1 Chronicles 2:50-55

III.—1 Chronicles 2:50-55 : A third register of Calebite clans and settlements.

(50) The sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah.—See 1 Chronicles 2:19-20 and Notes. The statement “These were the sons of Caleb” should be connected with 1 Chronicles 2:49, as a subscription or concluding remark to the list, 1 Chronicles 2:42-49. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 2:33.) A fresh start is then made with “the sons (so the LXX.) of Hur, firstborn of Ephratah,” reverting to the Caleb of 1 Chronicles 2:19 seq., just as 1 Chronicles 2:34 returns to Jerahmeel in the Sheshanite branch.

Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim.—Shobal is named at 1 Chronicles 4:1 as a chief clan or sub-tribe of Judah, along with Hur.

Kirjath-jearim.—“City of woods,” one of the four cities of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:17), also called Kirjath-Baal and Baalah (Joshua 15:9; Joshua 15:60), in the hill-country of Judah.

(51) Salma the father of Beth-lehem.—See 1 Chronicles 2:11, where Salma may be the feather-house (clan) of which Boaz was a member. The present Salma, however, is a Calebite, whereas the Salma of 1 Chronicles 2:11 is a Ramite.

Beth-gader (géder).—Joshua 12:13, Geder; Joshua 15:36, Gederah; or perhaps Gedor (Joshua 15:58).

(52) Haroeh, and half of the Manahethites.—Haroeh is probably a relic of Jehoraah (LXX., Ἀραά) =Reaiah (see 1chron iv 2) and perhaps hatsi-hammenuhoth should be altered to hatsi-hammanahti (see 1 Chronicles 2:54), which would give the sense of the Authorised Version. As the Hebrew stands, the Vulg. is a literal rendering of it: qui videbat dimidium requietionum (!). The Manahathites were the people of Manahath (1 Chronicles 8:6). a town near the frontier of Dan and Judah (1 Chronicles 2:54).

(53) This verse is really a continuation of the last, and a comma would be better than a full stop after the word Manahathites. The “families” (clans or groups of families, mishpehôth) dwelling in the canton of Kirjath-jearim, viz., the Ithrites, Puhites (Heb., Puthites), &c, were also sons of Shobâl. Two of David’s heroes, Ira and Gareb (1 Chronicles 11:40), were Ithrites. The three other clans are nowhere else mentioned.

Of them came the Zareathites, and the Eshtaulites.—Rather, from these went forth the Zorathites, &c. The men of Zorah and Eshtaôl were subdivisions of the clans of Kirjath-jearim. Zorah (Judges 13:2), a Danite town, the home of Samson, now Sura. Eshtaôl, also a Danite town, near Zorah (Judges 16:31; Judges 18:11-12), the present Um-Eshteiyeh. Both were on the western border of Judah, a few miles west of Kirjath-jearim.

(54) The sons of Salma; Beth-lehem.—In 1 Chronicles 2:51 Salma is called “father of Bethlehem,” and according to 1 Chronicles 2:50, Salma is a son of Hur and a grandson of Ephratah, i.e., Beth-lehem (see 1 Chronicles 2:19, Note). The recognition of the ethnographical and geographical significance of these expressions at once removes all difficulty. Salma was the principal clan established in Bethlehem-Ephratah; branches of which were settled at Netophah, a neighbouring township (1 Chronicles 9:16; 2 Samuel 23:28-29), important after the return (Ezra 2:22; Nehemiah 7:26).

Ataroth, the house of Joab.—Rather, Atroth-beth-Joab (comp. Abel-beth-Maachah); an unknown town, whose name means “ramparts of the house of Joab,” i.e., “Joab’s castle,” perhaps a strong city where Joab’s family was settled. (See 1 Chronicles 2:26.)

Half of the Manahethites were sons of Salma, the other half sons of Shobal (1 Chronicles 2:52).

The Zorites.—A by-form of Zorathites (1 Chronicles 2:53). The word really belongs to the next verse, as the sons of Salma are arranged in pairs.

(55) The families (mishpehôth=clans) of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez.—Among the clans calling themselves sons of Salma were three groups of Sopherim (Authorised version, “scribes”) settled at Jabez (Heb., Ia‘bêç), a town of northern Judah, near to Zorah. (See 1 Chronicles 4:9, Note.) The three clans were known as those of Tir‘ah, Shimeah, and Suchah. The Vulg. treats these names as appellatives, and renders canentes atque resonantes et in tabernaculis commorantes, that is, “singing and resounding, and dwelling in tents.” This translation is assumed to be due to Jerome’s Rabbinical teachers, and is justified by reference to the words terû‘âh, “trumpet-blare;” shim‘âh, “report;” or the Aramaic Shema‘tâ “legal tradition” and sûkâh (= sukkah), “a booth.” Hence the conclusion has been drawn that the Sopherim of Jabez were, in fact, ministers of religion, discharging functions precisely like those of the Levites. So Wellhausen, who refers to Jeremiah 35:19, and the title of Psalms 70:0 in the LXX., and to one or two late fragmentary notices of the Rechabites. On the face of it the supposition is unlikely; nor does it derive any real support from the Kenite origin of these Sopherim, for it is a mere fancy that the house of Jethro, the Kenite priest of Midian, became temple-ministers in Israel. Besides, the etymologies of the names are hardly cogent; and if we try to extract history from etymology here, we might as well do so in the case of the clans of Kirjath-jearim (1 Chronicles 2:53), and make the Ithrites a guild of ropers (yether, “cord, bowstring”), the Puthites hinge-makers (pôthôth—1 Kings 1:50—“hinges”), and the Shumathithes garlic-eaters (shûm, “garlic,” Numbers 11:5). The Vulg. often makes the blunder of translating proper names. (See 1 Chronicles 2:52; 1 Chronicles 2:54).

These are the Kenites that came of Hemath (Heb., Hammath), the father of the house of (Beth-) Rechab.—The three clans of Sopherim were originally Kenites, and traced their descent from Hammath, the traditional founder of the Rechabite stock. When, or under what circumstances these Rechabite Kenites amalgamated with the Calebite clan of Salma is unknown; but comp. Judges 1:11-16.