The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 31

pubject is treated interestingly under the Uri, and great-grandson :Oezaleel. Furthor Tai·ious ne.mes in Smith's 'llible Dictionary.' reference to these is mane in ver. 50. 'l'he husband of Zeruiah is given no,vhere, Vers. 21-24.-The first interruption to while the husband of Abigail, here called the record of Caleb's posterity is now oo- J' ether the Ishmeelite, is, in the passage cnsioned by a resumed reference to Hezron, nlready referred to (2 Sam. xvii. 25), called who at the age of threescore took to wife Ithre. (which is a slightly altered form of (as it seems from ver. 24) Abiah, sister to the name), an Israelite, with little doubt an Gilead, daughter of the eminent man Maohir, error for Ishmaelite. In the same passage who was l\fanasseh's oldest son by an also her own name appears e.s St=!~., in- Aramitess concubine (eh. vii. 14). Two stead of ','.?=!~., though me.ny manuscripts sons of Hezron by Abiah are given (the have this latter: latter of them a posthumous child), but the elder having a son called J'air, tracked, uo Vers. 18-20.-{C) Chelubai. The de- doubt as oue who beoame famous by the scendants of Caleb (Chelubai), ple.ced third number of cities he took. He was thus con- of Hezron's sons, are next dealt with; but nected ou the father's side with a great tho subject is almost immediately inter- family of Judah, and on the mother's with n1pted by resumed reference to Hezron a gre:i.t family of Manasseh. He is probably (vers. 21-24), and by the table of Jerah- not the Jair of Judg. x. 3, with his" thirty rneel and his descendants (vers. 25-41); sons, thirty ass colts, and thirty cities.'' And after which the table of Caleb, apparently ;•~~ ('1& .. (os, Mark v. 22) is not i'J1: of the same Caleb, is carried on (vers. 42-49). 2 Sam. xxi. 19; eh. xx. 5. Evident stress Taking these broken portions, however,just is laid on his maternal descent. Thus as they come, we are immediately met by a. (Numb. xxxii. 41) he is styled son of series of uncertainties and surprises. Ver. IS Manasseh, and hence also the explanation is obscure in that it says Caleb had children of the last clause of ver. 23, infra, all these by Azubah (the Hebrew construction also belonged to the sons of Machir the father of unusua.l), a wife, or indeed strictly a woman Gilead. Some of the cities alluded to are (not even using the ordinary formula. "his the Havoth-Jair (Numb. xxxii. 41; Dent. wife"), and by J'erioth, of whom nothing is iii. 14; Josh. xiii. 30), Englished as the said; and the verse adds obscw·ity by "groups of dwellings of Jair," on which see saying, her sons are these, without plainly interesting note in Stanley's 'Sinai and indicating to which woman reference is Palestine• ( edit. 1866), vocabulary, pp. 526, made. It may be safely presumed, however, 527. They lay in the trans-Jordanic dis- from what follows, that Azubah is intended, trict Trachonitis, the modern El-leyah and though no other part of Scripture helps us Jebel-Hanran. It is not possible to harmo- by so much as a mention of the sons' names nize exactly the numbers of the cities given to determine it certainly. Meantime one here with those in passages quoted above; Hebrew manuscript and the Chaldee Para- nor is the translation of ver. 23, Authorized phrase are found to omit the words " and by Version, very certainly the correct one. E. Jerioth." The Vulgate, and the Syriac and Bertheau, in his 'Die Biicher der Chrouik Arabic versions, make Jerioth one of the erklii.rt; :xv. Kurzgef. cxegetisches Hand- children-possibly a daughter-of Caleb buch. z. A. T.,' translates, •• And Geshur and Azubah, and this view is supported by and Aram took the Havvoth-Jair from them Kennicott and Houbigant (Barrington's with Kenath and her daughter-towns, sixty • Genealogies,' i 210). The tone of ver. 19 cities.'' "Took" is supposed to mean here may certainly be held to offer some counte- "retook," or "recovered." Though this nance to thti a.1111umption that either Jerioth's suits the Hebrew syntax better, it does not name ought to appear as that of a chilcl or suit so well our immediate context; nor not at alL The name Ephrath in this verse have we any other information of such re- abounds with interest. The ancient name covering of them. of the town of Bethlehem, and also ap- Ver. 23.-Geshur was a small district parently of a district round it, is the same between Argob and Bashan; and Aram, word wl.dch is found here as the name of a commonly translateu Syria, i.e. the nncient woman. In either case it is more generally Syria, viz. the territory of Dama.sous. written nn,.it-t, as even in the two other Kenath, rechristened by its subduer Nobah appearan~;' ~f it in this very chapter. (Numb. xxxii. 42), and retainiug this Two manuscripts, followed by two ancient name at the time of Gideon, and Zeba ancl editions, and apparently by the Vulgate, Salmunuah subsequently vindicated the life substitute aleph for the above final he. of its old name, and regained it, replaced in In !11icah v. 1, Bethlehem is found unitecl tho present day by Kenawil.t. And the with Ephratah in one compound worcl. Tho towns thereof; Hebrew literally, her mother Ephrath is here interesting for her daugldei·s; i.e. tho smull, suborclin11te descendants given, her eou Rur, ~ran<ieo11 groqps of people (Nqmb, :ui. 25, "All the ell, ft. i-55. j THE Ftnsf_r BOOK OF THE CI-IRONICtES.