Matthew Henry on 1 Chronicles 2:1-17
Here is, I. The family of Jacob. His twelve sons are here named, that illustrious number so often celebrated almost throughout the whole Bible, from the first to the last book of it. At every turn we meet with the twelve tribes that descended from these twelve patriarchs. The personal character of several of them was none of the best (the first four were much blemished), and yet the covenant was entailed on their seed; for it was of grace, free grace, that it was said, Jacob have I loved - not of works, lest any man should boast.
II. The family of Judah. That tribe was most praised, most increased, and most dignified, of any of the tribes, and therefore the genealogy of it is the first and l…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Chronicles 2:17
Jether the Ishmaelite--(compare Sa2 17:25). In that passage he is called Ithra an Israelite; and there seems no reason why, in the early days of David, anyone should be specially distinguished as an Israelite. The presumption is in favor of the reading followed by the Septuagint, which calls him "Jetra the Jezreelite." The circumstance of his settling in another tribe, or of a woman marrying out of her own tribe, was sufficiently rare and singular to call for the statement that Abigail was married to a man of Jezreel.
Adam Clarke on 1 Chronicles 2:17
Jether the Ishmeelite - "They called him Jether, because he girded himself with his sword, that he might assist David with the Arabians, when Abner was endeavoring to destroy David and the whole race of Jesse, as being unfit to enter into the congregation of the Lord, on account of Ruth the Moabitess." - T.
John Gill on 1 Chronicles 2:17
And Abigail bare Amasa,.... Who was Absalom's general, afterwards reconciled to David, and designed to be made general of his army, but was slain by Joab, see 2 Samuel 17:25,
and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite; he is called an Israelite, 2 Samuel 17:25, and so in the Targum here, he being either a proselyte, or else he was an Israelite by birth, but called an Ishmaelite, because he had dwelt among the Ishmaelites some time, as Obededom is called the Gittite for the like reason; so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it.
