of extermination.
Verse 21
The conquerors captured a great booty in herds, 50,000 camels, 250,000 head of small cattle (sheep and goats), 2000 asses, and 100,000 persons - all round numbers; cf. the rich booty obtained in the war against the Midianites, Num 31:11, Num 31:32.
Verse 22
This rich booty should not surprise us, “for there fell many slain,” i.e., the enemy had suffered a very bloody defeat. “For the war was from God,” i.e., conducted to this result: cf. 2Ch 25:20; 1Sa 17:47. “And they dwelt in their stead,” i.e., they took possession of the pasture grounds, which up to that time had belonged to the Arabs, and held them until they were carried away captive by the Assyrians; see 1Ch 5:26. 1Ch5:23The families of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, and the leading away of the East-Jordan Israelites into the Assyrian exile. - 1Ch 5:23. The half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan was very numerous (רבוּ המּה), “and they dwelt in the land of Bashan (i.e., the Bashan inhabited by Gad, 1Ch 5:12) (northwards) to Baal Hermon,” - i.e., according to the more accurate designation of the place in Jos 12:7 and Jos 13:5, in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon, probably the present Bânjas, at the foot of Hermon (see on Num 34:8), - “and Senir and Mount Hermon.” שׂניר, which according to Deu 3:9 was the name of Hermon or Antilibanus in use among the Amorites, is here and in Eze 27:5 the name of a part of those mountains (vide on Deu 3:9), just as “mount Hermon” is the name of another part of this range.
Verse 24
Seven heads of fathers'-houses of the half-tribe of Manasseh are enumerated, and characterized as valiant heroes and famous men. The enumeration of the names begins strangely with ו (ואפר); perhaps a name has fallen out before it. Nothing has been handed down as to any of these names.
Verses 25-26
1Ch 5:25-26 1Ch 5:25 and 1Ch 5:26 form the conclusion of the register of the two and a half trans-Jordanic tribes. The sons of Manasseh are not the subject to ויּמעלוּ, but the Reubenites and Manassites, as is clear from 1Ch 5:26. These fell away faithlessly from the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God had destroyed before them, i.e., the Amorites or Canaanites. “And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of the Assyrian kings Pul and Tiglath-pilneser, and he (this latter) led them away captives to Halah and Habor,” etc. את־רוּח ויּער, Lavater has rightly rendered, “in mentem illis dedit, movit eos, ut expeditionem facerent contra illos;” cf. 2Ch 21:16. Pul is
