sons were “heads of fathers'-houses of the inhabitants of Geba,” i.e., Geba of Benjamin (1Sa 13:16), the Levite city, 1Ch 6:45, which still remains as the half-ruinous village Jeba, about three leagues to the north of Jerusalem; see on Jos 18:24. “And they led them captive to Manahath, viz., Naaman and Ahiah and Gera, this man led them captive.” The subject to ויּגלוּם are the men mentioned in the following verse, while the הוּא which follows shows that, of the three above mentioned, the last, Gera, was the author of their captivity. The place Manahath is not known, but is conjectured to be connected with Hazi-Hammanahti and Hazi-Hammenuhoth, 1Ch 2:54 and 1Ch 2:52; but we cannot ascertain with certainty whether the name denotes a city or a district, and the situation of it has not yet been discovered. Of the hostile collision of these Benjamite families also, no more detailed accounts have come down to us.
Verses 8-12
1Ch 8:8-12The descendants of Shaharaim. - The descent of Shaharaim from the sons and grandsons named in 1Ch 8:1-3 is obscure, and the conjecture which connects him with Ahishahar of 1Ch 7:10 is unsupported. He was the father of a considerable number of heads of fathers'-houses, whom his two or three wives bore to him. According to 1Ch 8:8, he begat “in the country of Moab after he had sent them, Hushim and Baara his wives, away; (1Ch 8:9) there begat he with Hodesh his wife, Jobab,” etc. When and how Shaharaim, a Benjamite, came into the country of Moab, is not known; all that can be gathered from our verse is that he must have lived there for a considerable time. שׁלחו is infin. Pi., the “i” being retained, and the Daghesh forte omitted with Sheva (cf. as to this formation, Ew. §238, d.). אתם, accus. of the pronoun, which, as it precedes its noun, is in gen. masc., although the names of women follow (cf. for this use of the pronoun, Ew. §309, c.). חוּשׁים and בּערה are women, as we learn from the following נשׁיו. By this parenthesis, the beginning of the main sentence has been lost sight of, and the הוליד is taken up again in ויּולד. As to הוליד with מן, cf. the remark on 1Ch 2:8. חדשׁ is the third wife, which he took instead of those he had sent away. The seven names in 1Ch 8:9, 1Ch 8:10 are grouped together as sons or descendants of the last-named wife, by the concluding remark, “These his sons are heads of fathers'-houses.” Then, further, in 1Ch 8:11, 1Ch 8:12, the sons and grandsons of the first (divorced) wives, one of whom built the cities Ono and Lydda, are enumerated; but we have no means of determining whether the בּנה הוּא
