the sons of Elah; and Kenaz. 16And the sons of Jehallelel; Ziph, and Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel. 17And the sons of Ezrah; Jether, and Mered, and Epher, and Jalon: and she bare Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. 18And his wife [1]the Jewess bare Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took. 19And the sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham, were the father of
the sons of Elah; and Kenaz] The sons of Elah and Kenaz seem to be co-ordinated, as each represented a family descended from Caleb; but perhaps the text is faulty.
16—20. The connection of these names with Judah does not appear. In accordance with the structure of this section (see note on Carmi, ver. 1) we might expect here to find "the sons of Hezron or Perez"; and, since the relationship between Jehallelel (16) and Ezrah (17) is not indicated, it has been suggested that we should insert in ver. 16 "And the sons of Perez and Jehallelel and Ezrah." No certainty can be felt in the matter.
Ziph] in south Judah, 1 Sam. xxiii. 15. Ziphah, a fem. form of the same name.
17. and Jalon: and she bare Miriam] As the text stands she has no antecedent. It has therefore been proposed to transfer from ver. 18 the words And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took, and put them after Jalon. Bithiah then appears as the mother of Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, and the difficulty of the absence of her sons' names from ver. 18 disappears. For father of Eshtemoa see ii. 24 note, and for Eshtemoa see Josh. xxi. 14.
18. his wife] the wife of Mered, if the transposition mentioned in the last note be accepted.
his wife the Jewess] so called in contrast to his Egyptian wife.
Gedor] Cp. ver. 4, where a different person is perhaps by a different tradition called father of Gedor. Gedor is to be identified with the ruins of Jedur on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron, cp. ver. 39.
Soco . . . Zanoah] The Soco (Jos. xv. 48) and Zanoah (Jos. xv. 56) here mentioned were situated to the S.W. of Hebron. They are to be distinguished from a Soco near the valley of Elah (Jos. xv. 35, 2 Chr. xi. 7, xxviii. 18) and Zanoah near Beth-shemesh (Jos. xv. 34).
these are the sons of Bithiah] See note on ver. 17. A "daughter of Pharaoh" is somewhat strange in such surroundings. For an interesting emendation and interpretation, see Macalister, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1905, p. 252.
- ↑ Or, Hajehudijah
