In the third article of this series (Jul-Aug. p.98) it was pointed out that most of the genealogy of Judah concerned the descendants of Hezron, the grandson of Judah, and that the descendants of Hezron are grouped into three families corresponding to the three sons of Hezron – Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai/ Caleb. Articles 3-5 dealt with the descendants of Ram at some length because this is the well-known line through David and the kings to Jesus. Now we return to the sons of Hezron and begin to look at other families.
The division of 1 Chron.2:10-55 in article 3 into 3 sections, each dealing with the descendants of one of the sons of Hezron, is now seen to be inadequate, and we present a revised version:
10 – 17 Descendants of Ram
18 – 20 Descendants of Chelubai/Caleb
21 – 24 Further descendants of Hezron
25 – 41 Descendants of Jerahmeel
42 – 54 Further descendants of Chelubai/Caleb
55 Gentiles adopted into the tribe of Judah.
These genealogies are supplemented by certain verses in chapter 4.
We now continue our investigations into the family of Hezron, grandson of Judah, by dealing with:
2. The Descendants of Chelubai/Caleb
In 1 Chron.2:9, the third son of Hezron is given the name IChelubail. The name does not occur anywhere else in Scripture, whilst the name ‘Caleb’ does occur elsewhere in 1 Chron.2. It is reasonable to regard ‘Caleb’ as being a shortened version of ‘Chelubai’, therefore.
In considering Caleb, son of Hezron, we must forget the Caleb who is well-known to us from Numbers and Joshua. Caleb son of Hezron is the great-grandson of Judah, and he would have lived in Goshen and died before the Exodus; the later Caleb is referred to in the genealogies only in 1 Chron.4:15.1
Caleb had 5 wives and concubines, and the names of 12 sons and a daughter are recorded (as with his great-great-grandfather Jacob). He illustrates well the words of Exodus: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them” (1:7). The multiplication of Israel from 70 to 2 million over the course of some 300 years is thus seen to be no problem.
I have separated out the various wives and concubines of Caleb and constructed genealogies, but it is not proposed to illustrate them all here. The most significant descendants are those through Ephrath (vv.19,50), and the genealogy attached illustrates them. However, for clarity I will list all the wives and concubines of Caleb, and give the verses where the descendants of the union are given:
Azubah (v.18)
It is assumed that the 3 sons of Caleb given in this verse are by her, and not by the other woman mentioned there, Jerioth. No information from other parts of Scripture can be gleaned regarding these sons.
Jerioth (v.18,42–45)
I have assumed that v.42, where no wife or concubine is mentioned, is the record of the sons of Jerioth, for whom no sons are given in v.18. Of the names which occur in this section, the following occur as towns in the inheritance of Judah detailed in Joshua 15: Ziph, Mareshah, Hebron, Tappuah, Shema, Maon and Bethzur; so it is reasonable to suppose that it was these individuals who founded the cities (although in the case of Mareshah we suggested in the 2nd article of the series a link with the Mareshah of 4:21).
The inhabitants of Ziph were antagonistic towards David; when David.was hiding in their vicinity they betrayed his whereabouts twice to Saul (1 Sam.23:19, 26:1). Maon was close to Ziph, and it was there that the equally antagonistic Nabal lived (1 Sam.25:2-3); he is described as “of the house of Caleb”, which must mean a descendant of Caleb son of Hezron, not, as often supposed, a descendant of Caleb son of Jephunneh. Why the antagonism towards David from this quarter? Was there ill-feeling between the great families of Judah, for David was, of course, of the family of Ram?
The name ‘Hebron’ presents something of a difficulty, if it is assumed that he founded a city of that name. Firstly, the city is referred to under that name in Abraham’s time. However, it would seem that the city was not called Hebron until the conquest of the land (see Josh.14:15). In Genesis therefore the writer is using a later name, which would be the one known to his readers. Secondly, the city of Hebron was inherited by Caleb, son of Jephunneh, so why was it called by the name of the grandson of Caleb son of Hezron? The answer seems to be that Caleb son of Jephunneh was adopted into the family of Caleb son of Hezron (and probably took his name), so it would not be surprising if he chose to call his inheritance by the name of someone in that family.
