Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 4:21

The sons of Shelah the son of Judah [were], Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea,

21. Shelah ] 1Ch 2:3.

Lecah ] an unknown place.

Mareshah ] 1Ch 2:42; 2Ch 11:8; Jos 15:44 (mentioned with Keilah). A town in the south of Judah.

the house of Ashbea ] Nothing is known of such a family. We might render, Beth-Ashbea, but nothing is known of such a place.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 21. That wrought fine linen] “Of the family of those who worked in fine flax to make garments for kings and priests.” – T.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Having treated of the posterity of Judah by Pharez, and by Zerah, he now comes to his progeny by

Shelah, of whom see Ge 38.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

21. Laadah . . . the father . . . ofthe house of them that wrought fine linenHere, again, isanother incidental evidence that in very early times certain tradeswere followed by particular families among the Hebrews, apparently inhereditary succession. Their knowledge of the art of linenmanufacture had been, most probably, acquired in Egypt, where theduty of bringing up families to the occupations of their forefatherswas a compulsory obligation, whereas in Israel, as in many parts ofAsia to this day, it was optional, though common.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The sons of Shelah, the son of Judah, were,…. The genealogy of the posterity of Judah, in the lines of Pharez and Zerah, being given, and very largely in that of the former, because of the honour of David, and his kingdom, which sprang from thence, as Jarchi observes, and also the King Messiah, the writer returns to give an account of his posterity by Shelah, a son he had by the daughter of Shuah, Ge 38:2 and the only one that had children: which were as follow,

Er the father of Lecah: prince of a city of this name in the tribe of Judah; Shelah gave him the name of Er, in memory of his brother, Ge 38:3,

and Laadah the father of Mareshah; prince of a city of this name in the same tribe, Jos 15:44

and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea; which last clause explains what house these families were of, which sprang from Shelah, and were employed in making fine linen; the Targum adds, for the garments of kings and priests, or for the curtains of the tabernacle, as Jarchi; for not with the Egyptians and Greeks only fine linen was made, but among the Hebrews, as Pausanias f testifies.

f Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p. 294.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Descendants of Shelah, the third son of Judah, 1Ch 2:3, and Gen 38:5. – All the families of Judah enumerated in vv. 2-20 are connected together by the conjunction , and so are grouped as descendants of the sons and grandsons of Judah named in 1Ch 4:1. The conjunction is omitted, however, before , as also before in 1Ch 4:3, to show that the descendants of Shelah form a second line of descendants of Judah, co-ordinate with the sons of Judah enumerated in vv. 1-19, concerning whom only a little obscure but not unimportant information has been preserved. Those mentioned as sons are Er (which also was the name of the first-born of Judah, 1Ch 2:3.), father of Lecah, and Laadan, the father of Mareshah. The latter name denotes, beyond question, a town which still exists as the ruin Marash in the Shephelah, Jos 15:44 (see on 1Ch 2:42), and consequently Lecah ( ) also is the name of a locality not elsewhere mentioned. The further descendants of Shelah were, “the families of the Byssus-work of the house of Ashbea,” i.e., the families of Ashbea, a man of whom nothing further is known. Of these families some were connected with a famous weaving-house or linen (Byssus) manufactory, probably in Egypt; and then further, in 1Ch 4:22, “Jokim, and the man of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, which ruled over Moab, and Jashubi-lehem.” Kimchi conjectured that was the place called in Gen 38:5 = , Jos 15:44, in the low land, where Shelah was born. is a strange name, “which the punctuators would hardly have pronounced in the way they have done if it had not come down to them by tradition” (Berth.). The other names denote heads of families or branches of families, the branches and families being included in them.

(Note: Jerome has given a curious translation of 1Ch 4:22, “ et qui stare fecit solem, virique mendacii et securus et incendens, qui principes fuerunt in Moab et qui reversi sunt in Lahem: haec autem verba vetera, ” – according to the Jewish Midrash, in which was connected with the narrative in the book of Ruth. For , qui stare fecit solem, is supposed to be Elimelech, and the viri mendacii Mahlon and Chilion, so well known from the book of Ruth, who went with their father into the land of Moab and married Moabitesses.)

Nothing is told us of them beyond what is found in our verses, according to which the four first named ruled over Moab during a period in the primeval time; fir, as the historian himself remarks, “these things are old.”

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament