SUMMARY
The Chronicler’s enumeration of Benjamin’s descendants ends with a reference to the tribal members living in “Jerusalem” (8:28), which alludes to a broader biblical backstory and anticipates Davidic rule in the capital of Israel.
ANALYSIS
The genealogyGenealogy involves the study and tracing of families through the generations - in short, family history. One genealogy in Genesis traces the nations descended from Noah. In the New Testament Matthew traces the ancestry of Jesus back to Abraham, while Jesus' genealogy in Luke goes... More of BenjaminA son of Jacob and tribe of Israel. More and his descendants ends by noting, “These were the heads of ancestral houses, according to their generations, chiefs. These lived in Jerusalem” (1 Chronicles 8:28). This closing reference to Jerusalem conjures the data in JoshuaThe successor of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. More and Judges, in which Benjamin inherits the area that would become “Jerusalem” later in Israel’s history, but does not remove the previous inhabitants, known as the Jebusites. In listing the towns of Canaan, Joshua includes “Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim—14 towns with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families” (Joshua 18:28). Later, the book of Judges notes, “But the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived in Jerusalem among the Benjaminites to this day” (Judges 1:21). In 1 Chronicles 8:1-28 there is no mention of “Jebus” nor the “Jebusites” as is found in Joshua and Judges. One reason for this omission derives from the Chronicler’s postexilic perspective and the desire to present the returned exiles as the rightful (and sole) inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Another reason for noting that the descendants of Benjamin “lived in Jerusalem” (1 Chronicles 8:28) is to anticipate the capture of Jerusalem later in 1 Chronicles: “DavidSecond king of Israel, David united the northern and southern kingdoms. More and all Israel marched to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land” (1 Chronicles 11:4). For the Chronicler, the city is known primarily as “Jerusalem” (i.e., the city of David) and only secondarily as “Jebus.” The note in our passage that the tribe of Benjamin “lived in Jerusalem” establishes the city as a possession of Israel even before David’s conquest.
