Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 2:42
Now the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel [were], Mesha his firstborn, which was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.
42 49. The Descendants of Caleb
42. Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel ] Called Chelubai (1Ch 2:9) and Caleb the son of Hezron (1Ch 2:18). There is nothing to shew what relationship existed between this Caleb and Caleb son of Jephunneh (1Ch 4:15 and Num 13:6). Perhaps they are to be identified; cp. 1Ch 2:49, note. Both are assigned to the tribe of Judah.
Several of the names, viz. Ziph (Jos 15:24 or 55), Mareshah (2Ch 11:8), Hebron, Tappuah (Jos 15:34), Maon (Jos 15:55), and Beth-zur (Jos 15:58) are names of towns in the S. or S.W. of Judah, and consequently may represent here the respective populations of those towns, and not individual descendants of Caleb.
Mesha ] The Moabite king whose deeds are recorded on the Moabite stone bore this name. It means Victory, enlargement. LXX. reads Mareshah ( ) as in the latter part of the verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A third line of descent from Caleb, the son of Hezron, the issue probably of a different mother, perhaps Jerioth 1Ch 2:18. The supposed omissions in this verse have been supplied as follows:
(1) Mesha, the father of Ziph; and the sons of Ziph, Mareshah, the father of Hebron; or
(2) Mareshah, the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah, the father of Ziph, Hebron.
Ziph, like Jorkoam 1Ch 2:44 and Beth-zur 1Ch 2:45, is the name of a place where the respective chiefs (fathers) settled. Similarly Madmannah, Machbenah, and Gibea 1Ch 2:49, Kirjath-jearim (Jos 9:17 note), Bethlehem and Beth-gader (Jedur, 1Ch 2:51) are unmistakeable names of places in the list, names which it is not probable were ever borne by persons.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 42. Now the sons of Caleb] This was not Caleb the son of Jephunneh, but Caleb the son of Hezron, 1Ch 2:18; 1Ch 2:50. But some think that Caleb the son of Hezron was the grandson of Caleb, son of Jephunneh; but this is probably fanciful.
The father of Ziph] “The prince of the Ziphites.” – T.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The sons of Caleb, to wit, of that Caleb mentioned 1Ch 2:18, as appears by comparing that verse with 1Ch 2:21. And these are his sons by another and his third wife. See Poole “1Ch 2:18“.
Ziph; the name either of a man, or of a place, of which see Jos 15:24,55; and then father is to be understood here, as 1Ch 2:23,24.
The father of Hebron; not the place so called, but a man, as is evident, because his sons here follow.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
42. the sons of Caleb(compare1Ch 2:18; 1Ch 2:25).The sons here noticed were the fruit of his union with a third wife.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel,…. Called Chelubai, 1Ch 2:9 and is the same Caleb spoken of in 1Ch 2:18 and his sons next reckoned were by a third wife, Azubah, Ephrath being dead, 1Ch 2:19 and these sons were
Mesha his firstborn, which was the father of Ziph; who gave name to the city of Ziph; there were two of this name in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:24 or this is the title of Mesha, governor of the city of Ziph; so the Targum calls him, prince of the Ziphites:
and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron; according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, the words are to be supplied thus, “and the sons of Ziph were Mareshah the father of Hebron”; which, though sometimes the name of a city in the tribe of Judah, is here the name of a man, from whom, perhaps, the city had its name, since Hebron is said to have sons in the next verse; Jarchi makes Mesha to be the prince of Ziph, and prince of the children of Mareshah, and prince of Hebron.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Other renowned descendants of Caleb. – First of all there are enumerated, in 1Ch 2:42-49, three lines of descendants of Caleb, of which the two latter, 1Ch 2:46-49, are the issue of concubines. – The first series, 1Ch 2:42-45, contains some things which are very obscure. In 1Ch 2:42 there are menitioned, as sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel, Mesha his first-born, with the addition, “this is the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah, the father of Hebron,” as it reads according to the traditional Masoretic text. Now it is here not only very surprising that the sons of Mareshah stand parallel with Mesha, but it is still more strange