Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Tribe, Family

Two words are rendered tribe, namely, matteh (מטה ) and shevet (שׁבט , Ass. sibdhu, 'rod'), both of which originally signify A rod. The founder of a family was its root, whilst the ancest or of each subdivision (and so the subdivision itself) was a rod or stem. Hence the rod was the symbol of the tribe (Numbers 17:2), and perhaps the heads of the tribes had rods, batons, or sceptres of office. Shevetfirst appears in Genesis 49:10 (compare vers.16, 28). Matteh is first used of a tribe in Exodus 31:2. Both words are used freely in the same sense in the Pentateuch and Joshua. Shevet is the more favourite word in Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Psalms, and is found occasionally in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Zechariah. Matteh only occurs twice in Kings, is frequent in Chronicles, hardly ever in the prophetical books.

The family is a still further subdivision, and is called Mishpachah (משׁפחה ); the only exceptions were as follows: - in 2 Chronicles 35:5; 2 Chronicles 35:12, the word ab (אב ), the ancestry or house of fathers, is used in Judges 6:15, eleph (אלף , Ass. alapu), a 'thousand,' is adopted (compare its use in the prophecy of Bethlehem, which was so small among the 'thousands' of Israel, Micah 5:2) in 1 Chronicles 13:14 and Psalms 68:6 we find the word beth (בית ), a house.

In Genesis 47:12 the Hebrew is taph (טף ), which is generally rendered little ones; this rendering, however, has lately been questioned.

Dr. Payne Smith, late Dean of Canterbury, suggested in his Hampt on Lectures that Israel was divided into three great classes: - First, there were the nobles, heads, or princes, whose genealogies are given in the Books of Numbers and Chronicles. Secondly, there were the retainers, who formed the strength of these noble houses, not necessarily descended in a direct line from Jacob, but forming households or clans under the various nobles. The Hebrew name for these households was taph (טף ), which the LXX renders οἰκία and συγγένεια. [But only once in each case. The usual renderings are παιδίον, τέκνον, ἀποσκευὴ.] They were circumcised, were sharers of the covenant, and were part of the commonwealth of Israel. Dr. Payne Smith holds the English rendering 'little ones' to be a mistake, because, whilst the taphincluded the children, it also included a great deal more, namely, the whole household or body of retainers. Thirdly, there was the 'mixed multitude' (ereb), which had gradually united itself with the destinies of Israel, and which included Egyptians, Arabs, and, in course of time, Canaanites. They appear to have had no landed property assigned to them, and were not sharers in the covenant.

Each tribe was divided into families (mishpachah) which bore the names of the leading descendants of Jacob. Thus the men of the tribe of Reuben formed four families, and these were subdivided into houses (Numbers 1:2). Similarly, in Joshua 7:17-18, in the history of Achan, we find the tribe of Judah thus divided into families, houses, and individuals. The number in each 'house' must have been large. The chiefs of the 'houses' were important men, and were called 'chief fathers' in Numbers 31:26, and 'heads of the fathers' in Joshua 14:1.