Ephah (v.46–47)
A concubine of Caleb. There are no links in Scripture with her descendants.
Maachah (v.48–49)
Another concubine of Caleb. Madmannah and Gibea are cities of Judah mentioned in Joshua 19. The mention of Achsah as the daughter of Caleb at the very end is interesting; presumably she appears there because she was the daughter of Caleb by Maachah, but the interest lies in the fact that Caleb son of Jephunneh also had a daughter called Achsah (Josh.15:16), and there are no others of that name in the Bible. However, why should not Caleb son of Jephunneh, in naming his daughter, have chosen to give her the name of the daughter of his adopted ancestor whose name he bore?
Ephrath/Ephratah (2:19–20, 50–54; 4:2–4)
Ephrath and Ephratah are different versions of the same name, as is shown by the fact that Hur is mentioned as a son of Ephrath in v.19 and of Ephratah in v.50. The name Ephratah is very interesting, for the well-known birthplace of David and Jesus is called Bethlehem Ephratah (Mic.5:2)’, and Bethlehem is shown in the genealogy as the great-great-grandson of Ephratah. Moreover, it is clear from Gen.35:19 that the original name of Bethlehem, the one by which it was known in Jacob’s time, was Ephrath, so it cannot be that the name of the town comes from the name of the woman; rather, it ought to be the other way round. It could be that Caleb son of Hezxon married a woman from Ephratah who hore the name of her native town, and who came to Egypt for some reason. When the land was conquered, what more natural than for a descendant of hers called Bethlehem to take over his ancestor’s birthplace and call it by his own name? Presumably the ancestors of David, a different line altogether, took over Bethlehem in the time of the Judges, for Boaz is living there at the time of Ruth.
The eldest son of Caleb and Ephrath was Hur, a prominent leader of Israel when they left Egypt, for it was he, along with Aaron, who held up Moses’ hands in the victory over Amalek (Ex.17:12), and he and Aaron were left in charge of Israel when Moses went into the mount (Ex.24:14). He is not mentioned again, except as the grandfather of Bezaleel, the man given special skills by God to construct the tabernacle (Ex.31:2); we presume therefore that Hur was an old man when Israel left Egypt and died shortly after.
Three sons of Hur are mentioned. One was Uri, father of Bezaleel (1 Chron. 2:20) and no other names occur in that line. The second was another Caleb (v.50, but not in the RSV), and his descendants are given in vv.51-54, and 4:2. It would appear from the reference to Hur in 4:4 that the Etam of 4:3 was a third son of Hur, so the details of 4:3-4 have been added to the line.
The reference to Hur as father of Bethlehem in 4:4 must mean ‘ancestor’ in view of what is recorded in ch.2; since the 1st book of Chronicles largely concerns the time of David, it is only to be expected that his birthplace is picked out in this way. This leads to another point, the prominence of place-names in these verses, to the extent that individuals are lost altogether at times, and groups of people mentioned (e.g. 2:54). It is possible that the term “father of” could mean “founder of”, and that some of the names, such as Bethlehem, are not in fact names of individuals, but the names of cities occupied by the descendants of a particular person. However, I shall continue to assume that particular names are the names of persons first of all, and only secondarily the names of cities. The close link between families and cities was shown when the land was divided by lot, for this was done “by their families” (josh.15:1), and it would not be surprising if, when these families settled in their allotted cities, they changed the original names in some cases to the names of the heads of families.
Etam son of Hur seems to have had a well-known natural feature named after him, the rock of Etam on which Samson lived for a time, and from which the men of Judah persuaded him to come down so that they could deliver him to the Philistines (Jud. 15:8-13). From Etam’s son Jezreel was descended Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, whom David married whilst fleeing from Saul (1 Sam.25:43). Two of David’s warriors descended from Hushah, the grandson of Etam Sibbechai, who killed one of the giants of Gath (2 Sam.21:18) and Mebunnai (2 Sam.23:27).
