The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 54

·which quite justified the matter of tho will become, as in the margin, mmaz. The prayer, and which thue pleased the Lord. wanting name might be the Jchalaleel of The remarkable and arresting episode could the next verse, 'l'his last name is in the not ha,·e closed in more welcome or im- Hebrew identical with the Jehe.lelel of our pressi,e way than when it is thus briefly Authorized Version (2 Chron. xxix. 12). but conclusively said, "And God granted Ver. 16.-Of none of the characters of him that which he requested." this verse can o.nything be so.id beyond who.t Vers. 11, 12.-Of the whole of the group appears here. of names contained in these two verses, it Vers. 17, 18.-Frnm the to.ngle of these must be said that we are in the dark. The verses it is hopeless to attempt any certain suggestion of Grove, in hi8 art. "Ir-enahash" conclusions. The fa.et of tho antithesis of (Smith's • Bible Dictionary'), is worth the Jewess wife (by some assigned as wife notice, that possibly the verses may be a to Ezra), and the presumably Egyptian wife reminiscence of some Canaanitish graft on mentioned in the latter verse, is perhaps Judah-the Shu.ah (;11:1,:;) of v.,r, 11 point- just enough in the genera.I obscurity to ing to the Shua (vi:;) of eh. ii. 3; Gen. suggest that Mered, the asserted husband of the latter, is to be understood e.s the hus- xxx.iii. 2. Beth-rapha (the house of the band of the former also. But to compass so giant) looks more like the name of a place much e.s this, we have to overlook omission than of a person, though the text needs a in ver. 17 and inversion in ver. 18. There person, and such may be covered possibly is e. tone a.bout the verses, due to names by this name, though it be of a place. they contain, that might suggest to us the Ir-nahash (the city of the serpent). Jerome, times of Egypt and Moses, and traditions in in his 'Qurostiones Hebraicm in Paral.,' keeping do not fail to come to view in asserts or repeats the assertion of some one Jerome (' Qurostiones,' etc.; see also a.rt. else that this is no other place than Beth- "Mered,'' Smith's' Bible Dictionary'). The lehem; taking Nahash as a synonym with four places, Eshtemoe., Gedor, Socho, Ze.noah, Jesse. Unlikely as this is, no place of the mav all with tolerable confidence be identi- name is known. fied in Josh. xv. 48-58, as of the number Vers. 13-15.-We return here to the of the cities "in the mountains," though neighbourhood of names not quite strange. Zanoall and Socha are found also "in the From comparison of the many passages in valley" (Josh. xv. 33-36). In this passage Numbers, Joshua, and Judges. which con- the Septuagint gives us no help, but betrays tain references to 0tlmiel and Caleb ( son its own perplexity, offering to make Jether of Jephunneh), the stronger conclusion to the _father of Miriam; while the Syriac and which we are led is that Othniel was younger .Ax,\bic versions simply skip the verses e.s brother of Caleb (probably not by both incoherent. the same parents) and Xenaz a forefather, Ver. 19.-The first clause of this verse in of course not literally father. The conclu- the Hebrew is, And the sons of the wife Eion is not arri,ed at without difficulty, or of Hodiah. The margin offers the Jewess with any real certainty. In the present a.gain for Hodiah. Nothing is known ex- instance, e.g., why should Othniel, if the planatory of the descriptive word Ge.rmite voun.,.er brother and so expressly and re- here. Its meaning, according to Gesenins, peate°dly n,entioned, be taken first? For is "bony." Eshtemoa is here distinguished the possible Kenaz of this passage, we might from the same-spelt word in ver. 17 by the then refer to eh. i. 53; Gen. xxxvi. 42. description the Maaohathite, Maachad being He.thath. The marginal reading, which joins a region at the foot of Hc1·mon, bordering on Meonothai at once to Hathath, and then and bclongiug to Syria. supplies "who" before "begat Ophrah,". is Ver. 20.-The names of this verse obta.in decidedly lo he adopted. Joab son of Seraiah no light from other passages. The Scp- is not to be assumed to be one with Joab son tuagin t (Alexandrian), in loc., speaks of uf Zeruiah. The valley of the Charashim "Someion, the father of Jnme.m,'' in the (s~e also Neh. xi. 35), i.e. smiths, or crafts- former verse which probably stands for men, lay east of Jaffa, and behind the plain this Shim.on. Also the Septuagint for of Sharon; and is said by Jerome, iu his Vuluate, instead of counting Ben-he.nan e.s • Qurosliones Hebre.icre in Paral.,' to have the ;ame of a third son, translate it, as of been, according to tradition, named so be- Rinnah " son of Hanan." Ishi; not to be cause the arcbitecta of the temple came confused with eh. ii. 31, son of Appaim. thP.nce. Im. Perhaps the real name is lr, Our Authorized Version, following the Vul- and the final vau rather an initial for the gate, docs not translate Ben-zoheth, while n,-xt name. Ela.h. Probably another name the Hebrew would read naturally " Zohcth, is wanting after this, which the vau will and the son of Zohcth." then join to Kenaz; otherwise, as vau will Vera. 21-2~.-The first of theso verses not trauslate "even," the following name takes us be.ck to ell. ii. 3, whcro the first en. iv. 1--!3.] TIIE FinS'l' BOOK OF 'rHE CHRONICLES. 45