15]], “And the name of the second if Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had (only) daughters,” to be correct and beyond criticism, and the first part of 1Ch 7:15 to be corrupt and defective; and conjecture that a son of Gilead's was mentioned in it, to whose name the words, “And the name of the second,” etc., belonged. This son who was mentioned in the text, which has been handed down to us only in a defective state, was probably the Ashriel mentioned in 1Ch 7:14, a son of Gilead, whose descent from Machir was given more in detail in the corrupt and consequently meaningless first half of 1Ch 7:15. In 1Ch 7:15, 1Ch 7:17, other descendants of Machir by his wife Maachah are enumerated, which favours the probable conjecture that the wife whom Machir took, according to 1Ch 7:15, was different from Maachah, that Machir had two wives, and that in 1Ch 7:15 originally the sons of the first were enumerated, and in 1Ch 7:16, 1Ch 7:17, the sons of the second. Peresh and Shelesh are mentioned only here. בּנין, “his sons” (that is, the sons of the last-named, Shelesh), were Ulam and Rakem, names which are also met with only here. The name בּדן is found in our Masoretic text, 1Sa 12:11, as the name of a judge, but probably בּרק should be read instead.
Verse 18
A third branch of the descendants of Gilead were descended from Machir's sister Hammoleketh, a name which the Vulgate has taken in an appellative sense. Of her sons, Ishod, i.e., “man of splendour,” is not elsewhere mentioned. The name Abiezer occurs, Jos 17:2, as that of the head of one of the families of Manasseh. In Num 26:30, however, he is called Jeezer, which is probably the original reading, and consequently our Abiezer is different from that in Jos 17:2. Another circumstance which speaks strongly against the identification of the two men is, that the family descended from Jeezer holds the first place among the families of Manasseh, which is not at all consonant with the position of the son of Machir's sister here mentioned. Of the family of Abiezer came the judge Gideon, Jdg 11:15. A daughter of Zelophehad is called Mahlah in Num 26:33; Num 27:1, but she is not the person here mentioned.
Verse 19
The sons of Shemida, the founder of the fourth family of the Manassites, Num 26:32. His four sons are nowhere else referred to, for שׁכם, the founder of a family of the Manassites (Num 26:31 and Jos 17:2), is to be distinguished from the Shechem of our verse; nor is there any greater reason to identify Likhi with Helek, Num 26:30 (Berth.), than there
