The first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles gives us the lineage of the Israelites. It starts by walking us from Adam to Noah to Abraham, then traces the lineage of Ishmael and Isaac, before zeroing in on the 12 tribes of Israel. It is a bit hard to follow the names due to multiple wives and chronology bouncing between brothers. Below are a few things that stood out to me.

Caleb, one of the only two spies to trust God to lead the Israelites to victory, married a woman named Ephrath. I find this interesting because throughout the Old Testament we hear about the Ephrathites. When I first read the word "Ephrathites" I thought it was a misspelling of Ephraimites, but I noticed that the people referred to as Ephrathites all grew up the region known as Judah, specifically around Bethlehem. Once I realized this, I assumed they were dubbed the "Ephrathites" because the descended from a man named Ephrath. However, 1 Chronicles 2 makes me wonder if they inherited this name from a woman? Resources state that the name is given after the old name for Bethlehem, Ephratah.[1] Of course, that only makes me wonder how Bethlehem received that name in the first place...

During colonialism, white people spent a lot of time trying to craft their version of Christianity to paint black people as inferior and deserving of slavery. People even twisted the Curse of Canaan to extend to Ham in attempt to justify the treatment of slaves. Interestingly when we look at the lineage of Judah laid out in 1 Chronicles 2, we are reminded that the line of Judah sprang from a Canaanite woman. This means David, Solomon, and Jesus all have ties back to Canaan and to Ham.

The end of 1 Chronicles 4 covers information on Simeon's descendants who essentially merged into Judah. However, a remnant of Simeonites survived through the reign of Hezekiah and killed the Amalekites living in the land to establish their own place.

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