1 Chronicles 7:4
And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and thirty thousand men: for they had many wives and sons. And with them, by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and thirty thousand men: for they had many wives and sons.
The verse records that the descendants of Issachar numbered thirty-six thousand men organized in bands of soldiers for war by their generations after the house of their fathers, and that their many wives and sons account for their numbers and military strength. It stands within the long lists of names and family lines that open 1 Chronicles, giving the genealogies of the various tribes with interesting matters and beautiful gems thrown in. That opening section is described both as the first eight chapters and as the first nine chapters, and more broadly as chapters 4-19, while chapter 7 itself is a record of names and family lines.
Chronicles forms one book in the third part of the Jewish arrangement and is called Words or Acts of Days, meaning minutes of events, lists of names, and the like. In the Septuagint it is called Things omitted or passed over, and the common name comes from the Latin Chronica. It gives much more attention to the house of Judah and the priesthood than Kings does. The long record preserves the records of God's children and the integrity of the tribes, with the genealogy of the tribe of Judah kept especially carefully because Christ came through Judah.
The verse illustrates that many Bible verses, and some whole chapters, simply list people rather than state promises. The long lists of names are fully inspired even when they are not read in family worship or private devotion and are not equally interesting and valuable to all persons under all circumstances. Though often considered dry, tedious, and uninteresting chronology, they contain beautiful gems that illuminate them. God put deep things in the Bible to interest scholars and men of all tastes and capacities, not for one class only but for all classes. He recorded the origin and distribution of races because He knew men would arise who would study ethnology, and He scattered pearls of spiritual truth along the way by which He leads them as scientists, so that many seeking only human knowledge find that which is divine.