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 who were of Caleb's lineage. But the mention of the sons of Mareshah, instead of Mareshah, and the calling him the father of Hebron in this connection, make the correctness of the traditional text very questionable. Kimchi has, on account of the harshness of placing the sons of Mareshah on a parallel with Mesha the first-born of Caleb, supposed an ellipse in the expression, and construes מר ובני, et ex filiis Ziphi Mareshah. But this addition cannot be justified. If we may venture a conjecture in so obscure a matter, it would more readily suggest itself that מרשׁה is an error for מישׁע, and that חברון אבי is to be taken as a nomen compos., when the meaning would be, “and the sons of Mesha were Abi-Hebron.” The probability of the existence of such a name as Abihebron along with the simple Hebron has many analogies in its favour: cf. Dan and Abidan, Num 1:11; Ezer, 1Ch 12:9, Neh 3:19, with Abi-ezer; Nadab, Exo 6:23, and Abinadab. In the same family even we have Abiner, or Abner, the son of Ner (1Sa 14:50.; 2Sa 2:8; cf. Ew. §273, S. 666, 7th edition). Abihebron would then be repeated in 1Ch 2:43, in the shortened form Hebron, just as we have in Jos 16:8 Tappuah, instead of En-tappuah, Jos 17:7. The four names introduced as sons of Hebron denote persons, not localities: cf. for Korah, 1Ch 1:35, and concerning Tappuah and Rekem the above remark. In 1Ch 2:44 are mentioned the sons of Rekem and of Shema, the latter a frequently recurring man's name (cf. 1Ch 5:8; 1Ch 8:13; 1Ch 11:44; Neh 8:4). Shema begat Raham, the father of Jorkam. The name יקעם is quite unknown elsewhere. The lxx have rendered it Ἰεκλὰν, and Bertheau therefore holds Jorkam to be the name of a place, and conjectures that originally יקדעם (Jos 15:56) stood here also. But the lxx give also Ἰεκλὰν for the following name רקם, from which it is clear that we cannot rely much on their authority. The lxx have overlooked the fact that רקם, 1Ch 2:44, is the son of the Hebron mentioned in 1Ch 2:43, whose descendants are further enumerated. Shammai occurs as a man's name also in 1Ch 2:28, and is again met with in 1Ch 4:17. His son is called in 1Ch 2:45 Maon, and Maon is the father of Bethzur. בּית־צוּר is certainly the city in the mountains of Judah which Rehoboam fortified (2Ch 11:7), and which still exists in the ruin Bet-sur, lying south of Jerusalem in the direction of Hebron. Maon also was a city in the mountains of Judah, now Main (Jos 15:55); but we cannot allow that this city is meant by the name מעון,