The Family of Hezron
3. The Descendants of Jerahmeel ( 1 Chron. 2:25-41)
In contrast to the other branches of the tribe of Judah, this branch is straightforward in the text, and there are few links with the rest of Scripture. Because of this lack of links, and because the branch stretches over at least 20 generations, it has not been illustrated.
The descendants of Jerahmeel settled in the extreme south of Judah, on the edge of the Sinai peninsula. This is apparent from the collective reference to them in 1 Sam.27:10, where they are presented as though they were a separate tribe, presumably because, by living in the extreme south, they had become cut off from the rest of the nation.
One branch of the family ends with Peleth (2:33). It seems reasonable that the Pelethites who, along with the Cherethites, are mentioned several times as apparently regular soldiers employed by David (e.g. 2Sam.15:18), were descendants of this man. Commentators seem to regard them as Philistine mercenaries. This is probably true of the Cherethites, who seem to have been Philistines according to Zeph.2:5, but there seems no reason to apply it to the Pelethites when Scripture affords another explanation. The Cherethites’ connection with the Pelethites is explained by the fact that they lived adjacent to each other, for the Cherethites are linked with the south-west borders of Judah, adjacent to the Philistine country, in 1 Sam.30:14.
The genealogy resumes in 1 Chron.2:34 with reference to Sheshan, who, because he had no sons, gave his daughter Ahlai (cp. v.31) to an Egyptian slave called Jarha. Since the Jerahmeelites lived on the border with Egypt, such contact was obviously likely. This probably happened towards the end of the period of the Judges, because it appears that the great-grandson of this union, Zabad, was one of David’s mighty men (1 Chron.11:41, where he is called Zabad, son – that is, descendant – of Ahlai). About 150 years later, another possible link occurs, for one of the captains ofJehoiada the priest when Athaliah was overthrown was Azariah son of Obed (2 Chron.23:1), Obed being grandson of Zabad, and Azariah being in fact Obed’s grandson (“son of” can equally well mean “grandson” or simply “descendant of”).
The line runs out at Elishama (v.41) six more generations later. He may therefore have been the man who, about two hundred years after the overthrow of Athaliah, was Jehoiakim’s scribe (Jer.36:12). His grandson was the treacherous Ishmael who murdered Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:23-25). Some doubt may be thrown on Ishmael’s identification with the family of Jerahmeel by the statement that he was “of the seed royal” (v.25). This could be explained by his mother being, perhaps, a daughter of Josiah. Since the male members of the royal family were either dead or in captivity, he may have been, through the female line, the only person left in the land with any claim to the throne.
4. Other Descendants of Hezron (1 Chron.2:21–24)
Although 1 Chron.2:9 mentions Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai/Caleb as the three sons of Hezron, it is stated later that he, in fact, had two other sons. These are probably omitted in v.9 because their mother Abiah (v.24) was from another tribe, being a grandson of Manasseh (v.21; Machir was Manasseh’s son, Gen.50:23).
One son of this marriage was Segub, but it is apparent from comparison with other Scriptures that this line of descent was counted as part of the tribe of Manasseh. It will be dealt with when we come to deal with that tribe, therefore.
The other son, Ashur, was born posthumously to Hezron. Further details of his descendants are in 4:5-7, but there is little to link these descendants with any other part of Scripture. 1 Chron.2:24 adds that Ashur was the father of Tekoa; and since Tekoa is not one of the sons mentioned in ch.4, perhaps this means that he was a later descendant. He was presumably the founder of the city of Tekoa, from which the wise woman came who, at Joab’s instigation, persuaded David to accept Absalom back (2 Sam.14). From this city came Ira, one of David’s mighty men (2 Sam.23:26), and it was in the wilderness near to this city (2 Chron. 20:20) that the prophet Amos roamed with his herds until his call to be a prophet came (Amos 1:1).
The statement in 1 Chron.2:24 that Hezron died in Caleb-ephratah is a puzzling one, since Hezron, the grandson of Judah, must have died whilst Israel were still in Egypt. We suggested in the previous article that Caleb, son of Hezron, married Ephrath of the Canaanite city of that name, later called Bethlehem. Probably Caleb-ephratan is the same as Ephrath/Bethlehem, and Hezron died whilst visiting the city to arrange his son’s marriage, or on some other business to do with his daughter-in-law’s family.