Further ancestors of David’s mighty men appear in the line of Caleb, son of Hur. From the Ithrites came Ira and Gareb (2 Sam.23:38). From the Netophathites came Maharai (2 Sam.23:28), who was captain over David’s army in the tenth month (1 Chron.27:13), a fellow-Netophathite, Heldai, being commander for the twelfth month (1 Chron. 27:15). It would appear that Netophah bred good warriors, for prominent amongst “the captains of the armies” who were left in the land after the kingdom of Judah came to an end were Seraiah and the sons of Ephai, who were Netophathites (2 Kings 25:23; Jer. 40:8). Since Netophah and Bethlehem are shown to be related families in 2:54, it is interesting to find that they are still linked together hundreds of years later in the return from captivity (Neh.7:26). Yet other families also seem to have mingled with these descendants of Hur at Netophah, for Maharai is said to be “of the Zarhites”, which probably indicates descent from the line of Zerah (1 Chron.2:6), and Heldai is said to be “of Othniel”, and therefore of the other Caleb line, Caleb the son of Jephunneh (Josh.15:17).
So far these investigations have linked with places to the south of Jerusalem. Finally, however, we turn to a group of people who settled to the west of Judah, bordering the inheritance of Dan and Benjamin, and also bordering the Philistine country.
Firstly, there is Kirjath-Jearim, the word Kiriath meaning ‘city’. The place was originally allied with Gibeon in tricking Israel into making peace (Josh.9:17), but in fact it was originally called Kirjath-Baal (Josh.15:60), or just Baalah (Josh.15:9, the latter reference showing that it was a border city (cp. Josh.18:14). It was a hill-top city, looking down over the plain which the Philistines occupied, and it became the resting-place of the ark after the Philistines returned it (1 Sam.7:1). The name means “city of forests”, hence in Ps. 132:6 David says of the ark, “We found it in the fields of the wood”. In the days of Jeremiah the family of Shemaiah from Kirjath-Jearim were a notable family. One son, Delaiah, was a prince at Jehoiakim’s court who protested when Jehoiakim burnt the scroll (Jer. 36:12,25), The other son, Urijah, was a true prophet of God who, weak in faith, fled to Egypt where he was arrested by Jehoiakim’s agents, brought back, and put to death (Jer. 26:20-23).
Then there were the Zarethites (or Zorathites, RV) and the Eshtaolites, cities of the valley (Josh.15:33); the Hebrew is “Shephelah”, the name given to the sloping plateau between the hills and the coastal plain. These two cities are nearly always mentioned together, and were on the border with Dan (Josh.19: 41). In fact they were occupied by Danites at one time, because Samson’s father, who is specifically stated to be a Danite, came from Zorah; and of Samson we read: “The Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp.of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol” (Jud. 13:25). It was here that Samson was buried (Jud. 16:31), and it was from here that the Danite spies went out to find more territory (Jud. 18:2). The references also to “the camp of Dan” in the verse quoted above may also link with 1 Chron. 2, for the Hebrew is Mahaneh-Dan, and we note the reference to “half of the Manahethites” (52,54), the name ‘Manahath’ meaning ‘resting place’.
Whether the descendants of Hur lived in this area before or after the Danites were there we know not; it seems likely, however, that the Philistines would have taken over the area in the time of Saul, so perhaps families of Judah moved in after David defeated the Philistines.
- Note: The genealogy worked out by Harry Whittaker in Exploring the Bible (p. 200), which postulates that Caleb the son of Jephunneh was the adopted son of Hezron, must be ruled out, for it would make Caleb, at the age of forty (Josh 14:7), the great-grandfather of Bezaleel, the builder of the tabernacle (Ex 31:2; 1 Chron 2:19, 20).
The Solution