pressed so far as this: for valid proofs are entirely wanting that towns are represented as sons and brothers of other towns; and the section 1Ch 2:42-49 does not treat merely, or principally, of the geographical relations of the families of Judah, but in the first place, and in the main, deals with the genealogical ramifications of the descendants and families of the sons of Judah. It by no means follows, because some of these descendants are brought forward as fathers of cities, that in 1Ch 2:42-49 towns and their mutual connection are spoken of; and the names Caleb, Ram, and Jerahmeel do not here denote families, but are the names of the fathers and chiefs of the families which descended from them, and dwelt in the towns just named. We accordingly distinguish Caleb, whose daughter was called Achsah, and whose father was Jephunneh (Jos 15:16.), from Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel and the son of Hezron. but we explain the mention of Achsah as daughter of Caleb, at the end of the genealogical lists of the persons and families descended by concubines from Caleb, by the supposition that the Caleb who lived in the time of Moses, the son of Jephunneh, was a descendant of an older Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel. But it is probable that the Caleb in 1Ch 2:49 is the same who is called in 1Ch 2:42 the brother of Jerahmeel, and whose descendants are specified 1Ch 2:42-49; and we take the word בּת, “daughter,” in its wider sense, as signifying a later female descendant, because the father of the Achsah so well known from Jos 15:16. is also called son of Jephunneh in the genealogy, 1Ch 4:15.
Verses 50-51
1Ch 2:50-51The families descended from Caleb through his son Hur. - 1Ch 2:50. The superscription, “These are the sons (descendants) of Caleb,” is more accurately defined by the addition, “the son of Hur, the first-born of Ephratah;” and by this definition the following lists of Caleb's descendants are limited to the families descended from his son Hur. That the words וגו בּן־חוּר are to be so understood, and not as apposition to כּלב, “Caleb the son of Hur,” is shown by 1Ch 2:19, according to which Hur is a son of Caleb and Ephrath. On that account, too, the relationship of Hur to Caleb is not given here; it is presupposed as known from 1Ch 2:19. A famous descendant of Hur has already been mentioned in 1Ch 2:20, viz., Bezaleel the son of Uri. Here, in 1Ch 2:50 and 1Ch 2:51, three sons of Hur are named, Shobal, Salma, and Hareph, with the families descended from the first two. All information is wanting as to whether these sons of Hur were
