we may conclude that it lay at no great distance from Jerusalem, in a northern direction.
Verse 15
Of Iru, Elah, and Naam, the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh (cf. on 1Ch 4:13), nothing more is known. To connect Elah with the Edomite chief of that name (1Ch 1:52) is arbitrary. Of Elah's sons only “and Kenaz” is mentioned; the ו copul. before קנז shows clearly that a name has been dropped out before it.Descendants of various men, whose genealogical connection with the sons and grandsons of Judah, mentioned in 1Ch 4:1, is not given in the text as it has come to us.
Verse 16
Sons of Jehaleleel, a man not elsewhere mentioned. Ziph, Ziphah, etc., are met with only here. There is no strong reason for connecting the name זיף with the towns of that name, Jos 15:24, Jos 15:55.
Verses 17-19
Ezra, whose four sons are enumerated, is likewise unknown. The singular בּן is peculiar, but has analogies in 1Ch 3:19, 1Ch 3:21, and 1Ch 3:23. Of the names of his sons, Jether and Epher again occur, the former in 1Ch 2:53, and the latter in 1Ch 1:33 and 1Ch 5:24, but in other families. Jalon, on the contrary, is found only here. The children of two wives of Mered are enumerated in 1Ch 4:17 and 1Ch 4:18, but in a fashion which is quite unintelligible, and shows clear traces of a corruption in the text. For (1) the name of a woman as subject of ותּהר, “and she conceived (bare),” is wanting; and (2) in 1Ch 4:18 the names of two women occur, Jehudijah and Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh. But the sons of Jehudijah are first given, and there follows thereupon the formula, “and these are the sons of Bithiah,” without any mention of the names of these sons. This manifest confusion Bertheau has sought to remove by a happy transposition of the words. He suggests that the words, “and these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered had taken,” should be placed immediately after וילון. “By this means we obtain (1) the missing subject of ותּהר; (2) the definite statement that Mered had two wives, with whom he begat sons; and (3) an arrangement by which the sons are enumerated after the names of their respective mothers.” After this transposition the 1Ch 4:17 would read thus: “And the sons of Ezra are Jether, Mered, ... and Jalon; and these are the sons of Bithia the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took; and she conceived (and bare) Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa (1Ch 4:18), and his wife Jehudijah bore Jered the father of Gedor, etc.” This conjecture commends itself by its simplicity,
