villages were Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities: 33and all their villages that were round about the same cities, unto Baal. These were their habitations, and they have their genealogy. 34And Meshobab, and Jamlech, and Joshah the son of Amaziah; 35and Joel, and Jehu the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel; 36and Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshohaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah; 37and Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Alton, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah; 38these mentioned by name were princes in their families: and their fathers' houses increased greatly. 39And they went to the entering in of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture
to Simeon after David's day. The clause breaks the connection of vv. 31, 32; and is perhaps a late gloss.
32. And their villages were Etam] more probably and their villages (end of ver. 31). Etam, etc. (continuing the list of cities as in ver. 31). By villages (ḥăṣērīm) are meant small hamlets dependent on larger towns and generally unwalled (Lev. xxv. 31).
Ain, Rimmon] so also in the parallel passage, Josh. xix. 7; but certainly only one place is meant, Ain-Rimmon (see the commentaries on Josh. xv. 42 and xix. 7). The number of the cities here ought therefore to be reckoned four, not five.
33. unto Baal] Baal ("lord") standing by itself is an unlikely name for a town. Read Baalath-beer, Ramah of the South ("the mistress of the well, the high place of the South"), as in Josh. xix. 8.
34—43. The Heroes of Simeon and their Exploits.
It seems probable that the exploits mentioned in these verses are derived from some old, though obscure, tradition, and are therefore of historical value for the movements of the tribe of Simeon. Apparently we are to understand that in the time of Hezekiah a band of the wild semi-nomadic tribe of Simeon made a successful raid upon a fertile valley near Gerar (a correction for Gedor, see ver. 39), a township on the Philistine border, taking by surprise its peaceful population who were partly Canaanites, partly settlers who had come originally from a place Maon (see ver. 41). Gedor, the reading of the Heb. text, was a town just north of Hebron. A raid by Simeonites on such a town is a startling, but not incredible, episode in Hezekiah's time; but see also note on ver. 40. Finally vv. 42, 43 record a further assault by Simeonites, this time against Edomite territory. For full discussion see Hogg in Ency. Bib. iv. 4527 ff.; also Macalister, P. E. F. S., 1905, 335 ff.
38. their fathers' houses] See note on ch. v. 13.
39. the entering in of Gedor] Cp. ver. 18. The Gedor of Josh.
