Ezer and Elead
were killed by the native-born men of Gath, when they went down to seize their
livestock (1 Chronicles
7:21).
Within this History
of the World is inserted what
amounts to little more than a parenthetical note regarding two sons of Ephraim.
Though Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, Jacob (Ephraim’s grandfather) gave
him the best blessing, which normally would have gone to his older brother
Manasseh.
Because of the
limitations of ancient languages, and some particularly awkward sentence
structure, it’s difficult to say exactly why Ezer and Elead were caught in a
conflict with the men of Gath. Some commentators say men from Gath raided the
Israelites in Goshen and the brothers died defending their livestock. Others
say it was Ezer and Elead who were the thieves and they died when they were
caught stealing from the herds of Gath.
Most translations
leave the statement ambiguous. Then again the NLT places blame with Ezer and
Elead, and the Amplified Bible says they were heroes. There’s anecdotal
evidence in support of both scenarios, but we just don’t know.
Here’s what we do
know: Jacob’s kind words over Ephraim did not guarantee him a life free from
sadness. In spite of his grandfather’s blessing, this was a man who knew the
heartache of burying his children.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Have you ever felt betrayed
by God? What does it do to your faith to realize believers suffer the same
tragedies as (or even worse than) those who don’t believe? How is that fair?
No comments:
Post a Comment