1 Chronicles 5:19

And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jetur no doubt gave his name to the important tribe of the Ituraeans who inhabited the region southwest of the Damascene plain, between Gaulonitis (Jaulan) and the Ledjah. This tribe was noted for its thievish habits, and was regarded as savage and warlike.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18-22. Hagarites—or, "Hagarenes," originally synonymous with "Ishmaelites," but afterwards applied to a particular tribe of the Arabs (compare Ps 83:6).

Jetur—His descendants were called Itureans, and the country Auranitis, from Hauran, its chief city. These, who were skilled in archery, were invaded in the time of Joshua by a confederate army of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, who, probably incensed by the frequent raids of those marauding neighbors, took reprisals in men and cattle, dispossessed almost all of the original inhabitants, and colonized the district themselves. Divine Providence favoured, in a remarkable manner, the Hebrew army in this just war.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. With the posterity of Jetur, &c., who were Ishmeelites, as appears from Genesis 25:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they made war with the Hagarites,.... Before mentioned, 1 Chronicles 5:19.

with Jetur, and Nephish: with the posterity of these men, who were sons of Ishmael, Genesis 25:15 and so was Nodab; perhaps the same with Kedemah, mentioned along with the other two there; so Hillerus (z) thinks.

(z) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 554.

Geneva Study Bible

And they made war with the Hagarites, with {g} Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab.

(g) These twelve were the sons of Ishmael, Ge 25:15.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. the Hagarites] R.V. the Hagrites (cp. 1 Chronicles 5:10; 1 Chronicles 5:20).

Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab] Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah are given as sons of Ishmael in 1 Chronicles 1:31.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The name of Nodab we have not elsewhere; but those of Jetur and Nephish are names from the very origin of the tribe of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13-16; 1 Chronicles 1:29-31). It would be possible to consider them here as in apposition with the description, the Hagarites (respecting whom see note on ver. 10); but they may more probably be regarded as favourite names, still repeated in the descendants of the tribe. The people of Nephish have not made their mark deep on the page of ethnographic history; but the people of Jetur have done so. Their stinted territory appears in the name Ituraea (Luke 3:1). Their people reappear also (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 13. e. 11, § 3; Strabo, 16:518, 520). Nor is it an unnoticeable contribution to the truth of our history here to put, side by side with the description of the qualities and of the arms and weapons of warfare of the Manassites and their helpers of Reuben and Gad (ver. 18), those of the Ituraeans, their antagonists (Virgil, 'Georg.,' 2:448; Cicero, 'Philippians,' 2:44; Luean, 'Pharsalia,' 7:230; see Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 1:905). 1 Chronicles 5:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"They made was with the Hagarites and Jethur, Nephish and Nodab." So early as the time of Saul the Reubenites had victoriously made war upon the Hagarites (see 1 Chronicles 5:10); but the war here mentioned was certainly at a later time, and has no further connection with that in 1 Chronicles 5:10 except that both arose from similar causes. The time of the second is not given, and all we know from 1 Chronicles 5:22 is that it had broken out before the trans-Jordanic Israelites were led captive by the Assyrians. הגריאים, in Psalm 83:7 contracted into הגרים, are the Ἀγραῖοι, whom Strabo, xvi. p. 767, introduces, on the authority of Eratosthenes, as leading a nomadic life in the great Arabico-Syrian desert, along with the Nabataeans and Chaulotaeans. Jetur, from whom the Itureans are descended, and Nephish, are Ishmaelites; cf. on Genesis 25:15. Nodab, mentioned only here, is a Bedouin tribe of whom nothing more is known.