for their flocks. 40And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for they that dwelt there aforetime were of Ham. 41And these written by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and smote their tents, and the Meunim that were found there, and [1]destroyed them utterly, unto this day, and dwelt in their stead: because there was pasture there for their flocks. 42And some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to mount Seir, having for their captains Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. 43And they smote the remnant of the Amalekites that escaped, and dwelt there, unto this day.
xv. 58 is identified with Jedur, Ijdur (north of Hebron, Bädeker, Palestine5, p. 112). See Macalister, loc. cit., 335. LXX. has Gerar (cp. Gen. xx. 1; xxvi. 1), on the Philistine border.
40. they . . . of Ham] i.e. Canaanites, who had long been settled in the district (cp. the security felt by the people of Laish, Judg. xviii. 27). Their presence would seem natural in Gerar on the Philistine border but strange in Gedor near Hebron. If therefore the reading Gedor be preferred above, there is something to be said for the suggestion of Macalister (p. 335) that we should here read "of Menahem" (a change of one letter in Heb.), some unwarlike Hebrew family, perhaps potters.
41. written by name] Apparently those mentioned in vv. 34—37; but the names there are of a late character, and have perhaps been artificially connected with the old tradition of the raiders in vv. 41 ff.
in the days of Hezekiah] The Heb. is ambiguous, but the clause should probably be connected with the verb "came," not with "written": the raid, not the record, was made in the days of Hezekiah.
and the Meunim] Here, and in 2 Chr. xx. 1 (see note), xxvi. 7, the LXX. has Minaeans, an Arabian people who from the 8th or 9th cent. B.C. or perhaps much earlier exercised great authority in South Arabia (see Ency. Brit.11 II. 264). The Meunim of the present passage are to be connected with an Edomitic city or tribe not far from Petra, south of the Dead Sea; or (so Macalister, p. 336) are simply the people of Maon, a township near Hebron in Judah. 2 Chr. xx. 1 (note) and xxvi. 7, R.V.
destroyed them utterly] or, as mg., devoted them (cp. Josh. vi. 18, 21, R.V.). See note 2 Chr. xx. 23.
43. the remnant of the Amalekites] i.e. the descendants of those who had escaped the attacks of Saul and David (1 Sam. xiv. 48, xv. 3 ff.). They had apparently found refuge in some part of the Edomite territory, for mount Seir is a synonym for the land of Edom.
- ↑ Heb. devoted them.
