In this chapter we read about the tribes of Issachar, Benjamin Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim and Asher.

I’ll just highlight what we learned about each one.

Issachar was a large and hard working and fruitful tribe who grew to have over 145,000 men in their midst fit for battle.

From the tribe of Benjamin came Israel’s first king, Saul.

The descendants of Naphtali are not listed like the other tribes, possibly because the records were lost.

The tribe of Manasseh had been taken into captivity. That’s why Manasseh had a Syrian wife.

The tribe of Ephraim saw heartbreak early on when two of Ephraim’s sons were killed when they tried to steal cattle from people of Gath. We don’t know much about what happened there, only that Ephraim mourned a long time for his fallen sons, and that he named the son born during that time Beriah because he was born during a time of misery. How would you like to be named after such a time in your family?

And finally the tribe of Asher. They were not large in number, but they produced 26,000 brave soldiers. Perhaps since they were small in comparison to the tribe of Issachar, these soldiers were like today’s special forces.