the two genealogies diverge-ours introducing his son Uriel and his descendants; the other, in 1Ch 6:36, mentioning a second son of Tohath, Zephaniah, of whose race Heman came.
Verses 25-30
1Ch 6:25-30 (Hebrew_Bible_6:10-15). “And the sons of Elkanah, Amasai and Ahimoth.” As it is clear that with אלק וּבני אל a new list begins, and that the preceding enumeration is that of the descendants of Abiasaph, it is at once suggested that this Elkanah was the brother of the Abiasaph mentioned in 1Ch 6:15. If, however, we compare the genealogy of Heman, we find there (1Ch 6:36 and 1Ch 6:35) a list of the descendants of Joel in an ascending line, thus, - Elkanah, Amasai, Mahath, Elkanah, Zuph; from which it would seem to follow that our Elkanah is the son of Moel mentioned in 1Ch 6:36, for Ahimoth may be without difficulty considered to be another form of the name Mahath. This conclusion would be assured if only the beginning of 1Ch 6:26 were in harmony with it. In this verse, indeed, בּנו אלקנה, as we read in the Kethibh, may be without difficulty taken to mean that Elkanah was the son of Ahimoth, just as in 1Ch 6:20 Elkanah is introduced as son of Mahath. But in this way no meaning can be assigned to the אלקנה which follows בני, and Bertheau accordingly is of opinion that this אלקנה has come into the text by an error. The Masoretes also felt the difficulty, and have substituted for the Kethibh בנו the Keri בּני, but then nothing can be made of the first אלקנה in 1Ch 6:26. Beyond doubt the traditional text is here corrupt, and from a comparison of 1Ch 6:35 and 1Ch 6:34 the only conclusion we can draw with any certainty is that the list from צופי onwards contains the names of descendants of Elkanah the son of Mahath, which is so far favourable to the Keri אלקנה בּני. The name Elkanah, on the contrary, which immediately precedes בנו, seems to point to a hiatus in the text, and gives room for the conjecture that in 1Ch 6:10 the sons of Elkanah, the brother of Abiasaph and Assir, were named, and that there followed thereupon an enumeration of the sons or descendants of the Elkanah whom we meet with in 1Ch 6:36 as son of Joel, after which came the names Elkanah בּנו, Zophai בּנו, etc. נחת and אליאב we consider to be other forms of תּוח and אליאל, 1Ch 6:34, and צופי is only another form of צוּף. The succeeding names, Jeroham and Elkanah (1Ch 6:27), agree with those in 1Ch 6:34; but between the clauses “Elkanah his son” (1Ch 6:27), and “and the sons of Samuel” (1Ch 6:28), the connecting link בּנו שׁמוּאל, cf. 1Ch 6:33, is again wanting, as is also, before or after הבּכר (1Ch 6:28), the name of the first-born, viz.,
