Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Matthew 1:5 - 1:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat 1:5. τὸν Βοὸζ ἐκ τῆς Ῥαχάβ, Boaz of Rahab) Some think that the immediate ancestors of Boaz have been passed over; but it stands thus also in Rth 4:21 : nor can the first Fourteen, the standard of the two others, admit of an hiatus. More correct is their opinion, who maintain that, in such a length of time, some of the ancestors mentioned lived to a great age. The definite article, τῆς, placed before the proper name Ῥαχάβ, shows that Rahab of Jericho is here meant; nor does the orthography of the word Ῥαχάβ interfere with this hypothesis: for both Ῥαάβ (Raab or Rahab) and Ῥαχάβ (Rachab) are written for רחב. See Hiller’s[5] Onomasticon Sacrum, p. 695. The Rahab of Jericho was very young when she hid the spies (Jos 6:23): she outlived, however, Joshua and the elders (Ibid. Mat 24:29-30); and her marriage with Salmon must have taken place still later, as it is not mentioned in that book, though it is recorded that she dwelt in Israel (See Jos 6:25). In Rth 1:1, the earliest times of the Judges seem to be meant, so that the verb שפט (which might otherwise be supposed redundant) may have an inceptive[6] force, as in like manner מלך[7] often signifies he took the kingdom, or began to reign: and Naomi must have gone into Moab, before the Moabite domination mentioned in Jdg 3:12. Rahab might therefore have been, as she actually was, the mother of Boaz. He did not marry Ruth till he was far advanced in life (see Rth 3:10); and their grandson, Jesse, was very old (see 1Sa 17:12; 1Sa 17:14), when he became the father of David.-Cf. concerning Jehoiada, 2Ch 24:15.
[5] Matthew Hiller, a Lutheran divine and learned Orientalist, born at Stuttgard, 1646. Successively Professor at various universities with great reputation. Died 1725.-(I. B.)
[6] Bengel means, that שְׁפ̇ט חַשֹֽׁפְטִים (translated in the E. V. the Judges ruled, marg. judged) ought to be rendered the Judges began to judge, so as to indicate with greater exactness the date of the event, at the commencement of the era of the Judges.-(I. B.)
[7] יִמְלדְ מָלַד 1) to regin, to be king; (2) to become king, 2Sa 15:10; 2Sa 16:8; 1Ki 14:2.-GESENIUS.-(I. B.)