1 Chronicles 5:10

10 During Saul's reign they fought and defeated the Hagrites; they then took over their tents and lived in them on the eastern frontier of Gilead.

1 Chronicles 5:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 5:10

And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites,
&c.] Not with the Hungarians, as the Targum, a people not then in being; but the Ishmaelites, so called because they descended from Hagar ^F19, Sarah's maid; the same that are placed by Pliny ^F20 and Ptolemy ^F21 in Arabia, near the Batanaeans, or inhabitants of Bashan; with those the Reubenites made war, in conjunction with the Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh, ( 1 Chronicles 5:18 1 Chronicles 5:19 ) , perhaps this war might be much about the time Saul relieved Jabeshgilead, and beat the Ammonites, ( 1 Samuel 11:1-14 ) by which the tribes on that side Jordan might be encouraged to it:

who fell by their hand;
were worsted and conquered by them:

and they dwelt in their tents;
in which the Arabians used to dwell, because of their flocks; hence some of them were called Scenites:

throughout all the east [land] of Gilead;
or rather throughout all the land of the Hagarites, which lay to the east of Gilead, as the Vulgate Latin version; or otherwise the land of Gilead itself was their original possession.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 So David de Pomis, Lexic. fol. 45. 4.
F20 Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28.
F21 Geograph. l. 5. c. 19.

1 Chronicles 5:10 In-Context

8 then Bela son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel. Joel lived in the area from Aroer to Nebo and Baal Meon.

9 His family occupied the land up to the edge of the desert that goes all the way to the Euphrates River, since their growing herds of livestock spilled out of Gilead.

10 During Saul's reign they fought and defeated the Hagrites; they then took over their tents and lived in them on the eastern frontier of Gilead.

11 The family of Gad were their neighbors in Bashan, as far as Salecah:

12 Joel was the chief, Shapham the second-in-command, and then Janai, the judge in Bashan.