Verses 4, 5. - The meaning of these verses, especially of the former of them, is not quite evident. This seems to say that as the Tolaites were in David's time twenty-two thousand six hundred, so the Uzzites taken from among them (or the "sons of Izrahiah," as the case may be) numbered thirty-six thousand additional. But were not the Uzzites included in the Tolaites? and did not the figure thirty-six thousand embrace the accumulated numbers, whilst the balance of fifty-one thousand necessary to make up the eighty-seven thousand of ver. 5, was drawn from all the other branches of the Issachar tribe? This is not the view, however, generally taken, and if the numbers of vers. 2 and 4 are distinct, the balance needful for ver. 5 will, of course, be twenty-eight thousand four hundred. It cannot be denied that this view is favoured by the special description applied to these Uzzites, or Izrahiahites, as bands of soldiers for war; their disposition and their training constituting possibly the reason of their being singled out for further description from among the sons of Tola. The statement of the total number of the tribe of Issachar in David's time is wonderfully corroborated by the two censuses of Moses - Numbers 1:28, 29, fifty-four thousand four hundred; and Numbers 26:23-25, sixty-four thousand three hundred. The total of Issachar, four score and seven thousand, is a good proportion of the aggregate total of all the tribes, given (2 Samuel 24:8, 9) as eight hundred thousand. Grove, however, adds all the above numbers, and makes thereby Issachar's total (see Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 1:901 b) one hundred and forty-five thousand six hundred, which seems disfavoured by the numbers at the second census of Moses. At the time of this census Issachar came third of all the tribes, only Judah and Dan taking precedence. The bands of soldiers for war. This expression culminates in the word (גְדוּדִים) "bands," which is applied (Genesis 49:19) to Gad, and almost invariably to the irregular but special bodies of fighting men of the nations round (Authorized Version, 1 Chronicles 12:23 is incorrect, the Hebrew word being different). The examples are too numerous to quote, but some of the more important instances are 2 Kings 6:23; 2 Kings 13:20; 2 Kings 24:2; Hosea 6:9; Hosea 7:1.

7:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. We can assign no reason why they only should be omitted; but it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan, that idolatry began in that colony which fixed in Laish, and called it Dan, Jud 18 and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam. Dan is omitted, Re 7. Men become abominable when they forsake the worship of the true God, for any creature object.And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war,.... Companies of men of military courage and skill, who could and did go out to war upon occasion:

six and thirty thousand men; besides the 22,600 Tolaites, 1 Chronicles 7:2,

for they had many wives and sons; having many wives, they had many sons; polygamy was the cause of their large numbers; and that they gave into for the sake of the multiplication of Abraham's seed, according to the divine promise.