5. Gentile Families incorporated into the Tribe of Judah
The verses not yet covered in this study of the genealogy of the tribe of Judah are:
1 Chron.2:55; 1 Chron.4:8-16; 1 Chron.4:20.
There are indications that some, at least, of the families mentioned in these verses were of Gentile origin, and we have assumed that they all are, since they cannot be directly connected with any of the families of Judah. Three groups with links to other parts of the Scriptures can be identified:
The Family of Caleb (1 Chron.4:13-16)
This Caleb is, of course, the well-known one of Numbers and Joshua, as is proved by the reference to him as being the son of Jephunneh (cp. 1 Chron.4:15 with Num.13:6). As he is a well-known Bible character we have illustrated his genealogy (Fig.7).
From Josh.14:6,14 we know that he was a Kenezite. This could either be the Canaanite tribe called the Kenizzites mentioned in Gen.15:19 in the list of those which Israel was to conquer, or the descendants of Kenaz, the grandson of Esau. It seems more likely to be the latter, since there is other evidence that some of the descendants of Esau were worshippers of the true God, for among the brothers of Kenaz were Teman, from whom Job’s friend Eliphaz was descended as well as Amalek, founder of the Amalekite nation. It is interesting to see how from Esau came these two lines of worshippers of God, the descendants of Kenaz and the descendants of Teman, along with a nation who were noted haters of Israel, from the time when Israel came out of Egypt (Ex.17) until the days of Esther (Haman, of the Amalekite kingly line of Agag, Esth.3:1).
The Kenaz of 1 Chron.4:13 and the Caleb of v.15 seem to be brothers, the sons of Jephunneh. This needs proving, for each of the four verses of this passage is, on the face of it, a separate little piece of genealogy. The mention of Seraiah in both verses 13 and 14 indicates a connection there; we have followed the RSV which, following the Greek and Vulgate, has Meonothai and Hathath as the sons of Othniel. We have supposed, without evidence this time, that the sane is the case between verses 15 and 16; otherwise, v.16 links with nothing else. The link between vv.13-14 and vv.15-16 is obtained from Judges 1:13 where Othniel is stated to be “the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother”. It is on the basis of these arguments that the attached genealogy (Fig.7) has been constructed.
It would appear that Jephunneh the Kenezite joined himself with the Calebite family of the tribe of Judah whilst Israel were in Goshen. Presumably, therefore, he had preserved the worship of the God of Israel. He named his eldest son Caleb, after the great-grandson of Judah who, as an old man, had perhaps welcomed him into the tribe; and his youngest son, Kenaz, after his own ancestor, Esau’s grandson. Caleb and Kenaz left Egypt with Israel; Caleb must have been associated with Judah for some time, or he would not have been chosen as Judah’s representative a year after Israel left Egypt. Caleb was, of course, faithful, and lived to inherit the promised land; Kenaz must have been one of those who died in the wilderness through lack of faith; but his son Othniel was a more worthy man. He took Kiriath-Sepher and obtained the hand of his cousin Achsah in marriage (Judg.1:12-13) and was raised up by God as the first of the judges to deliver Israel from Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia (Judg.3:8-11). The other son of Kenaz, Seraiah, was probably less warlike, for he fathered Joab, the beginning of a family of craftsmen who practised their crafts in a valleyof the Judean hills (RVm 1 Chron.4:14, valley of craftsmen), and whose descendants were still around in the days of Nehemiah (Neh.11:35).
The Kenites (1 Chron. 2:55; 4:9-10)
We seem to be justified in linking these verses by the mention of Jabez in both passages.
The Kenites are mentioned in Gen15:19 as a Canaanite tribe. The family from which Moses’ wife came are termed Kenites in Judg.1:16; but Jethro Moses’ father-in-law appears first in the Scriptures as the priest of Midian (Ex.2:16). Midian was a son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen.25:1). Either the Kenites were a Canaanite tribe who became associated with Midian, or there are two lots of Kenites; the first, the Canaanite tribe who are not mentioned elsewhere; and the second, a branch of the Midianites. We have supposed, for the purpose of constructing the genealogy, that the latter is the case, and that there was a descendant of Midian called Ken who founded the tribe of the Kenites (See Fig.8).
It appears that there are two parts to the Kenite family. The details of one branch are gleaned from Chronicles; the other is the family with which Moses was involved.
The first branch appears to stem from the Hemath mentioned in 1 Chron.2:55. This was evidently a God-fearing family, notably Jabez, who was “more honourable than his brethren”, as is shown by his prayer. His birth was evidently unusually painful, for his mother called him Jabez, meaning sorrow, or pain. He grew up to be a godly man and he prayed to God that the meaning of his name might not be mirrored in the experiences of his life: “that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it be not to my sorrow” (RV), a thought that seems to be echoed in the Lord’s prayer. His prayer also was that his territory might be enlarged (although where that was we know not) and that the hand of God might be with him. We can see in this prayer a similarity to that of Jacob’s (Gen.28:20-21); note the words “with me” and “keep me” in both prayers.