to find such a collocation as “sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.” The last-mentioned difficulty would certainly be greatly lessened if we might take Hebron to be the city of that name, and translate the phrase “father of Hebron,” lord of the city of Hebron, according to the analogy of “father of Ziph,” “father of Tekoa” (1Ch 2:24), and other names of that sort. But the continuation of the genealogy, “and the sons of Hebron were Korah, and Tappuah, Rekem, and Shema” (1Ch 2:43), is irreconcilable with such an interpretation. For of these names, Tappuah, i.e., apple, is indeed met with several times as the name of a city (Jos 12:17; Jos 15:34; Jos 16:8); and Rekem is the name of a city of Benjamin (Jos 18:27), but occurs also twice as the name of a person – once of a Midianite prince (Num 31:8), and once of a Manassite (1Ch 7:16); but the other two, Korah and Shema, only occur as the names of persons. In 1Ch 2:44., moreover, the descendants of Shema and Rekem are spoken of, and that, too, in connection with the word , “he begat,” which demonstrably can only denote the propagation of a race. We must therefore take Hebron as the name of a person, as in 1Ch 6:2 and Exo 6:18. But if Hebron be the name of a man, then Mareshah also must be interpreted in the same manner. This is also required by the mention of the sons of Mareshah parallel with Mesha the first-born; but still more so by the circumstance that the interpretation of Mareshah and Hebron, as names of cities, is irreconcilable with the position of these two cities, and with their historical relations. Bertheau, indeed, imagines that as Mareshah is called the father of Hebron, the famous capital of the tribe of Judah, we must therefore make the attempt, however inadmissible it may seem at first sight, to take Mareshah, in the connection of our verse, as the name of a city, which appears as father of Hebron, and that we must also conclude that the ancient city Hebron (Num 13:23) stood in some sort of dependent relationship to Mareshah, perhaps only in later time, although we cannot at all determine to what time the representation of our verse applies. But at the foundation of this argument there lies an error as to the position of the city Mareshah. Mareshah lay in the Shephelah (Jos 15:44), and exists at present as the ruin Marasch, twenty-four minutes south of Beit-Jibrin: vide on Jos 15:44; and Tobler, Dritte Wanderung, 129 and 142f. Ziph, therefore, which is mentioned in 2Ch 11:8 along with Mareshah, and which is consequently the Ziph mentioned in our verse, cannot be, as Bertheau believes, the Ziph situated in the hill country of Judah, in the wilderness of that name, whose ruins are still to be seen on the hill Zif, about four miles south-east from Hebron (Jos 15:55). It can only be the Ziph in the Shephelah (Jos 15:24), the position of which has not indeed been discovered, but which is to be sought in the Shephelah at no great distance from Marasch, and thus far distant from Hebron. Since, then, Mareshah and Ziph were in the Shephelah, no relation of dependence between the capital, Hebron, situated in the mountains of Judah, and Mareshah can be thought of, neither in more ancient nor in later time. The supposition of such a dependence is not made probable by the remark that we cannot determine to what time the representation of our verse applies; it only serves to cover the difficulty which renders it impossible. That the verse does not treat of post-exilic times is clear, although even after the exile, and in the time of the Maccabees and the Romans, Hebron was not in a position of dependence on Marissa. Bertheau himself holds Caleb, of whose son our verses treat, for a contemporary of Moses and Joshua, because in 1Ch 2:49 Achsa is mentioned as daughter of Caleb (Jos 15:16; Jdg 1:12). The contents of our verse would therefore have reference to the first part of the period of the judges. But since Hebron was never dependent on Mareshah in the manner supposed, the attempt, which even at first sight appeared so inadmissible, to interpret Mareshah as the name of a city, loses all its support. For this reason, therefore, the city of Hebron, and the other cities named in 1Ch 2:43., which perhaps belonged to the district of Mareshah, cannot be the sons of Mareshah here spoken of; and the fact that, of the names mentioned in 1Ch 2:43 and 1Ch 2:44, at most two may denote cities, while the others are undoubtedly the names of persons, points still more clearly to the same conclusion. We must, then, hold Hebron and Mareshah also to be the names of persons.
