The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 32

villages thereof," !Hemlly, dau(lhterB), All Ver. 26.-For i1'Jf?V., one manuscript has these belonged to the Bona o! lllaohir, the ,!!?~, and another :,'J1tlp, father of Gilead, might perhaps be open Ver. 28.-One me.n·uscript makes Ne.dab to the tmnslo.tion, "All these were the and Abishnr two additional sons of 0nam, possessions of llfochir, the possessor of by omitting the words and the sons of Gilead." Shamme.i Ver. 24.-The remaining verse of this Ver. 29.-r,:;:i•~~-, r,:1:1•~~-, S:~•:i~ .• are the section bringa another point of difficulty readings of various manuscripts in this unsolved yet. No place Ce.leb-ephratah is verse. known, and no sort of accounting for Hezron dying anywhere but in Egypt, whither he Vera. 31-35.-The Authorized Version is went with Jacob (Gen. xlvi. 12), is pro- not justified in substituting children for the ducible. The Vulgate has lngres/fll,8 est Hebrew "sons;" the object evidently being Caleb ad Ephratam, but our Hebrew text to make this statement reconcilable witl1 cannot be made to justify it, if for nothing ver. 34, which says that Sheshau had only daughters. The difficulty can be removed, else, for want of a preposition ~t:t before possibly, by supposing that Ahle.i die,l (yet "Ephrata." This reading of the Vuigate has see eh. xi. 41), or that, at the time to which suggested to others that by a slight but still ver. 34 refers, only daughters were in ques- gratuitous alteration of our Hebrew text tion. Wall's conjecture, that Ahlai of ver. llt:l might be substituted for the preposition 31 is the same with Atte.i of ver. 35, would ~ 'prefixed to the name of Caleb; but upon have more probability if aleph were not the that showing we have to suppose that Caleb initial letter of the one, and ayin of the did leave Egypt on hie own account and other. Still, as a.II the other " sons " of this travel to Ephratoh, and then there fails any passage mean sons strictly, it would be un- strong connection(but see Septuagint, inloc.) likely that sons of Sheshan only should between that fact and what is said a.bout mean "grandsons." The genealogy now Abiah. Still, the explanation might receive proceeds through Sheshan's daughter, some countenance from the fact that it is name not given (unless poBsibly Ahbi), said that Abiah's son became the father-or mnrried to his Egyptian servant J'a.rhe., founde·r-of Tekoe., e. place near Bethlehem, down to (ver. 41) Elisha.ma., at the twentieth in South Judah (1 Sam. xxx.14). Bertheau generation from Jere.hmeel. To this, how- has at this point suggested that Ualeb- ever,theSeptue.gint (Ju;,,ta Exemplar Origin- epbre.tah, instead of being included in ale Vaticanum, of 1637), adds one generation Neger-Ce.leb, may rather, in distinction more, Kal 'E>uaaµ.a. Ej'lvvTJU'E T0v ,Iuµa{1'A.. from it, designate the northern portion of The Egyptian servant Jo.rha. is not hear,! of the territory of Caleb. The solution of the elsewhere; that he wo.s enfranchised before problem will probably not yield to anything his me.rrio.ge with Sheshan's do.ughler is but a justly restored text. likely enough (Dent. xxiiL 8; 1 Sam. x:i:x. Vera. 25-41.-We reoch here the second 11), The language of the end of ver. 33, interruption in the account of Co.leh's pos- These were the sons of J' era.hmeel, won Id seem terity. (A) J'era.hmeel, though the eldest to exclude the following thirteen descend- Hezronite son, has as yet been passed by in ants of Je.rha and Sheshe.n's daughter from favour of Ro.m o.nd in favour of Caleb, so the genealogy. Yet this is sco.rcely likely for o.s regards part of his descendants. to be the intention, which perhaps wus Jere.hrneel himself is mentioned nowhere sotisfied with simply mo.rking a distinction else, but bis people collectively o.ro (1 Sam. by the pause. xxvii. 10; xxx. 29). On the other hand, Ver. 36.-The name Ze.be.d throws con- this ploce alone supplies the lists of no.mes, siderable doubt on the opinion that no one and we ho.ve not the a.id of o.ny collation. of Jere.hmeel's descendants given in this Ver. 25 purports in the Authorized Ver~ion genealogy can be found elsewhere in tho to gi rn five sons of J erahmeel by his first Old Testo.ment; for compare a.gain eh. xi. 41. wife, of name not given. The absence of the Ver. 38.-So also compo.re Aze.riah with 2 conjunction "and," however, in the Hebrew Chron. xxiii. l. These two names o.ro abun- text before the last no.me, Ahijah, suggests dantly interesting hero. Zabo.d, the tenth tho.t this may be the no.me of the first wife, from Jero.hmeel, or fourteenth from tho the presence of which seems greatly required potrio.rch Juilah himself, brings us to tho by the contents of the next verse. Some time of Dovid, by exactly tho s,,me interval particle being required, Le Clerc, accepting o.s sovon other perfect gcueo.logics, four of the suggestion of Junius and Tremellius, these having the very so.me number of steps, proposes to supply n~72, and Bertheau the viz. fourteen, two having fifteen, o.nd that so.me preposition, but in Cl simpler form, pre- of Dovitl hiiuself ho.ving eleven steps. Au fixed to the name Ahijo.h (see Barriugton's o.nalogous and equally interosling corrc- • Genealogies,' i. 180). spondenco co.n be traced with tbe nam@  '1'fl:E FIRST noott. OF 'l'Il8 CllRO:N°ICLES.