This page gives you ready-made study questions for 1 Chronicles 7, a chapter of genealogies covering the tribes of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim and Asher. It is written for a small group, a Sunday class or personal study. Each set of questions includes a leader’s answer or discussion note, so you can run the session without preparing a separate summary.
1 Chronicles 7 at a Glance
The chapter moves tribe by tribe. It opens with the sons of Issachar and the Benjamites, lists the Naphtali and Manasseh households, and then turns to the descendants of Ephraim, including a painful account of loss and a daughter who builds towns. The chapter closes with the sons of Asher and a count of their fighting men.
Much of the chapter is lists of names, numbers and family lines. Those lists were important to the people who first read Chronicles, who were rebuilding their identity after exile and needed proof that they belonged to the whole people of Israel. Keep that purpose in view as you read.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask the group to point to the exact words in the text and resist the urge to explain. Let silence sit for a moment after each question.
1 Chronicles 7:2
The sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their fathers’ houses, of Tola; mighty men of valor in their generations. Their number in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred.
(WEB)
This verse introduces the men of Tola as mighty men of valor, listed by their fathers’ houses. Reading it aloud helps the group hear how the text honors whole households and not only individuals.
1 Chronicles 7:22-23
22 Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. 23 He went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because there was trouble with his house.
(WEB)
These verses hold grief and new life side by side. Reading them slowly gives the group space to talk about sorrow and hope in the same breath.
1 Chronicles 7:24
His daughter was Sheerah, who built Beth Horon the lower and the upper, and Uzzen Sheerah.
(WEB)
Sheerah’s work is named in one short verse. Reading it aloud reminds the group that women’s contributions are recorded in Scripture even within long male lists.
1 Chronicles 7:28-29
28 Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with its towns; Shechem also and its towns, to Azzah and its towns; 29 and by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth Shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, and Dor and its towns. The children of Joseph the son of Israel lived in these.
(WEB)
The settlement list places these families in real towns and regions. Reading the place names aloud helps the group picture the land the story is rooted in.
1 Chronicles 7:40
All these were the children of Asher, heads of the fathers’ houses, choice and mighty men of valor, chief of the princes. The number of them listed by genealogy for service in war was twenty-six thousand men.
(WEB)
The chapter ends by calling the men of Asher choice and mighty, chiefs of the princes. Reading this final verse aloud gives the session a clear and dignified close to the chapter’s reading.
Memory Verse for 1 Chronicles 7
1 Chronicles 7:22
Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.
(WEB)
Memorizing this verse helps you recall that God’s people are sustained through grief by others who come near and stay. It is a short, concrete line that you can carry into a hard week.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we thank you that you know each family and each name, even the ones that appear only in a long list. We bring you the losses we have carried, and we ask for the kind of faithful presence that sat with Ephraim for many days. Help us remember those who came before us and to build good things that outlast our own season. Give us eyes to see the people others overlook and hands ready to serve them. Amen.
