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The Northern Tribes

1 Of the sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four. 2 The sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their fathers’ houses, of Tola; mighty men of valor in their generations. Their number in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred. 3 The son of Uzzi: Izrahiah. The sons of Izrahiah: Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah, five; all of them chief men. 4 With them, by their generations, after their fathers’ houses, were bands of the army for war, thirty-six thousand; for they had many wives and sons. 5 Their brothers among all the families of Issachar, mighty men of valor, listed in all by genealogy, were eighty-seven thousand. 6 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, and Jediael, three. 7 The sons of Bela: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor; and they were listed by genealogy twenty-two thousand thirty-four. 8 The sons of Becher: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher. 9 They were listed by genealogy, after their generations, heads of their fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor, twenty thousand two hundred. 10 The son of Jediael: Bilhan. The sons of Bilhan: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. 11 All these were sons of Jediael, according to the heads of their fathers’ households, mighty men of valor, seventeen thousand two hundred, who were able to go out in the army for war. 12 So were Shuppim, Huppim, the sons of Ir, Hushim, and the sons of Aher. 13 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, Shallum, and the sons of Bilhah. 14 The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his concubine the Aramitess bore. She bore Machir the father of Gilead. 15 Machir took a wife of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister’s name was Maacah. The name of the second was Zelophehad; and Zelophehad had daughters. 16 Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh. The name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem. 17 The sons of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh. 18 His sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah. 19 The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam. 20 The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, 21 Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take away their livestock. 22 Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. 23 He went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because there was trouble with his house. 24 His daughter was Sheerah, who built Beth Horon the lower and the upper, and Uzzen Sheerah. 25 Rephah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, 26 Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, 27 Nun his son, and Joshua his son. 28 Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer with its towns; Shechem also and its towns, to Azzah and its towns; 29 and by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth Shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, and Dor and its towns. The children of Joseph the son of Israel lived in these. 30 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah. Serah was their sister. 31 The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel, who was the father of Birzaith. 32 Heber became the father of Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham, and Shua their sister. 33 The sons of Japhlet: Pasach, Bimhal, and Ashvath. These are the children of Japhlet. 34 The sons of Shemer: Ahi, Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram. 35 The sons of Helem his brother: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh, and Amal. 36 The sons of Zophah: Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah, 37 Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran, and Beera. 38 The sons of Jether: Jephunneh, Pispa, and Ara. 39 The sons of Ulla: Arah, Hanniel, and Rizia. 40 All these were the children of Asher, heads of the fathers’ houses, choice and mighty men of valor, chief of the princes. The number of them listed by genealogy for service in war was twenty-six thousand men.
1 Chronicles 7:1-40 · WEB

Six tribes are compressed into one chapter and counted as fighting strength, and two of the twelve are barely there at all.

Judah took two chapters and Levi took one. Six tribes share this chapter, and the imbalance is the first thing to notice.

It goes further than compression. Zebulun is not listed. Dan appears, if at all, in a single obscure clause among Benjamin's names 1 Chronicles 7:12. Two of the twelve sons of Israel have effectively no register here, and the writer offers no explanation for the gap.

What these tribes are given instead is a muster. The recurring phrase is mighty men of valor, and the recurring detail is a total: Issachar eighty-seven thousand 1 Chronicles 7:5, Benjamin's three houses counted separately, Asher twenty-six thousand listed by genealogy for service in war 1 Chronicles 7:40. The northern tribes are entered as manpower. Their lineages are thin and their numbers are exact.

Then the chapter breaks open for four verses. Ephraim's sons go down to raid cattle and are killed by the men of Gath, and their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him 1 Chronicles 7:21–22. He fathers another son afterward and names him for the disaster, because there was trouble with his house 1 Chronicles 7:23.

A grief is written into a list of names, and it is a small and unheroic one — a cattle raid that went wrong. The register does not draw a lesson from it. It simply refuses to leave it out.

One more entry in that section is unusual. Sheerah, a daughter, built Beth Horon the lower and the upper, and a third town named after her 1 Chronicles 7:24. Three towns are credited to a woman, in a document that ordinarily records only fathers and sons.

Ephraim's line then runs down through Elishama to Nun, and to Joshua 1 Chronicles 7:27. The man who led Israel into the land is the last name in his family's entry, given without a word of comment.

So the northern tribes get soldiers, a bereavement, a builder, and a conqueror, in ninety lines. What they do not get is the space the writer gives the two tribes that came back.

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