Moab also had precedent in Israel's memory: Elimelech of Bethlehem sojourned in that same country during famine (Ruth 1:1-2).
Moab and Benjamin had a tangled history. Benjamin's own judge, Ehud, delivered Israel from Eglon king of Moab (Judges 3:12-30); here a Benjamite fathered children in the country of Moab in peace. The record even preserves the women's names—Hushim and Baara, the wivessent away, and Hodesh his wife, mother of the Moab-born sons (vv 8-9). Scripture's registers keep the names history would otherwise drop, because the LORD's accounting of a family reaches every member of it.
The Moabite branch is counted first: By Hodesh his wife he became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam, Jeuz, Sachia, Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of fathers' households (vv 9-10). Seven sonsby Hodesh, each becoming the head of a household in his own right. Then the record returns to the dismissed wife's children: By Hushim he became the father of Abitub and Elpaal (v 11). Thesons of the sent-awaywife receive their place in the registry alongside the rest. God's record-keeping reaches into complicated households and preserves every branch.
From Elpaal comes the chapter's building program: The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham, and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod, with its towns (v 12). These towns sat in the coastal lowland northwest of Jerusalem. Their appearance here plants a seed that bears fruit centuries later: Lod, Hadid, and Ono appear among the ancestral towns reclaimed by the families returning from Babylon (Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 11:35). Towns that Benjamite hands built before the exile received Benjamite families again after it. Lod appears once more in Scripture under its later name Lydda, where Peter healed the paralyzed Aeneas "and all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord" (Acts 9:35). A town founded in a genealogy became ground for the gospel.
Alongside the builders stand the defenders: and Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath (v 13). Aijalon guarded the valley where Joshua once commanded the sun and moon to stand still (Joshua 10:12), a corridor the Philistines used to press into the hill country. Gath was a chief Philistine city, home of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4). These two household heads led a successful defense that drove Gath's men off.
Aijalon's own account deepens the picture. The town was first allotted to Dan (Joshua 19:42), yet the Amorites pressed Dan out of the valley (Judges 1:34-35), and Benjamin ultimately absorbed the ground, as this verse shows Benjamite heads of fathers' households leading the inhabitants of Aijalon. Saul and Jonathan won a great victory across this same corridor, when Israel struck the Philistines "from Michmash to Aijalon" (1 Samuel 14:31). The families of Beriah and Shema held a frontier, and their place in the registry honors that service.
The victory answers an older wound in these genealogies. In the previous chapter,the men of Gath who were born in the land killed thesons of Ephraim in a cattle raid, and Ephraim mourned many days (1 Chronicles 7:21-22). Here thesons of Benjamin put to flight the inhabitants of Gath (v 13). The chronicler's records remember both directions of the long border struggle—losses grieved and victories won—and both belong to the story of the tribes God planted in the land.
1 Chronicles 8:8-13
8 Shaharaim became the father of children in the country of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.
9 By Hodesh his wife he became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam,
10 Jeuz, Sachia, Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of fathers' households.
11 By Hushim he became the father of Abitub and Elpaal.
12 The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham, and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod, with its towns;
13 and Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath;
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1 Chronicles 8:8-13 meaning
1 Chronicles 8:8-13 carries Benjamin's record east across the Jordan and back again, covering a family begun in Moab and the town-builders and fighters it produced. The section opens with a domestic history told in a single breath: Shaharaim became the father of children in the country of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives (v 8). Shaharaim dismissed two wives and started a new family abroad. The text reports this without comment, as Scripture's genealogies regularly do—the record preserves what happened in a household, including its fractures, because the descendants mattered to Israel's story. A Benjamite family in Moab also had precedent in Israel's memory: Elimelech of Bethlehem sojourned in that same country during famine (Ruth 1:1-2).
Moab and Benjamin had a tangled history. Benjamin's own judge, Ehud, delivered Israel from Eglon king of Moab (Judges 3:12-30); here a Benjamite fathered children in the country of Moab in peace. The record even preserves the women's names—Hushim and Baara, the wives sent away, and Hodesh his wife, mother of the Moab-born sons (vv 8-9). Scripture's registers keep the names history would otherwise drop, because the LORD's accounting of a family reaches every member of it.
The Moabite branch is counted first: By Hodesh his wife he became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam, Jeuz, Sachia, Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of fathers' households (vv 9-10). Seven sons by Hodesh, each becoming the head of a household in his own right. Then the record returns to the dismissed wife's children: By Hushim he became the father of Abitub and Elpaal (v 11). The sons of the sent-away wife receive their place in the registry alongside the rest. God's record-keeping reaches into complicated households and preserves every branch.
From Elpaal comes the chapter's building program: The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham, and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod, with its towns (v 12). These towns sat in the coastal lowland northwest of Jerusalem. Their appearance here plants a seed that bears fruit centuries later: Lod, Hadid, and Ono appear among the ancestral towns reclaimed by the families returning from Babylon (Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 11:35). Towns that Benjamite hands built before the exile received Benjamite families again after it. Lod appears once more in Scripture under its later name Lydda, where Peter healed the paralyzed Aeneas "and all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord" (Acts 9:35). A town founded in a genealogy became ground for the gospel.
Alongside the builders stand the defenders: and Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers' households of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath (v 13). Aijalon guarded the valley where Joshua once commanded the sun and moon to stand still (Joshua 10:12), a corridor the Philistines used to press into the hill country. Gath was a chief Philistine city, home of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4). These two household heads led a successful defense that drove Gath's men off.
Aijalon's own account deepens the picture. The town was first allotted to Dan (Joshua 19:42), yet the Amorites pressed Dan out of the valley (Judges 1:34-35), and Benjamin ultimately absorbed the ground, as this verse shows Benjamite heads of fathers' households leading the inhabitants of Aijalon. Saul and Jonathan won a great victory across this same corridor, when Israel struck the Philistines "from Michmash to Aijalon" (1 Samuel 14:31). The families of Beriah and Shema held a frontier, and their place in the registry honors that service.
The victory answers an older wound in these genealogies. In the previous chapter, the men of Gath who were born in the land killed the sons of Ephraim in a cattle raid, and Ephraim mourned many days (1 Chronicles 7:21-22). Here the sons of Benjamin put to flight the inhabitants of Gath (v 13). The chronicler's records remember both directions of the long border struggle—losses grieved and victories won—and both belong to the story of the tribes God planted in the land.