Have you been reading the genealogies along with these lessons?

One thing I noticed is that we get a lot more names of women. We get the names of several mothers, as well as some wives and some sisters. These are names that we don’t find elsewhere in the historical text.

There’s one really interesting mention in 1 Chronicles 7.

We have children and grandchildren and even a great-grandchild of Ephraim. Ephraim was one of Joseph’s sons, so Ephraim’s mom was Egyptian.

These descendants of Ephraim try to steal away the livestock of Gath. They are all killed.

Ephraim is mourning because his future generations were just wiped out.

God gives him another son, but then we also have mention of his daughter. Now, it’s possible there were other daughters. We don’t know, but this one gets mentioned. Why?

It says his daughter Sheerah built both Lower and Upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah.

She built three cities.

This, of course, is quite a remarkable feat. Maybe when the rest of the family was wiped out, she stepped up to fill in where there was lack. If they hadn’t been killed, maybe she wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity.

It makes you wonder what others thought when they saw her accomplishment, why it didn’t open the way for more women leader/builders.

Somehow, she was allowed to proceed and continue, since there are three cities.

The first two cities are named for their location. The other she named after herself, as the men before her often did. The city is called, “Listen to Sheerah.”

Makes you wonder if she had trouble getting people to listen, or if she self-appointed herself head in that city, and you had to know if you were going to settle there, you better listen to Sheerah!