Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/73

 chronicler, the reign of the phylarchs took the place of the kingship after the death of the last king, but that interpretation is by no means necessary. The ו consec. may also merely express the succession of thought, only connecting logically the mention of the princes with the enumeration of the kings; or it may signify that, besides the kings, there were also tribal princes who could rule the land and people. The contents of the register which follows require that ויּהיוּ should be so understood.

Verses 51-54
1Ch 1:51-54The princes of Edom. - The names correspond to those in Gen 36:40-43, but the heading and the subscription in Genesis are quite different from those in the Chronicle. Here the heading is, “and the Allufim of Edom were,” and the subscription, “these are the Allufim of Edom,” from which it would be the natural conclusion that the eleven names given are proper names of the phylarchs. But the occurrence of two female names, Timna and Aholibamah, as also of names which are unquestionably those of races, e.g., Aliah, Pinon, Teman, and Mibzar, is irreconcilable with this interpretation. If we compare the heading and subscription of the register in Genesis, we find that the former speaks of the names “of the Allufim of Edom according to their habitations, according to their places in their names,” and the latter of “the Allufim of Edom according to their habitations in the land of their possession.” It is there unambiguously declared that the names enumerated are not the names of persons, but the names of the dwelling-places of the Allufim, after whom they were wont to be named. We must therefore translate, “the Alluf of Timna, the Alluf of Aliah,” etc., when of course the female names need not cause any surprise, as places can just as well receive their names from women as their possessors as from men. Nor is there any greater difficulty in this, that only eleven dwelling-places are mentioned, while, on the contrary, the thirteen sons and grandsons of Esau are called Allufim. For in the course of time the number of phylarchs might have decreased, or in the larger districts two phylarchs may have dwelt together. Since the author of the Chronicle has taken this register also from Genesis, as the identity of the names clearly shows he did, he might safely assume that the matter was already known from that book, and so might