And Ashur the father of Tekoa ,.... A son of Hezron by Abiah, 1 Chronicles 2:24 . had two wives, Helah and Naarah ; as Lamech had, polygamy not being reckoned unlawful in those times. read more
And Naarah bare him Ahuzam, and Hepher, and Temeni, and Haahashtari ,.... Of whom we have no account elsewhere: these were the sons of Naarah ; the second wife of Ashur. read more
And the sons of Helah ,.... The other wife: were Zereth, and Zoar, and Ethnan : nowhere else mentioned. read more
And Coz ,.... Another son of Helah, and brother of the before mentioned: begat Anub, and Zobebah ; of whom we nowhere else read: and the families of Aharhel, the son of Harum ; these were of the posterity of Coz; the Targum is, "and the family of Aharhel, this is Hur, the firstborn of Miriam;'which is not at all probable. read more
And Ethnan - After this word we should, with the Targum, read Coz, whose posterity is mentioned in the next verse. Coz was probably the same as Kenaz. read more
The son of Harum - Jabez should be mentioned at the end of this verse, else he is as a consequent without an antecedent. read more
EXPOSITION After the large space given to the "sons of David," of the tribe of Judah, in the previous chapter, this chapter returns for twenty-three verses to group together a few additional ramifications of the same tribe, whose registers were for some reasons, perhaps not very evident, preserved and known. The first verses follow in the direction already indicated in 1 Chronicles 2:1-55 ; near the end of which we were left with Shobal and Haroeh, probably the same with Reaiah (the... read more
Another before-mentioned person ( 1 Chronicles 2:24 ) is brought forward, viz. Ashur, the posthumous son of Hezron by Abia, now again, as there, styled father, or chief, of Tekoa, a town, as above, near Etam, Bethlehem, etc. He is brought forward that the names of his two wives, with four children to the latter of them and three to the former, may be given. The Roman Septuagint unaccountably gives different names to the mothers, and reverses the groups of the four and three children. Nothing... read more
The link of connection between the persons named in this verse and the tribe of Judah is utterly unknown. The introduction of them, abrupt as it is, is, however, paralleled by many others ira-mediately following in this chapter, as well as elsewhere. Nothing has yet been produced in elucidation of any one of the persons designated by these names, or of their relation to the context. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Chronicles 4:1-10
One reason, no doubt, why Ezra is here most particular in the register of the tribe of Judah is because it was that tribe which, with its appendages, Simeon, Benjamin, and Levi, made up the kingdom of Judah, which not only long survived the other tribes in Canaan, but in process of time, now when this was written, returned out of captivity, when the generality of the other tribes were lost in the kingdom of Assyria. The most remarkable person in this paragraph is Jabez. It is not said whose... read more