Now, if the Masoretic text be correct, the use of the phrase, “and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron,” instead of “and Mareshah, the sons of the father of Hebron,” can only have arisen from a desire to point out, that besides Hebron there were also other sons of Mareshah who were of Caleb’s lineage. But the mention of the sons of Mareshah, instead of Mareshah, and the calling him the father of Hebron in this connection, make the correctness of the traditional text very questionable. Kimchi has, on account of the harshness of placing the sons of Mareshah on a parallel with Mesha the first-born of Caleb, supposed an ellipse in the expression, and construes , et ex filiis Ziphi Mareshah . But this addition cannot be justified. If we may venture a conjecture in so obscure a matter, it would more readily suggest itself that is an error for , and that is to be taken as a nomen compos., when the meaning would be, “and the sons of Mesha were Abi-Hebron.” The probability of the existence of such a name as Abihebron along with the simple Hebron has many analogies in its favour: cf. Dan and Abidan, Num 1:11; Ezer, 1Ch 12:9, Neh 3:19, with Abi-ezer; Nadab, Exo 6:23, and Abinadab. In the same family even we have Abiner, or Abner, the son of Ner (1Sa 14:50.; 2Sa 2:8; cf. Ew. 273, S. 666, 7th edition). Abihebron would then be repeated in 1Ch 2:43, in the shortened form Hebron, just as we have in Jos 16:8 Tappuah, instead of En-tappuah, Jos 17:7. The four names introduced as sons of Hebron denote persons, not localities: cf. for Korah, 1Ch 1:35, and concerning Tappuah and Rekem the above remark. In 1Ch 2:44 are mentioned the sons of Rekem and of Shema, the latter a frequently recurring man’s name (cf. 1Ch 5:8; 1Ch 8:13; 1Ch 11:44; Neh 8:4). Shema begat Raham, the father of Jorkam. The name is quite unknown elsewhere. The lxx have rendered it , and Bertheau therefore holds Jorkam to be the name of a place, and conjectures that originally (Jos 15:56) stood here also. But the lxx give also for the following name , from which it is clear that we cannot rely much on their authority. The lxx have overlooked the fact that , 1Ch 2:44, is the son of the Hebron mentioned in 1Ch 2:43, whose descendants are further enumerated. Shammai occurs as a man’s name also in 1Ch 2:28, and is again met with in 1Ch 4:17. His son is called in 1Ch 2:45 Maon, and Maon is the father of Bethzur. is certainly the city in the mountains of Judah which Rehoboam fortified (2Ch 11:7), and which still exists in the ruin Bet-sur, lying south of Jerusalem in the direction of Hebron. Maon also was a city in the mountains of Judah, now Main (Jos 15:55); but we cannot allow that this city is meant by the name , because Maon is called on the one hand the son of Shammai, and on the other is father of Bethzur, and there are no well-ascertained examples of a city being represented as son ( ) of a man, its founder or lord, nor of one city being called the father of another. Dependent cities and villages are called daughters (not sons) of the mother city. The word , “dwelling,” does not per se point to a village or town, and in Jdg 10:12 denotes a tribe of non-Israelites.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
see note on: 1Ch 2:18
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
I.1Ch. 2:42-45 : Caleb brother of Jerahmeel = Caleb son of Hezron (1Ch. 2:18) = Chelubai (1Ch. 2:9).
(42) Mesha.The name of a king of Moab (2Ki. 3:4), whose monument of victory, the famous Moabite stone, was found in 1868 at Dibou. Here the name is probably that of a principal Calebite clan, settled at Ziph, near Hebron (Jos. 15:54-55; 1Sa. 23:14).
Father of Ziph.Comp. 1Ch. 2:21, father of Gilead, and 24.
And the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.The statement of the verse is, the sons of Mareshah were sons of Caleb, that is, the Mareshathites, or people of Mareshah (Jos. 15:44), a town in the Shephelah, were a Calebite clan. This branch of Caleb is called father of Hebron, because it had the chief part in colonising that old Canaanite city.
(43) Korah.Elsewhere the name of a subdivision of the Kohathite Levites; in 1Ch. 1:35 it was a tribe of Edomites. In this place, therefore, it may be a clan of Hebronites.
Tappuah.A town in the Shephelah (Jos. 15:34; Jos. 16:8).
Rekem.A Benjamite city (Jos. 18:27); in 1Ch. 7:16, a Machirite chieftain or clan.
Shema.Occurs several times in the chronicle. In 1Ch. 5:8; 1Ch. 8:13 it appears to be the name of a clan; in 1Ch. 11:44 and Neh. 8:4 a person is meant.
(44) Jorkoam.Occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. The LXX. (Alex.) has , Jeklan. Probably, therefore, the correct reading is Jokdeam. (For the change of Hebrew d to Greek l see 1Ki. 5:11, where Hebrew Darda is represented by .) Jokdeam was a town in the hill-country of Judah (Jos. 15:56). The chief or clan Raham is here called its father or founder.
Rekem.The LXX. (Alex.) again has Jeklan (Jokdeam), which is as likely to be right as Rekem.
Shammai.See 1Ch. 2:28.
(45) Maon . . . Beth-zur.Towns in the hill-country of Judah (Jos. 15:55; Jos. 15:58). Maon, now Main, south of Hebron. Beth-zur (2Ch. 11:7), now Beit-sr. In Jdg. 10:12 Midianites, not Maonites, is the better reading.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(42-55) These verses revert to the Calebite stocks. Interpreted as merely bearing upon the extraction of individuals about whom, for the most part, nothing whatever is known beyond what these brief notices reveal, the section presents great difficulties. The key to it appears to be the assumption that it is an ancient record of the relations between certain great branches of the tribe of Judah, and their various settlements; in other words, these lists are tribal and topographical, rather than genealogical.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 2:42 Now the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel [were], Mesha his firstborn, which was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.
Ver. 42. He was the father of Hebron. ] See on 1Ch 2:24 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel and son of Hezron (1Ch 2:18).
father. Here used in the sense of ruler. Compare 1Ch 2:54; 1Ch 4:4.
