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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 4:28 - 4:28
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The ancient dwelling-places of the Simeonites, which they received within the tribal domain of Judah at the division of the land by Joshua; cf. Jos 19:1. - There are in all eighteen cities, divided into two groups, numbering thirteen and five respectively, as in Jos 19:2-6, where these same cities are enumerated in the same order. The only difference is, that in Joshua thirteen cities are reckoned in the first group and four in the second, although the first group contains fourteen names. Between Beersheba and Moladah there stands there a שֶׁבַע which is not found in our list, and which might be considered to be a repetition of the second part of בְּאֵר־שֶׁבַע, if it were not that in the list of the cities, Jos 15:26, the name שְׁמָע before Moladah corresponds to it. The other differences between the two passages arise partly from different forms of the same name being used, - as, for example, בִּלְהָה for בָּלָה (Josh.), תֹּולַד for אֶלְתֹּולַד, בְּתוּאֵל for בְּתוּל; and partly from different names being used of the same city, - e.g., בֵּית־בִּרְאִי (1Ch 4:31) instead of בֵּית־לְבָאֹות, “the house of lions” (Josh.), שַׁעֲרַיִם instead of שָׁרוּחֶן (Josh.). All these cities lie in the south land of Judah, and have therefore been named in Jos 15:26-32 among the cities of that district. As to Beersheba, now Bir es Seba, see on Gen 21:31; and for Moladah, which is to be identified with the ruin el Milh to the south of Hebron, on the road to Ailah, see on Jos 15:26. Bilhah (in Jos 15:29, בַּעֲלָה), Ezem, Tolad, and Bethuel (for which in Jos 15:31 כְּסִיל is found), have not yet been discovered; cf. on Jos 15:29 and Jos 15:30. Hormah, formerly Sephat, is now the ruin Sepata, on the western slope of the Rakhma table-land, 2 1/2 hours south of Khalasa (Elusa); cf. on Jos 12:14. Ziklag is most probably to be sought in the ancient village Aschludsch or Kasludsch, to the east of Sepata; cf. on Jos 15:31. Beth-marcaboth, i.e., “carriage-house,” and Hazar-susim (or Susa), i.e., horse-village, both evidently by-names, are called in Jos 15:31 Madmannah and Sansannah. Their position has not yet been discovered. Beth-Birei, or Beth-lebaoth, is also as yet undiscovered; cf. on Jos 15:32. Shaaraim, called in Jos 15:32 Shilhim, is supposed to be the same as Tell Sheriah, between Gaza and Beersheba; cf. Van de Velde, Reise, ii. S. 154. The enumeration of these thirteen cities concludes in 1Ch 4:31 with the strange subscription, “These (were) their cities until the reign of David, and their villages.” וְחַצְרֵיהֶם, which, according to the Masoretic division of the verses, stands at the beginning of 1Ch 4:32, should certainly be taken with 1Ch 4:31; for the places mentioned in 1Ch 4:32 are expressly called cities, and in Jos 19:6, cities and their villages, הַצְרֵיהֶם, are spoken of. This subscription can hardly “only be intended to remind us, that of the first-mentioned cities, one (viz., Ziklag, 1Sa 27:6), or several, in the time of David, no longer belonged to the tribe of Simeon;” nor can it only be meant to state that “till the time of David the cities named were in possession of the tribe of Simeon, though they did not all continue to be possessed by this tribe at a later time” (Berth.). Ziklag had been, even before the reign of David, taken away from the Simeonites by the Philistines, and had become the property of King Achish, who in the reign of Saul presented it to David, and through him it became the property of the kings of Judah (1Sa 27:6). The subscription can only mean that till the reign of David these cities rightfully belonged to the Simeonites, but that during and after David's reign this rightful possession of the Simeonites was trenched upon; and of this curtailing of their rights, the transfer of the city of Ziklag to the kings of Judah gives one historically attested proof. This, however, might not have been the only instance of the sort; it may have brought with it other alterations in the possessions of the Simeonites as to which we have no information. The remark of R. Salomo and Kimchi, that the men of Judah, when they had attained to greater power under David's rule, drove the Simeonites out of their domains, and compelled them to seek out other dwelling-places, is easily seen to be an inference drawn from the notices in Jos 19:33-43 of emigrations of the Simeonites into other districts; but it may not be quite incorrect, as these emigrations under Hezekiah presuppose a pressure upon or diminution of their territory. We would indeed expect this remark to occur after Jos 19:33, but it may have been placed between the first and second groups of cities, for the reason that the alterations in the dwelling-places of the Simeonites which took place in the time of David affected merely the first group, while the cities named in Jos 19:32., with their villages, remained at a later time even the untouched possession of the Simeonites.