The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 118

EXl'OSI'l'ION. to :Bela, Genesis (xlvi. 41) only finds us CHAPTER VIII. clearly three of them, and these in very This chapter carries us back to the tribe different order, viz. Gara, 'Naaman, and of Benjamin, partly dealt with already (eh. Arel; and Numbers (xxvi. 39, 40) finds us only three, viz. Ard, Naaman, and Shupham. vii. 6-12). The tribe is reverted to for the Yet our Kuram may correspond with Hu- same kind of reason that called for our pham, and then the four pairs of names- eh. iii. David was so important a character Shephuphan and Huram, Shupham and in the Judah tribe. And Saul, with whom Hupham, Shuppim and Huppim, and Mup- pim and Huppim-may be interpreted o.s the resume of Chronicle-history begins (eh. designating one and the same couple of viii. 33; ix. 39; x.), belongs to the Benja- persons. '.rhe recurrence of the name Gera min tribe. Thus the genealogy of this tribe in ver. 5, so close upon the same no.me in forms the porch to the history contained iu ver. 3, would of course be more remarkable, this work, and the forty verses of this chapter and point inevitably to the disordered state of the text, if it were necessary to suppose rehearse the sons aud chief men of Benjamin, that these nine persons were really brothers, with a view to bring into prominence the as well as called sons of Bela, stock of Saul. Vera. 6, 7.-Ehud. We are brought to a Vers. 1, 2.-These verses give five sons to halt again by the sudden introduction of :Benjamin. Of the non-appearance of Becher this name. Even if it stand for Abihud here ( eh. vii. 6) and the appearance of (ver. 3) or for Ahoah (ver. 4), why is it Ashbel in his place, also of the non-appear- changed in so short an interval? It is 1111ce here of Je<liael (eh. vii. 6) a11d the impossible to establish order in these versos appearance of Aharah (i.9-. Ahiram, Numb. except by most gratuitous coujecture. But xxvi. 38) in his place, notwe has been taken it may be supposed that the verses say that on eh. vii. 6-12. Of the two additions to Ehud's people once belonged to Manahath, the sons of Benjamin here, viz. Nohah and that the he11cls of them removed them to llapha, nothing is known elsewhere; yet it Geba (Josh. xviii. 24), and that he himself may be poosible to count five families from (query, Ehud? but commonly re11d Gera) Numl,. xxvi. 38, 39. removed them, and also Naaman, and Ahiah, Vere. 3-5-Nine sons are here assigned and Gera (which look very much like the en. vm. 1-40.] 'l'HE FIRS'l' BOOK OF THE CHRONIULES. 10!)