It is recorded of Jabez that God answered his prayer; but have we any knowledge of where the inheritance of Jabez was situated? We note that the family were scribes.(Heb.’saphar’). They probably therefore founded the city of KirjathSepher, meaning ‘city of books’ (Heb.’sepher’). This was the city which Othniel took in order to gain Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, to wife (Josh.15:15-16). By that time it was called Debir, presumably because it had been captured by the Canaanites; but the fact that the record points out that it was formerly called KirjathSepher is surely because of the link with this Kenite family of scribes. God presumably gave Jabez this territory, and he founded this city, called Jabez after him at first, but then known as “the city of books” and also “the city of instruction” (Kirjath..Sannah, see Josh.15:49). Here, then, was a city of learning and wisdom, in existence while Israel was in Egypt, and a place of belief in the God of Israel. Presumably this belief must have been corrupted, otherwise God would surely not have let the city be captured by the Canaanites. However, it is appropriate that the city should eventually have ended up as the possession of another Gentile family closely associated with the Hope of Israel.
What, then, became of “the scribes which dwelt at Jabez”? 1 Chron.2:55 also links them with “the house of Rechab”. Here, then, we have the origin of the Rechabites, a group of people who remained nomadic, yet associated with Israel and believers in God, right until the time of the fall of Jerusalem. We must presume that when Kirjath-Sepher fell to the Canaanites some survivors took on a nomadic life. Of Rechab we know nothing. What we do know is that hundreds of years later there appeared in this line an outstanding personality, Jonadab, who joined with Jehu in the work of exterminating the Baal worshippers (2 Kings 10: 15-28). Jonadab established a nomadic way of life, together with complete abstention from alcohol, for his followers, a pattern of life they still adhered to hundreds of years later (Jer.35:6-10).
The other branch of the Kenite family seems to have associated itself with Israel in the wilderness journey, where Moses besought his brother-in-law Hobab to join himself with Israel and receive the blessings promised to Israel (Num.10:29-32). We know that they lived in the southern portion of the tribal inheritance of Judah (Judg.1:16), and that they were still in that area in the time of Saul (1 Sam.15:6) and David (1 Sam.27:10). A branch of this family under the headship of Heber split off and went north to settle near Kadesh, north of Galilee, in Naphtali (Judg.4:11). It would seem that the purpose of this was for Heber to dissociate himself from Israel, for we read that there was peace between the house of Heber and that of Jabin, the Canaanite king in nearby Hazor. Yet it was Jael, the wife of Heber, who killed Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, as Judges 4 goes on to tell.
It is indeed remarkable, when we consider the Kenite family, that almost without exception those who are mentioned by name were true worshippers of God.
The Family of Shuah (1 Chron.4:11-12)
We know that there was a Canaanite called Shua whose daughter Judah married (1 Chron.2:3). It seems reasonable, despite the slight difference in name, to suppose that it is this family which is being referred to here, therefore; but no links with other parts of Scripture can be gleaned (except a possible one mentioned below).
A Note on the Friends of Job
It is usually thought that Job and his friends lived in Arabia at about the time of Jacob, and I saw no reason to dispute this view until preparing this article. However, some evidence has come to light that Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu all cane from these Gentile families associated with the tribe of Judah.
Eliphaz was a Temanite (Job 2:11). Teman was the brother of Kenaz from whom the Calebites came, as already noted.
Bildad was a Shuhite. Was this the family of Shuah mentioned above? Zophar was a Naamathite. Naam was a son of Caleb, see Fig.8 and 1 Chron. 4:15.
Elihu was “the son of Barachel the Buzite of the kindred of Ram”. Does not this mean that his family was associated in some way with Ram, the son of Hezron (1 Chron.2:9) or possibly his nephew, Ram son of Jerahmeel (1 Chron.2:25), who are the only other men of this name in Scripture? Who the Buzites were we cannot be sure; the only Buz in Scripture was the nephew of Abraham (Gen.22:21).
There seems no evidence to connect Job himself with Judah, however. It must also be pointed out that if this idea is true, Job and his friends must have lived in the time of the Judges, for Naam was the son of Caleb son of Jephunneh.
There are naturally many objections which could be advanced against this suggestion for the setting of the book of Job. I have not at this stage tried to weigh the evidence; and to do so in this article would go too far from its subject and make it much too long. One point is worth making, however, and that is that the apparent setting of Job in the wilderness with a patriarchal form of existence and little mention of city life is not incompatible with a setting to do with the tribe of Judah, for it is evident from other parts of this study that the Gentile families associated with Judah were nevertheless largely nomadic in their way of life, and settled chiefly in the south of Judah in a wilderness area.
The Solution