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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 2:52 - 2:52
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Shobal had sons, הַמְּנֻחֹות חֲצִי הָרֹאֶה. These words, which are translated in the Vulgate, qui videbat dimidium requietionum, give, so interpreted, no fitting sense, but must contain proper names. The lxx have made from them three names, Ἀραὰ καὶ Αἰσὶ καὶ Ἀμμανίθ, on mere conjecture. Most commentators take הראה for the name of the man who, in 1Ch 4:2, is called under the name Reaiah, ראיה, the son of Shobal. This is doubtless correct; but we must not take הָרֹאֶה for another name of Reaiah, but, with Bertheau, must hold it to be a corruption of רְאָיָה, or a conjecture arising from a false interpretation of הַמְּנֻחֹות חֲצִי by a transcriber or reader, who did not take Hazi-Hammenuhoth for a proper name, but understood it appellatively, and attempted to bring some sense out of the words by changing ראיה into the participle רֹאֶה. The הַמָּנַחְתִּי חֲצִי הַ in 1Ch 2:54 corresponds to our הַמְּנֻחֹות חֲצִי, as one half of a race or district corresponds to the other, for the connection between the substantive הַמְּנֻחֹות and the adjective הַמָּנַחְתִּי cannot but be acknowledged. Now, although מְנוּחָה signifies resting-place (Num 10:33; Jdg 20:43), and the words “the half of the resting-place,” or “of the resting-places,” point in the first instance to a district, yet not only does the context require that Hazi-Hammenuhoth should signify a family sprung from Shobal, but it is demanded also by a comparison of our phrase with hmnchty chtsy in 1Ch 2:54, which unquestionably denotes a family. It does not, however, seem necessary to alter the הַמְּנֻחֹות into הַמָּנַחְתִּי; for as in 1Ch 2:54 Bethlehem stands for the family in Bethlehem descended from Salma, so the district Hazi-Hammenuhoth may be used in 1Ch 2:52 to denote the family residing there. As to the geographical position of this district, see on 1Ch 2:54.
1Ch 2:53
Besides the families mentioned in 1Ch 2:52, the families of Kirjath-jearim, which in 1Ch 2:53 are enumerated by name, came of Shobal also. וּמִשְׁפְּחֹות ק is simply a continuation of the families already mentioned, and the remark of Berth., that “the families of Kirjath-jearim are moreover distinguished from the sons of Shobal,” is as incorrect as the supplying of ו cop. before הם הֲצִי in 1Ch 2:52 is unnecessary. The meaning is simply this: Shobal had sons Reaiah, Hazi-Hammenuhoth, and the families of Kirjath-jearim, viz., the family of Jether, etc. David's heroes, Ira and Gareb, 1Ch 11:40; 2Sa 23:38, belonged to the family of Jether (הַיִּתְרִי). The other three families are not met with elsewhere. מֵאֵלֶּה, of these, the four families of Kirjath-jearim just mentioned, came the Zoreathites and the Eshtaulites, the inhabitants of the town of Zoreah, the home of Samson, now the ruin Sura, and of Eshtaol, which perhaps may be identified with Um Eshteyeh (see in Jos 15:33).