Mareshah. The name of a city, also in Judah (Jos 15:44).
Hebron. The name of a city, also in Judah. (Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2, Gen 23:19), See note on Num 13:22. Given to Caleb by Joshua (1Ch 14:13).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ch 2:42-55
1Ch 2:42-55
“And the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel were Mesha his first-born, who was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron. And the sons of Hebron: Korah, and Tappuah, and Rekem, and Shema. And Shema begat Raham, the father of Jorkeam; and Rekem begat Shammai. And the son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the father of Beth-zur. And Ephah, Caleb’s concubine, bare Haran, and Moza, and Gazez; and Haran begat Gazez. And the sons of Jahdai: Regem, and Jothan, and Geshan, and Pelet, and Ephah, and Shaaph. Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bare Sheber and Tirhanah. She bare also Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbena, and the father of Gibea; and the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.
1Ch 2:50-55
“These were the sons of Caleb, the son of Hur, the first-born of Ephrathah: Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim, Salma the father of Beth-lehem, Hareph the father of Beth-gader. And Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim had sons: Haroeh, half of the Menuhoth. And the families of Kiriath-jearim: The Ithrites, and the Puthites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites. The sons of Salma: Beth-lehem, and the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab, and half of the Manahathites, the Zorites. And the families of scribes that dwelt at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.”
Although there is a great deal of new material in this chapter (1Ch 2:25-41), other scriptures parallel much of it:
“1Ch 2:1-2 are parallel with Gen 35:22 b-26 and Exo 1:1-6. 1Ch 2:3-4 are in Gen 38:2-7;
Gen 38:29; Gen 46:12 a, and Num 26:18 f. 1Ch 2:5 appears in Gen 46:12 b; Num 26:21;
Rth 4:18. 1Ch 2:6-8 are related to Jos 7:1; 1Ki 5:11. 1Ch 2:9-17 is parallel with Rth 4:19-22;
1Sa 16:8-9; 2Sa 2:18; 2Sa 17:35.”
Our purpose in this commentary does not require any extensive comment on these genealogies. In the first place, they are not completely understood as to their exact meaning by anyone living millenniums after the generations enumerated. “It is impossible now to unravel these genealogies with any certainty.” The duplication of many names, the appearance of many names that cannot be distinguished as applicable whether to persons or places, and other uncertainties greatly complicate the problem of any complete understanding of these chapters. It is also true that textual corruptions in a few places add to the problem.
Nevertheless, the great purpose of the sacred author is fully achieved in these opening nine chapters, which are, in reality, the introduction to the entire Chronicles. The very existence of such extensive records among the Jews is overwhelming evidence that the New Testament genealogies (Matthew 1 and Luke 3) were unanimously received by that whole first-century generation as absolutely accurate; nor were those records ever challenged by the enemies of Christianity. The importance of this in the proper identification of the Messiah is indeed significant.
The “Caleb” of 1Ch 2:18 was identified by Francisco as “the Caleb of the exodus,” but Payne declared: “The Caleb of the exodus came three hundred years later.” This is typical of scholarly disagreement on many such problems in this chapter. The simple truth is that many such questions cannot be dogmatically answered at the present time.
Jacob M. Meyers, writing in The Anchor Bible stated: “Such technical details need not detain us.”
In the verses which are parallel with other scriptures, see my comments under the parallel passages.
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 2:42-55. I have grouped all of these verses into one paragraph because they pertain to the family names of Caleb. The exact identity of this man is uncertain. Young does not attempt to clarify it, and Moffatt’s translation throws little or no light on the subject. It is sufficient for us to know that no other historical matter is dependent on the identity of this particular man or any of his family. Such passages doubtless were useful in determining the settlement of an inheritance; but further than that we need not be concerned.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Caleb: This was not Caleb the son of Jephunneh, but Caleb the son of Hezron, and therefore called the brother of Jerahmeel. See the parallel texts. 1Ch 2:9, Chelubai, 1Ch 2:18, 1Ch 2:19, 1Ch 2:24
his firstborn: Gen 49:3, Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23, Rom 8:29, Heb 12:23
the father: i.e. the founder, Or, as the Targum renders, “the prince of the Ziphites;” for it was usual to call both the founder and the prince of a city its father.
Ziph: Jos 15:24, 1Sa 23:19, 1Sa 26:1
the father of Hebron: 1Ch 2:23, 1Ch 2:24, 1Ch 2:45, 1Ch 2:49, 1Ch 2:52, 1Ch 8:29, Ezr 2:21-35, Neh 7:25-38
Reciprocal: 1Ch 4:18 – the father of
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2:42 Now the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel [were], Mesha his firstborn, which was the {l} father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.
(l) That is, the chief governor or prince of the Ziphims, because the prince should have a fatherly care and affection for his people.