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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 4:39 - 4:39
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The princes named “went westward from Gedor to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.” גְדֹר מְבֹוא does not mean the entrance of Gedor (Mich., Berth., and others); but is, as the corresponding מִזְרַח, “rising” of the sun, i.e., east, requires, a designation of the west, and is abridged from הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ מְבֹוא, as in statements with reference to places מִזְרַח is used instead of הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ מִזְרַח. The locality itself, however, is to us at present unknown. So much is clear, that by Gedor, the Gedor mentioned in Jos 15:58, situated in the high lands of Judah, north of Hebron, cannot be intended, for in that district there is no open valley stretching out on either hand; and the Simeonites, moreover, could not have carried on a war of conquest in the territory of the tribe of Judah in the reign of Hezekiah. But where this Gedor is to be sought cannot be more accurately determined; for הַגָּיְא is certainly not “the valley in which the Dead Sea lies, and the southern continuation of that valley,” as Ewald and Berth. think: that valley has, in the Old Testament, always the name הָעֲרָבָה. From the use of the article, “the valley,” no further conclusion can be drawn, than that a definite valley in the neighbourhood of Gedor is meant.
(Note: The lxx have rendered גְדֹר by Γεράρ, whence Ewald and Bertheau conclude that גדר is a transcriber's error for גרר. But a slip of the pen which would make the Gerar so famed in the history of the patriarchs into Gedor is à priori not very probable; and the defective writing גדר, while Gedor in the high lands is written גְּדֹור, cannot be adduced, as Bertheau thinks, in support of the hypothesis, since Gedor even in 1Ch 4:18 is written defectively. It is decisive against Gerar, that the dwelling-places of the Simeonites demonstrably did not extend till towards sunset (westward) from Gerar, for the cities assigned to them all lie to the east of Gerar.)
Even the further statements in 1Ch 4:30, with regard to the district, that they found there fat and good pasture, and that the land extended on both sides (i.e., was wide), and at rest and secure, because formerly the Hamites dwelt there, and the statement of 1Ch 4:41, that the Simeonites found the Meunim there, and smote them, give us no firm foothold for the ascertainment of the district referred to. The whole Negeb of Judah has been as yet too little travelled over and explored by modern travellers, to allow of our forming any probable conjecture as to Gedor and the wide valley stretching out on both sides. The description of the Hamite inhabitants, וּשְׁלֵוָה שֹׁקֶטֶת, reminds us of the inhabitants of the ancient Laish (Jdg 18:7, Jdg 18:27). Those צָם מִן are people from Ham, i.e., Hamites, and they may have been Egyptians, Cushites, or even Canaanites (1Ch 1:8). This only is certain, that they were a peaceful shepherd people, who dwelt in tents, and were therefore nomads. לְפָנִים, “formerly,” before the Simeonites took possession of the land.