Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/81

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was defective, is untenable: for after two wives had been named in the enumeration of the children of one of them, the mother must necessarily have been mentioned; and so, instead of בּניה, we should have had עזוּבה בּני. Hiller and J. H. Michaelis take ואת as explicative, “with Azubah a woman, viz., with Jerioth;” but this is manifestly only the product of exegetical embarrassment. The text is plainly at fault, and the easiest conjecture is to read, with the Peschito and the Vulgate, את אשׁתּו instead of ואת אשּׁה, “he begat with Azubah his wife, Jerioth (a daughter); and these are her sons.” In that case אשּׁה would be added to עזוּבה, to guard against עזוּבה being taken for acc. obj. The names of the sons of Azubah, or of her daughter Jerioth, do not occur elsewhere.

Verses 19-20


When Azubah died, Caleb took Ephrath to wife, who bore him Hur. For אפרת we find in 1Ch 2:50 the lengthened feminine form אפרתה; cf. also 1Ch 4:4. From Hur descended, by Uri, the famous Bezaleel, the skilful architect of the tabernacle (Exo 31:2; Exo 35:30).

Verses 21-24


The descendants of Hezron numbered with the stock of Caleb: (a) those begotten by Hezron with the daughter of Machir, 1Ch 2:21-23; (b) those born to Hezron after his death, 1Ch 2:24.

Verses 21-22


Afterwards (אחר), i.e., after the birth of the sons mentioned in 1Ch 2:9, whose mother is not mentioned, when he was sixty years old, Hezron took to wife the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, who bore him Segub. Machir was the first-born of Manasseh (Gen 50:23; Num 26:29). But Machir is not called in 1Ch 2:21 and 1Ch 2:23 the father of Gilead because he was the originator of the Israelite population of Gilead, but אב has here its proper signification. Machir begot a son of the name of Gilead (Num 26:29); and it is clear from the genealogy of the daughters of Zelophehad, communicated in Num 27:1, that this expression is to be understood in its literal sense. Machir is distinguished from other men of the same name (cf. 2Sa 9:4; 2Sa 17:27) by the addition, father of Gilead. Segub the son of Hezron and the daughter of Machir begat Jair. This Jair, belonging on his mother's side to the tribe of Manasseh, is set down in Num 32:40., Deu 3:14, as a descendant of Manasseh. After Moses' victory over Og king of Bashan, Jair's family conquered the district of Argob in Bashan, i.e., in the plain of Jaulan and Hauran; and to the conquered cities, when they were bestowed upon him for a possession by Moses, the name Havvoth-jair, i.e., Jair's-life, was given. Cf. Num 32:41 and [[Bible_(King_James)/Deuteronomy|Deu 3: