Commentary - 1 Chronicles 2:21-24

Bird's-eye view

In these few verses, tucked away in the dense forest of the genealogies of Judah, the Chronicler gives us a snapshot of covenantal life. It is a picture of marriages, births, inheritances, and losses. This is not filler material. This is the stuff of history, the very soil from which the promises of God grow. We see Hezron, a patriarch of Judah, taking a wife in his old age, demonstrating a forward-looking faith in the continuation of his line. We see the establishment of towns and the reality of military defeat. And we see the quiet, steady providence of God continuing a family line even after the death of its head. These verses are a testament to the fact that God's grand purposes are worked out in the midst of the mundane, messy, and often difficult details of ordinary human lives. God is building His people, and He does not despise the small and seemingly insignificant bricks in the wall.

The central theme here is God's faithfulness to His covenant promises through the generations. Despite old age, despite military setbacks, and despite death itself, the line of Judah persists and puts down roots in the land. This is the line from which David will come, and ultimately, the line from which our Lord Jesus would be born. Every name, every marriage, every birth recorded here is a quiet confirmation that God is at work, meticulously weaving His story of redemption.

Outline

God in the Details

It is a common temptation for modern Christians to treat the genealogies of Scripture like the terms and conditions of a software update. We scroll past them quickly to get to the "good stuff." But in doing so, we betray a very modern and unbiblical mindset. For the original audience, and for us, if we have ears to hear, these lists are sermons. They are declarations of God's unwavering faithfulness over centuries. They ground the story of redemption in real history, with real people, in real places. God is not telling a fairy tale; He is recounting what He has done. The names matter because people matter to God. The land matters because the covenant was tied to the land. The family lines matter because the promise of the Seed of the woman was a promise that would travel through a particular bloodline. To neglect these chapters is to neglect a significant part of the testimony God has given concerning His own character and His meticulous oversight of all things.

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 21 Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he took as a wife when he was sixty years old; and she bore him Segub.

The word "afterward" places this event after the initial listing of Hezron's sons in verse 9. Hezron, a grandson of Judah, is not a young man here. He is sixty years old, an age when many men would be thinking of their legacy, not of starting a new branch of the family. But Hezron takes a wife. This is an act of faith. He is not just marrying for companionship; he is marrying to build his house, to increase his portion in Israel. His choice of wife is also significant. She is the daughter of Machir, the "father of Gilead." Machir was a mighty man from the tribe of Manasseh, a man whose descendants were formidable warriors who conquered territory. This marriage is a strategic alliance, knitting together two powerful families within Israel. This is how nations were built. And through this union, God's purpose moves forward. She bore him Segub, a name that means "exalted." Even in his old age, Hezron is blessed with a son, a tangible sign of God's continued favor.

v. 22 Segub became the father of Jair, and he had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.

The legacy continues. Segub begets Jair. And Jair is no insignificant man. He is a ruler, a man of substance, who possesses twenty-three cities in Gilead. Notice the connection back to his grandmother. Through her, the family of Hezron gains a significant foothold in the land of Gilead, the territory of Machir. This is inheritance. This is the covenant promise of land being worked out in shoe leather. The promises God made to Abraham were not ethereal platitudes; they were promises of land and descendants, and here we see both being fulfilled. Jair's possession of these cities demonstrates the blessing of God flowing down through the generations. He is building his father's house, extending the influence and dominion of his people in the land God had given them.

v. 23 But Geshur and Aram took Havvoth-jair from them, with Kenath and its villages, even sixty cities. All these were the sons of Machir, the father of Gilead.

And here, the Chronicler injects a dose of hard reality. History is not a clean, triumphalistic march. It is contested. The inheritance that was gained is now partially lost. Geshur and Aram, two of Israel's persistent enemies to the northeast, retake the "towns of Jair" (Havvoth-jair). This is not a contradiction of God's promise, but rather a picture of the ongoing battle required to hold onto the promise. The inheritance must be fought for, defended, and sometimes, it is lost through sin or weakness. The Chronicler does not whitewash the history. The land is promised, but taking and holding it is the responsibility of the covenant people. Their failures have real-world consequences. The mention that "all these were the sons of Machir" ties the loss back to the original inheritance, emphasizing the sting of it. What was gained through the strength of Machir's line is now lost to the enemy. This is a call to faithfulness for every generation. The blessings of the fathers are not guaranteed to the sons if the sons forsake the covenant.

v. 24 After the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephrathah, Abijah, Hezron’s wife, bore him Ashhur the father of Tekoa.

The narrative returns to Hezron, but now to record his death. He dies in "Caleb-ephrathah," likely a place named for the union of the families of Caleb and Ephrathah, another indication of how intertwined these Judean clans were. But death does not have the final word. Here we have a remarkable detail: after Hezron's death, his wife Abijah bears him a son. This is a posthumous birth. The line continues even when the patriarch is in the grave. God's covenant is not dependent on the life of any one man. Hezron is dead, but his legacy is not. His wife brings forth Ashhur, whose name means "black" or perhaps "strong." And this Ashhur becomes the "father of Tekoa." He is a founder, a patriarch in his own right. Tekoa was a town in the hill country of Judah, and it is most famous as the hometown of the prophet Amos. So from this posthumous son, born out of death and grief, God would eventually raise up a prophet to call Israel back to repentance. God's sovereign plan marches on, bringing life out of death, and raising up founders and prophets from the most unexpected circumstances.

Application

First, we must learn to see the hand of God in the ordinary. Our lives are filled with marriages, births, business dealings, gains, and losses. We are tempted to see these as merely the outworking of our own choices or blind fate. But this genealogy teaches us that God is weaving His purposes through all of it. Your family, your work, your town, these are the places where God is at work. Be faithful in the small things, for they are the substance of God's kingdom work in the world.

Second, we must understand that the Christian life is one of conflict. We have a glorious inheritance in Christ, but we must fight to lay hold of it. Like Jair, we can lose ground to the enemy through laziness, compromise, or unbelief. We are called to be vigilant, to "fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. 6:12). The promises are secure in Christ, but our appropriation and enjoyment of them require diligence and spiritual warfare.

Finally, we must find our hope in the God who brings life from death. Hezron died, but his line continued. A son was born after his father was gone. This points us ultimately to the Lord Jesus, the Son who was born, died, and was raised from the grave, securing an eternal inheritance for His people. Our hope is not in our own strength or longevity, but in the resurrection power of God. Even when a situation looks as final as the grave, God can bring forth new life and continue His purposes, for His glory and for the good of His people.